I'm a bit out of my league here (did I say a bit!), as I'm mostly a wind-up gramophone/phonograph collector, as some of you will know.
Anyway, I thought I'd pick a few brains about a radiogram I'm about to start work on, and post a few pic's.
I bought the cabinet in a secondhand store here in Brisbane nearly 20 yrs ago, when I was going through a bit of an "Art Deco" stage- partly because it was cheap, partly because it was different & looked like it would have been a pretty expensive model in it's day- but mostly because I liked it. It had been stripped of all the works, except for the Collaro gramophone base plate, half the tonearm, and the radio dial eschutcheon. I built a free standing shelf for the radio/speaker area, and it's been used to store vinyl 33's ever since.
The next little bit of progress happened about 12 yrs ago, when I found a Beale upright radio in Sydney with the same eschutcheon, and what I 'thought' was the same knob placement. Until this point, I had no idea what brand the radiogram even was. I descided to pay the rediculous price they wanted for a radio that didn't even work- $220.00. I later found out, that Beale in Sydney, Australia, started selling radios etc, under their name when the piano/pianola side of the business went into decline, thanks to the "wireless" and the depression. After a 12 hour drive to get it home, I found that the upright had 4 knobs, and the radiogram had 5.
Frustrated that I spent so much on the wrong radio, it went in the too-hard basket, and has sat in the shed ever since.
A couple weeks ago, I spotted a Collaro 505(?) turntable and pick-up on ebay, and although it was different to my remains, I bought it too. It arrived yesterday, and I discovered the large base plate I had was the only thing different on the 2 motors, so I pulled them down, cleaned and oiled the new motor, then replaced the rubber in the pick-up, and swapped everything over. Finally I have the correct gramophone in working order back in the cabinet!
Next problem- the radio. I pulled down the upright, and have found it should be pretty easy to move the dials to the right position, except the station tuning dial, which fortunately is in the right place already. This will however, leave me short by 1 knob/dial.
I've noticed the radio doesn't have a power on/off dial, so that's what will go in the spare hole.
Question! Should the on/off dial be hooked up to the radio, and kill the power to everything, or should it be used to kill the power to the turntable only? I'm not familiar with early-ish radiograms (late 30's or early 40's??). I have a few radiograms from the early 1950's, but they all have the power switch built into the volume control. So what would be more accurate for a radiogram of this period?
I also have a late 20's, early 30's radiogram which I'm rebuilding, and it has a toggle switch on the side to set the turntable in motion. As the Collaro has an auto stop/start, it sort of seems useless to kill the power to the turntable, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
My next problem- if it is a problem, is the speaker from the upright is a 8 1/2" Amplion Type XCA or XC4 ( the label is hard to read properly ).
The speaker for the radiogram was a 12" speaker. Is it worth hunting down a larger speaker, or do you think the small one should do the job?
Any suggestions and advise is most welcome
This is the cabinet- obviously aimed at the "carriage trade".
Open the door, and this is the panel inside.
This is what's left of the 505(?)
And this is the working turntable with the larger base plate- ready to go!
The radio awaits repair and alteration.
Back view of radio- of course.
And the little 8 1/2" Amplion speaker.
I can't wait to get this thing singing again. Now I've just got to find a local valve radio repairman! (or woman- ah... person)
