My first Edison was also a BC-34, first laid eyes on it in 1976 when I
was 14, in the back of a pickup truck at a flea market. Beautifully
preserved original-finish machine with the bronze finish reproducer
and metal parts. It had the 10 and 12 buttons for stopping the
reproducer at the ten or twelve inch start position. I couldn't
afford the $135 for the machine, so I bought several DD records. It
only took me a few seconds of trying to play one on my steel-needle
machine at home, to realize that there was no choice but to go back
and buy the machine.
I horse-traded whatever I owned and somehow raised the cash and went
back the following weekend. I found the seller but no BC-34. Turns
out he still had it and (for understandable reasons) decided not to
cart it back to the flea. I got directions to his house, and met up
with him the next day. I really had to twist my older brother's arm
to allow me to put it in the back of his hatchback Mustang. I can't
imagine how we shoe-horned it in there, but somehow we did. I'm sure
I fussed about jamming cardboard everywhere, because we got it home
without a scratch.
My big prize, and a red letter day in my early phonograph collecting
life. I played that machine incessantly. Just a memory now, as it
was destroyed in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew. By that time, it was with
a friend in Miami, as I had moved to Santa Fe 9 years earlier.
Andy Baron
On Dec 27, 2009, at 4:49 PM, Tom Jordan wrote:
I found a BC 34 console phonograph many years ago stuffed in the
back room
of an antique store with a bunch of old sewing machines. They
didn't know
what it was and sold it to me for $40.00. It was first phonograph
and it
got me started collecting. I still listen to it today as I work in
my home
office.
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: phono-l-boun...@oldcrank.org [mailto:phono-l-boun...@oldcrank.org
] On
Behalf Of DanKj
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 12:11 PM
To: Antique Phonograph List
Subject: Re: [Phono-L] The last word on Diamond Discs...I think
Too bad you didn't get some pics of it - I wanted to see what made
it seem
such a mess. The solder is supposed to be there, as Ron L'H said,
and if
there was anything running into the horn it was just a volume
control, which
I remove anyway because it muffles the sound. The straps behind the
slots
sound correct, too. Except for the missing grill, how bad is the
cabinet?
You might be disappointed to learn that the few Edison table models
are
less common than floor models and they're HEAVY, awkward things. My
Chalet
weighs about 70 pounds, and my B-80 nearly as much.
----- Original Message -----
From: "ger" <ge...@comcast.net>
The poor London model of Edison's Diamond Disc machine looks like
it had
been tortured. The vertical section was there afterall, but a
cable, wood
block and some other things (part going into the horn) were missing.
Someone had SOLDERED the horn on th....
Needless to say, the machine still sits with the seller...who is
now a bit
wiser, since I shared the photo and what I knew with her. She
seemed not
at all disappointed and actually fascinated to learn something
about the
poor mess.
As for its WEIGHT. I've got an "AH-HAH!" I took the flashlight and
checked
out the left side where the 24 slots for records was. I could see
that 2,
that's TWO, thick metal weights were in place behind the slots.
They went
across the back, one high, one low. \
I will, however, now keep an eye out for an Edison (table model)
which
could play my records
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