Who made what?

[Edward Huggins]

In the late 1950s and early 1960s there was a handful of companies that produced a number of record players and some R2R tape recorders in smallish volumes that would have not have been of production contract interest to the large players - Thorn, RBM, Pye, Plessey et al. I'm thinking of names such as Ruco, Ace, Baird, Dentone, Civic (pre-Perdio), Jonell, Revelation, Meritone etc.

Someone would have been needed to initiate the amplifier/chassis design, cabinet styling, deck type, testing, packing, warranty/support and distribution and then sub-contract this as a "package". But to whom?

Just who were these small, low volume, assembly companies with unknown trade names presumably operating out of low overhead premises? Perhaps all this is now lost in the mists of time, but would I'd welcome any insight from learned members here.

[Radio Wrangler]

Such firms exist right now. There are subcontractors you can pay to design a gizmo for you for whatever purpose, there are subcontractors who will make it in small quantities up to manufacture in large quantities. You stump up the investment by paying them, you take the risk, you define the product and sign off on their results.

These firms still exist in the UK. There are even multinational firms offering these services, all of them under one roof in several countries, EG. Plexus.

There were also manufacturers that Joe Public never heard of making things for the Post Office (Bessons) Joe might have heard of Plessey. Back in the nineties, I was surprised to find that the sub-woofer in the rear door of my Land Rover disco had been made by Bessons.

Some large-ish well known firms contracted out operations like cabinet making to small specialist firms.

Of course, it wasn't unknown for some subcontractors to decide to bring out their own product range and get the full profit for themselves.

David

[AC/HL]

Whiteley Electrical Radio, now part of Bombardier (via Whiteley Electronics) have been in the business since the early days. Stentorian loudspeakers, NHS hearing aids and sub assemblies for other manufacturers. Not headline, but in the background all along.

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Back in the nineties, I was surprised to find that the sub-woofer in the rear door of my Land Rover disco had been made by Bessons.
David

The amplifier in the subwoofer was possibly made by them, and bought in by Elac / Harman Motive (can't remember when the name changed) who would have built the subwoofer assembly (box, drivers, amplifier) in Bridgend.

But the point is well made. There are tiers of suppliers in all industries. Most of the names JP have heard of simply buy the parts in and assemble them, although those parts may or may not to be that companies design. Even when companies design their own products, they don't always do it. Capacity can mean some stuff get's farmed out. It's not surprising, though. For example who of us would expect that the same company that sells us TVs, also has a silicon foundry to make the ICs inside it?

[Arthur2075]

Who remembers the Simon SP2 and auto reverse SP4. I believe made by Sound Services Ltd? My father had a couple of SP4’s in the sixties and I can still hear that auto reverse mechanism.

[Ekcoman]

Have bumped into a few folk in the Southend area and mentioned Regentone constructions and the rexine covering of the cabinets, I should have asked more at the time. It sounded more small scale stuff rather than big time mass production. What I will do is do a bit of investigating with a few Facebook mates.

[crackle]

Regentone had a large factory in Eastern Avenue Romford. They were founded in 1923 and lasted until the take over by STC when they joined the likes of KB, RGD, Ace, and Argosy.

Mike

[Ekcoman]

Have found that Fircastle, a small business in Hockley Essex, did the rexine covering to cabinets and can confirm Regentone cabinets were being made in Southend.

[jjl]

Originally Posted by duncanlowe

For example who of us would expect that the same company that sells us TVs, also has a silicon foundry to make the ICs inside it?

If you mean Samsung, their semiconductor division is the largest chip manufacturer by volume in the world.

John

[Cobaltblue]

No help concerning the production of domestic electronic goods but small Engineering firms were everywhere.

I had a summer job with Liskeard Engineering for a couple of years.

The main business was the machine shop where they machined all manner of castings and manufacturing parts from scratch by milling lathe etc
Sheet metal bending punching. They also built electronic equipment assembling PCB and complete equipment such as the Motor control modules for Electric Fork Lift trucks. The part I remember most were the humidity sensors for the post office.

These parts were made for Lansing Bagnall and the Post Office amongst others they turned their hands to anything making Emergency lighting for BBI and casting novelty items in resin for the holiday trade. They had a de-greasing plant and a spray shop.

If someone said they built record players or TV's at some point I would not be surprised.

The buildings are still there.

[Welsh Anorak]

This is interesting. I've often wondered at the cheap reel to reel decks sold in furniture shops in the mid-Sixties with names like you mention - I have one here by Duo-Sound (yes, it has two speakers but one amplifier). The decks were inevitably BSR TD2s but I don't think I've seen two amplifiers the same. They did tend to have pretty standard circuits, metal rectifier, valve preamp and audio output doubling as bias/erase oscillator. Some went to the trouble of making their amplifier blend in with the deck, but many had a home-made look about them. An on-off,and volume control, a tone control and the record switch attached somehow to the BSR's lever. And an EM 'magic-eye' completed the picture.
They were designed to be used for a while then get relegated to the attic which was usually the case. Enthusiasts usually plumped for Philips, Grundig or similar better quality makes.

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by jjl

If you mean Samsung, their semiconductor division is the largest chip manufacturer by volume in the world.

John

No, I was kind of expressing the opposite. Samsung might be kind of the exception to prove the rule (if its actually the case). But for example a brand may share a name but be entirely unrelated. Bosch is a good example. the companies with the name Bosch that make car parts, domestic appliances, and power tools are long since (AFAIK) separated. Also worth pointing out that things like OLED TV panels are made by only a few, possibly one manufacturer. So where does that leav a 'brand'?

My point was more that if you buy (for example) a Sony TV we wouldn't expect that every part of that TV down to the ICs (or further like individual Cs and Rs) was designed and manufactured by Sony. The same is certainly true for other brands in the other extreme for example Panasonic where I've experienced buying something that was way off their 'norm' and after research was a Vestel and showed it from the way it was so different from other products we owned of the same brand.

[G6Tanuki]

"Vertical Integration" - where a manufacturer made every part of the finished product - seems to have been the path to disaster; there's something in the "The Setmakers" book [I can dig it out if you want] where a rather high-profile radio/TV manufacturer insisted on making its own resistors, and even the polish for the cabinets and the brass plate on the front of their offices.

Smart manufacturers eschewed this idea - instead they bought-in components and technology from everywhere - and had no issues with dumping a supplier who underachieved.

[Again, a narrative from where a customer demanded 99.5% of parts were to a given tolerance, only to be shown a production-line where a girl was paid to test parts for despatch and drop 199 'good' parts into the batch - and then add one from the 'failed' parts-tray to make up the job!!].

[McMurdo]

One of my ex-colleagues used to work for Marconi Defence, the factory used to repair the anti-aircraft missile systems and intelligent torpedos.

When work was slack they used to assemble Redring electric showers, as they were another subsidiary of GEC.

Diversification was all the rage at one time!