I was 12 years old when I got my first old phonograph. This was in 1974, and the machine, which I paid for with lawn-mowing earnings and a Morgan silver dollar was a lowly Berg-Artone suitcase style portable. It had a broken governor, damaged diaphragm, very black & greasy motor etc., but it also was my first phonograph repair teacher, in a manner of speaking. I used to drag any willing adult into my world just long enough to play the machine for them. This was often as not met with the comment "It's amazing that it still works", followed by my boring them with the details of the work it needed and the repairs I carried out. I used to think it a trick question when they asked how I knew what to do, and was always at a loss as to what to answer. It was only later that I came to realize that not all people understand a mechanism when they see it, or how to go about putting it in order. Admittedly, at 12 years old my approach was creative when it came to repair materials, but at least the methods worked. It was a great discovery some years later when I learned that there were real live companies devoted to selling parts for repairing phonographs. I don't know when my interest in this subject began, but it was certainly in place by the time I was eight or nine. Andy Baron On Dec 27, 2006, at 9:08 AM, Robert Plavzic wrote: > Hi > > Ditto on what Mario has said. > > One strange thing that I have noticed is that some of us started at > an early > age. I started collecting at 11 - though I did have an earlier > interest in > old records....they made good targets for my friends & I for > shooting our > air-rifles/ bb guns at (sorry!). Can kick myself for that now. > > I'd be interested to know who also caught the disease early? > > all the best > > Rob