The horns in I-A's are jute, stiffened with rabbit hide glue, then gessoed and grain-painted. Thanks for all the responses regarding brown bed plates on Amberola V's. Back in the 1970's, I knew an antiques dealer who specialized in piano rolls and other musical stuff named Si Altman who lived just East of Buffalo, NY. Si had a I-A with a blue top mech. It was beautiful. Si is dead now and I don't know what happened to that machine. Paul Baker can vouch for it. I've yet to see another, although I was recently told that one was on eBay a couple of tears ago that may have gone into Bob Johnson's collection. John > From: gbogantz1 at charter.net > To: phono-l at oldcrank.org > Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:59:11 -0500 > > I agree that the V is great, Al. I think the Amberola V is a highly > undervalued machine by collectors. It has the second best motor made by > Edison in the pre-fire period, second only to the Opera motor. It is quiet > and has very low flutter due to its fairly massive flywheel and it's springy > flutter-filter. The automatic shutoff is also a novel feature found only on > the larger amberolas. The diamond B reproducer works very well with the V > horn to produce the best audio that any of the Edison table models produced. > The sound is better than any of the later amberolas 30, 50, or 75. I can't > speak to the 60 and 80 models which had a much larger console cabinets than > the others (London and Sheraton, respectively), so they probably also had > larger horns. I think I remember seeing a model 80 at Tim Fabrizio's and it > did have a larger horn. Still, the V has the best sound in an Edison table > model. Frow says in his book that the V bedplates were painted in brown - > he makes no mention of the maroon color being used. > > Everybody seems to "Ooo, Ooo this" and "Ooo, Ooo that" about Amberola > 1As and get all googly-eyed and take out a second mortgage over Operas, but > the fact is that the best sounding Edison was NEITHER of these models. The > Amberola 1B is hardly ever mentioned by collectors and they don't command > near the price of a 1A, but they are actually harder to find in my > experience. And they sound WAY better because the Opera motor in them is > much quieter and much smoother with much less flutter than the spur gear > motor in the 1A. The horn is superior to anything else Edison ever sold to > the public, INCLUDING the open wooden horns of the Opera and earlier models. > It's also better than ANY of the DD player horns, including the Edisonic. > The metal horn in the Amberola III is about the same size as those peculiar > leather or fabric or whatever they were in the model I, but it is not quite > as smooth with a distinctly peaky midrange by comparison. With the same > horn as in the 1A, the superior motor makes the 1B the quietest, smoothest, > BEST sounding Edison acoustic phonograph ever made. I use mine almost > exclusively now for playing BAs. > > Greg Bogantz > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Albert" <cenfin at comcast.net> > To: "Antique Phonograph List" <phono-l at oldcrank.org> > Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 12:55 PM > Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet > > > >I have a beautiful original Amberola 5 in Mahogany and it has the medium > >brown finish. Of my entire collection the 5 is the phonograph of choice > >to listen to Blue amberols. The motor is silent, and the fidelity is > >awsome. Al Menashe > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "John Maeder" <appywander at hotmail.com> > > To: "Antique Phonograph List" <phono-l at oldcrank.org> > > Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:46 AM > > Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet > > > > > > > > Were Amberola V's ever produced with a brown bed plate and gear covers? I > > have one that is a medium brown as opposed to maroon. I would swear the > > finish and striping are original. It is in a mahogany case. John > > > >> Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:44:06 -0800 > >> From: antqflea at yahoo.com > >> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet > >> To: phono-l at oldcrank.org > >> > >> This story is what makes collecting so interesting, one collectors joy, > >> is someone else's I'll pass to expensive. If we all liked the same > >> thing it would get very crowded and probably expensive. > >> Since my traveling partner and I were the ones that passed on the > >> machine two years in a row we are, and have been interested in why this > >> machine was so special that it commanded a premium price. My partner > >> said that he owned two or three of the V's with the 50/75 mech, and had > >> been looking for a nice one that had the fancy mech with the brown > >> painted bed plate. Are the V's with the plain 50/75 mech really more > >> desirable and do they command a premium price?? > >> Apparently we have erroneously thought for a few years that the Iowa > >> sun , the chase and then the thrill of just finding something out there > >> in the wild may have fogged Jerry's good senses. I guess we were wrong?? > >> > >> > >> > >> DeeDee Blais <deedeeblais at yahoo.com> wrote: > >> Sorry, but I don't have a spare Amberola V cabinet but > >> I have another story... On my way driving from Oregon > >> to Union at few year ago, I stopped at an antique shop > >> and found what appeared to be a typical Amberola V. I > >> opened the lid and was surprised to find an Amberola > >> 50 type mechanism cleanly and without modification > >> installed in the case. I closed the lid and quickly > >> came to an agreeable price with the dealer. When I > >> arrived at Union, I was talking to another collector > >> that made the drive. I told him of my find and he > >> said that he'd seen that same machine for the last > >> couple of trips. I smiled and thought to myself, > >> thanks for passing on it. Can you tell me why I was > >> so pleased? Jerry Blais > >> > >> > >> ____________________________________________________________________________________ > >> Looking for last minute shopping deals? > >> Find them fast with Yahoo! 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