I got this cool old gramophone thing. Hand cranked, no electricity, awesome. Came with a dozen shellac records from the 20s to 40s. But obviously being a steel tip one it can't play vinyls, modern ones. Is there some conversion kit, like a weight and a diamond tipi can change them around with? Or would I have to electrify it (tonearm, speakers, modern control turntable, etc?) and if so how should I go about that? Disassemble a modern one and swap the parts, wire up speakers? Or are there "kits" to do this? I've never done this before. It feels kind of bad to take apart this thing since it's so beautiful but it is what I really wanna do.Thanks all :) I didn't know where to ask for help cuz obviously reddit and Google are not helpful with this.
>>130816226Why not keep it as it is to play those old records it was made for? I don't see the point of turning it into an electric modern one.
>>130816263Because it looks really cool, but I don't see myself listening to like 1920s records that often, and I don't want it to just sit there yk? I want it to be cool looking but also functional for when I'm alone or if I have friends over and wanna play something more recent. I think that's fair enough of a reason.
theyre fundamentally different. in these old gramophones the steel needle rests on a flexible diaphragm in the circular part of the replay head, vibrating it, and those vibrations are funnelled through an acoustic horn with its mouth behind the fabric grille so you can hear them. a modern turntable makes an electrical signal in the cartridge and sends it out to an electronic amp and speakers.you could rip out the mechanism and install a modern turntable in the old wooden cabinet, but what would be the point? thats essentially destroying it. personally, if you have the space and the time and the inclination, I'd restore it to working order and use it to play old 78s. if not, sell it to someone who wants it.
>>130816263this. buy a modern turntable (actually, a 70s or 80s one if you can) for vinyl LPs and just keep the gramophone for the 78s you have. if you can find more 78s on ebay for cheap, so much the better. I used to work at a record store and a bunch of 8tracks came in with a collection that the store didn't want so I took them and then bought an 8track player just to check them out, and got some more cartridges from ebay. I keep it in the bathroom and that's my dedicated music player for when I'm in the shower.
OP is the guy who thinks restomodded 1930s cars are ok.
don't convert it, just put some spacers around the gramophone turntable and put a modern record player on top. just use the gramophone for a decorative cabinet and if you want to listen to the old shellac records you still can put the modern one on the floor temporarily
>>130816305Yeah, I figured there wouldn't be an easy fix but I thought hey I'll hold out hope. Oh well! I got it for a hundred bucks with the full intent to convert it, not keep it as an old one. I figure it'll be a big project. I guess I was moreso looking for advice on places to get the hardware to actually do the conversion, if there's dedicated sellers for the electronics, or it I should buy a decent one off Amazon and just rip it up for parts to swap it out with. Because I do intend on doing a total conversion and I am stubborn as a mule when I set my heart on something.
>>130816377well, I guess try to do a conversion that just removes the old stuff and doesn't make you cut into any of the wood so it could be converted back for posterity's sake. it looks awesome. hopefully there's a way to just disassemble the tonearm and platter and drop the modern stuff in
>>130816331^This. Play some old records and have fun (not this record though lol)
>>130816310look at the second reply. he flat out admitted he's a hipster who is just interested in a hipster display piece and isn't interested in the history whatever of the stuff
>>130816437Yeah I think I'm trying to go that route. I got one of those cheap 6 in 1 victrola things so I'm ripping the guts out of it to see if I can drop that in. How hard it would be technically and so on. And I'll probably have to take the back panel off the gramophone to see if I can have the guts go in thru there. Unfortunately I may have to drill a hole in the bottom of the gramophone box to run AC out, but I'll see if I can keep it pretty low profile.>>130816459Yeah how dare I want to both listen to modern music and have a cool piece in my house by doing a little diy project :p
>>130816459^This. Do you even realize how loathsome that hipsters truly are?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKxg6TCMfwYThis was actually one of the first 45 discs RCA ever released as a tech demo in '49 but the recording here was ripped from a 78. I love this tune though.
>>130816226Post records
>>130816941there aren't many records from the 78 era that are outright bad or obnoxious, that didn't really become a thing until the 50s.
>>130816941The ones that came with it or the ones I have now?
I got the whole assembly out of the electronic one and got it playing fine. The antique one, the tone arm comes off and just goes right into the speaker box part. So in theory, I could put the new turntable etc on top, run the cable down the speaker-box, hide the electronics there and just put the speakers inside that? And then in terms of the AC power cable. I could cut a hole through the bottom of the speaker-box, just enough to get the AC cable through. Something that can be puttied up later if I wanna switch back (or a removable plug, maybe magnetic if I get invested). The tone arm also just screws onto it with three brass screws so if I wanna undo these changes I could just put the old tone arm back on. The tough part is figuring out how I'm gonna get the new turntable actually mounted. The cheap one (victrola lollll) has the spring-bottom thing. So maybe if I take the original turntable out there may be a way to have the internals rest in the gap (if there is one)
>>130817138one for the road
Note that OP has yet to deny that he's a hipster doing this for hipster points on SM or whatever he's doing.
>>130817196You have to be a little hipster to be engaging with vinyls in the first place lets just call a spade a spade here
>>130817196>>130816459>still living in 2013 and sniping at imaginary mall hipsters
>>130817017The ones that came with it
>>130818777One for the wonder/walkin to Missouri (39769)Hiawatha melody of love/mother's hands (22356)Who did you fool after all/falling (4758)I had the craziest dream/a poem set to music (36659)Strip polka/every night about this time (36635)Always/all alone (36452)Air mail special (18880)Collaboration/machito (408)Trumpet blues/sleepy lagoon (36549)Last night on the back porch/sitting in a corner (032012)It's a pity to say goodnight/intermission riff (298)The little green valley/climbing ???? Golden stairs (8567) (broken in half)Going my way/swinging on a star (18597) (broken in half, missing other half)I hope those were the right numbers. If not oh well. They were all included and this was at an estate clearing house so it has a ton of old furniture. These records are fair to poor. Most have plenty of scratches and are caked in dust, I'd need to clean them. I've never held a shellac record before now, such a different feel to a vinyl.
>>130818909Ella Fitzgerald does a fucking awesome version of air mail special but what are the chances yours is hers.Strip Polka sounds funny. which ones do you like?
>>130818909oh, and swinging on a star was used by a low budget sitcom about an alien or something when I was a kid, but the canonical version is Bing Crosby, it's a pretty good tune but obviously you can't play it being broken in half and all
>>130816449https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PBr7I2OSd0This is kind of weird to hear her with a 40s big band sound instead of the 50s sounds she's usually associated with.
>>130818965>Strip Polka sounds funny.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah_bsgCzXcIit's about some 40s version of an OF whore
>>130818979It is indeed the bing Crosby version :) the one guy I know and it's broken in half, oh well!>>130818965 desu I haven't listened to them all, only a little of a few of them when I first got it. Because after all I did only get the thing today. But hey maybe I'll check them out. On YouTube because the records really are beaten and it would be nice to hear it clearly. You def sound like you know your stuff tho :)The air mail special one says lionel Hampton so probably not the same one, oh well!!
>>130818998that's fantastic!the Andrews Sisters ' most enduring hit was Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.here they are performing it in an old Abbott and Costello moviehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of3uhG1tCI
>>130819039>lionel Hamptonoh, he's good. but you're a total pleb 1) because you didn't immediately listen to all of them as soon as you got home and 2) disassembled the tonearm etc before you could. I guess anon is right. not a music enthusiast, just a hipster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtvBT_zhxOA
>>130818985if you compare the charts in 1949 vis a vis the 1950 ones it's like flicking a switch and annoying 50s housewife pop songs immediately take over
>>130819060The Tony Pastor version of this is better. They and the band here sound drunk (and probably were).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLRZ54P5EDUEdythe Wright (who I should note was fucking Tommy Dorsey for some years behind his wife's back) was a bipolar schizoid who died at an early age (in 1965, only in her early 50s). She was probably molested as a kid, she seemed like that type.
the industry switched to vinyl records in response to a surge in the price of shellac, which was sourced from the Indian subcontinent and started getting expensive during the war. also they were lighter weight and not as breakable. RCA introduced the 45 and 33 discs in 1949.
>>130819068Go from >>130818985 tohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy691wYWJxkin about a year, and it's like "This is the '50s. Enjoy."
>>130819114https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HttydPzJsEdythe was good at edgy songs like this. She kind of fell flat at ballads and that kind of thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIrm4W3W9JIAlthough remade by Mitch Miller/Jill Corey in the 50s the original 1926 version was a lot better. That's that very typical sing-songy '20s ragtime kind of sound which would give way to big band sounds in the next decade.
>>130819265>>130819238you guys always do those /mu/ in X year threads but you never do one for the 1920s-30s. idk why you're all so obsessed with the 40s-50s when the 20s-30s imo were better and more interesting.
Turns out it wasn't that hard. Just gotta make the cutout for the new turntable (sad but it must be done) and crimp the wires properly and glue down the inside electricals but it seriously will be fine it seems. Especially once I get the front panel back on and all lol. This is my first time tinkering with anything electronic so I'm happy with how it's turning out. Got diamond tips for my record player coming soon. Yay :)
>>130819294I asked them about this once and they did a half-hearted 1939 thread. Also they don’t even talk about the good 50s music like rock n roll, jazz, and doo-wop
