Just gave my daughter an almost identical unit for Christmas. The motor and needles seem fine, but the swing arm is very stiff and needs to be cleaned out and lubed. So glad to see one working properly!!!
Thanks for posting your process on restoring your grafonola. I recently got my hands on one too and watching your videos helped me out a lot. You’re the best man!
Very nice and a good job. Thanks for posting 👍 😀 With an electrically recorded record, you can probably get away with a soft tone needle as the record is inherently louder anyway. I have a similar HMV with an auto stop feature but have disabled it as it makes an annoying clicking all the way through the record!
Thanks for sharing. I just picked up one of these Grafonolas at the thrift store for $20. A little cleaning up and lubrication and it works perfectly. I can't figure out the auto-stop, probably a gimmick that people back then didn't use either. I can't find any literature on how to adjust/repair it so I simply leave it in the "out" position. Later recordings are perfectly fine to use on early phonographs. The difference is in the frequency sensitivity of the reproducer- later reproducers have a greater range of frequency and can thus reproduce the better quality recordings of the 40's and 50's. No harm otherwise for the record disc to use older reproducers, you just won't get the dynamic response.
Nice machine! As far as letting it wind down or not, here's something to consider: Leaving it wound up and storing it for years is not good for the springs. However, if you are going to use it often, there is no need to let it wind down each time.
I once failed miserably in an attempt to get the auto stop in one of these to operate. Other systems sense the position of the tonearm or respond to a sudden change in its direction but this model Graphonola had the stop mechanism operate when the turntable was rotating but the tonearm was not advancing. A rather clever design but, in my case at least, a sizable challenge to fault finding.
I really haven't tried to make it work. The man who worked on my springs told me they were temperamental. I have a Brunswick 105 that uses the arm position- it works perfectly!
Acoustic recording and playback followed a constant velocity characteristic. That is the slope of the groove moving laterally define the loudness of low thru high frequencies. Electrical recording with acoustic playback necessitated all recording until the late 1930s follow this characteristic. Later recording followed a constant amplitude characteristic whereby bass was cut and treble was boosted. The inverse characteristic was applied upon playback. This was done to reduce wide and hard to track bass grooves and to conceal record surface noise. Hence playing a 1945 disc on a 1912 machine will result in a shrilly tinny sound with too much treble with no bass.
I also have Grafonola (got it for $20). What you do to the wood is a decision you will have to make based on it's current condition and how far you want to go with any restoration work. Mine had a very nice cracked shellac finish that was indicative of it's age and I didn't want to lose that originality, but I also needed to preserve the finish and prevent further decay. What I did was to lightly sand the surface with 400 grit wet to smooth the surface (just smooth it, not remove material), then I coated it with a homemade mix of beeswax/turpentine/linseed oil. It keeps it's original worn finish, but is clean and has a "glow" to the wood appropriate to what would have been seen in the 1920's. Some will just clean the finish and put on some furniture wax, other people strip it completely and either use a modern material finish or go antique with shellac. The choice is yours, but for $5 you can't really make a bad decision no matter what you do.
Nice phonograph or Gramophone as it is more commonley known over here in europe. I think The Victrolaguy here on youtube made a video about a diy adapter for playing verticley recorded records on a Victrola awhile back however i think he used some special ruby stylus wish might be rather pricey maybe a homemade glass point stylus could bee used it dosent seen to be that hard to make i found Victrolaguys video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l_ZtOxqtl1c.html Norman Field on how to make a glass point stylus: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-b_jjyulBtIc.html
Yes- there are lots of "adapters" to play lateral records on an Edison phono, and Edison records on a Victrola, but what I'd rather go for is a Brunswick Ultona! Those adapters seem to track on the wrong place on the record- as seen in Victrolaguy's video, the stylus is far ahead of the center of the record- lots of centripetal force, and I'd rather not do that. By the way- I have the same exact Victor VV-IV as shown in the video! Interesting... Norman Field is a genius! I love his presentations! But- I wouldn't use a glass stylus on an Edison record, I don't think I'd use it on *ANY* record! Too easily chipped, and some of my records are more than 100 years old and I'd rather not risk the damage that could do.
NO! DO NOT DO THAT! Sewing machine needles were made for sewing machines, phonograph needles are made to play phonograph records. Steel phono needles are a specific size and shape made to play records, sewing machine needles ARE NOT! However, please feel free to RUIN your old records if you so choose.