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Vintage Audio (record players, hi-fi etc) Amplifiers, speakers, gramophones and other audio equipment. |
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24th Feb 2012, 9:11 am | #1 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Baguio City, Philippines
Posts: 1
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Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
I have joined this site because I love and interested about antiques but I don't know if it's genuine or not.
Here are some sample pics http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/440/gram2.jpg/ |
24th Feb 2012, 12:53 pm | #2 |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 9,060
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone
It looks like a fake to me. The hole for the winding handle is too high up on the side of the case and the horn neck is not a smooth curve.
There are a lot of fakes around, mostly made in India and China. They are often known as "crap-o-phones" which sums them up rather well! See http://www.oldcrank.com/articles/cra...roduction.html and http://www.mainspringpress.com/crapo.html which contain plenty of info on what to look out for. |
24th Feb 2012, 1:03 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone
100% definitely fake. A nice ornament, but not much else.
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24th Feb 2012, 1:46 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
Posts: 8,923
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone
Made in India I believe.
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24th Feb 2012, 3:20 pm | #5 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Ammanford, South Wales, UK.
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone
Have to agree, and from the looks of it a Cheap and Nasty copy too.
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24th Feb 2012, 8:24 pm | #7 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Ohio, USA.
Posts: 757
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone
Fake: I have a similar one, my parents paid a lot and thought it was real. You can always tell the real ones, very thick and heavy metal with a lot of smooth bends and such.
Chris |
24th Feb 2012, 10:13 pm | #8 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, UK.
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
On the plus side, these gramophones do actually work. What's more, if you get a good quality fake gramophone it may even manage half a record before rewinding becomes necessary.
Another advantage is the upwards-raked winding handle, courtesy of the motor which was originally in a portable, which helps avoid scraping your knuckles on the table during winding. The bases of these fake-o-phones are good too. Being new they're likely to be free of mould, warping, woodworm etc. All the better if you're lucky enough to get one that's highly polished and aerosol varnished, has an immaculately preserved repro HMV transfer and is made of chipboard or, going rather more upmarket, MDF. A further advantage is the amusement your visitors get when you show them your 'century old' horned gramophone - the very same one they saw being made during a holiday in India a month previously. So it's all good and is certainly £30 well spent. Don't go over £35 though because you can pick up a secondhand Steepletone record player for that and they don't need winding up. On a less lampooning note, if money's tight and you're happy to settle for a representation of a horned gramophone, know exactly what you're buying and don't pay very much then these things are fine. |
26th Feb 2012, 12:45 pm | #9 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lund, Sweden
Posts: 1,631
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
Would not these gramophones be a source of motors for portables, as that's where they originally came from (I guess being the only original part of the machine), or are such motors in such plentiful supply that there's no sense in that?
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26th Feb 2012, 3:54 pm | #10 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 4,061
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
HMV portables are in plentiful supply, both in good condition and in ex chicken shed condition and that's just in the UK. Don't forget that thousands more of these found their way to far-flung corners of what was at one time the British Empire.
The people who make these 'repro' horned gramophones are interested only in profit, so the preservation of portable machines will be the last thing on their minds. |
26th Feb 2012, 6:57 pm | #11 |
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Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
Several people who know have commented that the sound boxes on these are so poorly made that they will damage records too.
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2nd Mar 2012, 6:36 pm | #12 |
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, UK.
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
The more recent machines coming in from India have reproduction Garrard 20 or 30 single spring motors, of very questionable merit!
Along with the previous comment about the state of the soundbox they are best considered for ornamental purposes only. I would prefer a good attache case portable with its original motor and soundbox, to a load of rubbish. Ironically in the 1980's a firm in Liverpool started the fashion with a decent soundbox, marked "His Master's Voice" which it was not and a very nice brass horn. At that time Thorens had started making clockwork motors again, due to the death of vinyl and their modern turntable sales and these were fitted as standard, with fibre and thereby silent running motors. Still seen for sale from time to time, they at least play a record properly even if they are not original. Some of the most outlandish horn repro gramophones originate in the Plaza Doraga in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fitted with huge and outlandish felt horns in every colour of the rainbow, they even claim to be made by the Victor Talking Machine Company. Suffice to say that they are actually made in a workshop in the city and are sold every Sunday in the square! Just as well they are too big for your average Boeing 747, or we would suffer a dearth of those as well. Happy listening and keep a pair of socks handy just in case you come upon one! David. |
3rd Mar 2012, 7:02 am | #13 | |
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Re: Is this a real vintage HMV Gramophone?
Quote:
The sound they produce is very poor and nothing like the sound of a real vintage machine. Only fit for the scrap heap in my opinion. I would bin it and chalk it up to experience and buy something decent like an HMV 101 which can sound really superb for their size. |
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