"Teardrop" '39 RCA Victrola
 

I got hooked on these small deco bakelite phono "attachments" and just had to add a "teardrop" model to my collection. They were made by RCA and GE. It's a 1939 RCA Victrola R-100 This one, I believe, was a John Vassos creation and a small streamline-modern work of art. It was in sad shape when I got it and needed hours of fixing-up including some new wiring, grommets, re-flocking, polishing, and decal replacement. The old crystal cartridge, naturally, is no good and will be replaced by a ceramic one soon. The simple syncro motor runs fine and, amazingly, the rubber motor "hangers" are still pliable!

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...9&d=1518136459

Excellent!

Thank you. Amazing that I invested about 10 hours so far into this simple little phono, but that's the fun of the hobby.

You said it, this hobby is definitely not about cost recovery. Looks really nice! Is this one of the ones where you have to give it a push to start the motor?

Thank you. When cost recovery is what comes to mind the most, then you're not a true collector.
The phono has a very simple synchronized motor that "floats" on 3 metal rods that are inserted into flexible rubber hangers. You just put the record on the platter, put your fingers on the center label and give it a sharp spin. It comes right up to perfect speed. They do easily stop when you grab the record to remove it. If these were complicated with idler wheels I likely would not bother with them.

Ahh, so you really wouldn't like my Columbia LP attachment then, it's got two idler wheels I had to have rebuilt by VM. It's not really that bad, you just send him the old ones and $30, and a little while later new idlers come in the mail, as if by magic.. It's lots of fun reviving a 70 year old machine and seeing it work!

I really like the simplicity of that player, I hope you have some good 78s for it! 78 collecting is a bizzare world, with 95% junk and a few good ones, with very few sellers who know what they are doing.

How was the re-flocking done?

jr

Thanks Max - The simplicity of these units is why I like them. This is my third one now!
I have at least a couple of hundred 78's from decades of collecting them. A lot of great popular jazz from the '20's to the '40's. I have some rock and roll too. I will always prefer 78's to any other records.
jr - I want to say flocking is easy, but you have to be careful to follow the directions exactly as stated. I find applying the paint/adhesive in the right amount and getting the flocking on before it dries a little nerve racking, but so far I've had good results. You need to get the platter down to metal and then apply several coats of red/brown primer first. You can get the flocking kits on eBay, but get one with a good amount of flocking so you have enough.

I have a similar 'Teardrop', although it came with some interesting modifications... Note that I bought it anyway.

Steel tonearm, for those heavy metal disks. Chunk of wood integrated into cartridge mount, easily pre-dating Grado by four decades.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519240840


A few strategic lightening holes, lowering tracking force down to a sedate 16 oz. or so...


http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519240877


Severe abrasion on front edge of "tonearm" makes me think someone dragged it around behind a station wagon at some point.
And perhaps "tone-leg" would be a better match for its heft.

Some more common RCA radio-phonos had the bakelite tone arm (I owned one once)...Maybe you can find a sad example to steal a better arm from.

It's got speed holes!

Makes it go faster.

You may consider me looking for that now...

I see these early bakelite phono attachments often come-up for sale with replaced/upgraded tone-arms. They're often more modern looking than the rest of the unit with a clashing color. With models like my R-100 and particularly the GE version with the "locomotive" art-deco tone-arm, this will seriously hurt the units value and desirability.

It looks like the original arm had five holes, about 1/2" in diameter. Then the electric drill was invented, and they went nuts. I bought this about 10 years ago at a standard antique mall. No other similar items around. I think it would be easier to make a new arm out of sheet steel than it would be to repair that one to original look. Yes, even with the compound curves in the original. I do have CNC mill access where I could mill it nice and thin, but out of solid. Might be an interesting project... Could even go aluminum, even though it would still weigh a ton.

That's actually not a bad idea at all. There are some metal fabricators who could do it out of sheet stock. If you go aluminum, you could paint it to look identical to the steel arm.

As for weight... couldn't you just put a chunk of lead on the other end? I'm reasonably sure you could adjust it to any weight with a little ingenuity.

A counterweight....or put a blade towards the rear of the arm and hook a spring to the pivot axis. That's the way they did it on cheapo record players in the day.

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/multi...adjustoca2.jpg

Very little overhang behind the pivot point, so a counterweight would have to be massive to have any positive effect. Lack of mechanical advantage.

Also not much height available for the usual spring approach.

I'm thinking a hovercraft approach would be good. :)

The pivot mechanism and cartridge mounting bits are both wood, and do have an OEM look to them. Haven't done any research on this at all, though.

Cartridge seems to accept Victrola-style individual needles, with a set-screw arrangement.

I'll update this post with pics in a little while.

Here we go:
Pivot mechanism
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519433192

Underneath head.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519424549

Needs wire throughout, but suspension is still pliable and flocking is 'arite' for now.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519424549

I picked up this the other day, at a bookstore closing sale.
If there's interest, and comfort by site owners, I can scan and make available for posting... It covers popular changers up to 1961, including the little 45 changers. If it's something everyone already has, or is conveniently available online already, I will carry on...

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519433090

I'd be interested to read that!

Oh, hey it already has a counterweight made out of wood. Cast a duplicate in lead, or have it machined from iron. That'll do it.

Well, I'm starting to think this is a retrofit. It clearly started as a mass-produced item, due to the stamping instead of hand metalwork. I've looked thru radiomuseum.org and many other Google-able pics, and haven't seen any teardrop machines with this type of tonearm. They're all the nice bakelite versions shown above (although some are mounted backwards...) or a different, more trim version of the bakelite arm. I need to look through images of other manufacturer's products to see if there's a match.

Probably won't spend time/money duplicating this one, or cleaning it up. Instead, I'll focus on trying to find a suitable replacement. Or, craft a carbon fiber linear-tracking monstrosity... not.

Decojoe67, could you measure the tracking force (weight) of your original setup, to the nearest ounce or so? That would inform me as to what my target should be. Thanks in advance -- and great-looking work, too.

Hi Chip - Sorry for the delay seeing your post. I don't have a way to check it accurately, but I plan to. The bakelite arm is not as heavy as it looks and is much lighter without the old heavy metal crystal cartridge. The replacement needle does not bottom out. Likely the arm has a max tracking weight for the needle, but it doesn't feel particularly heavy.

Dear Decojoe67:

Have you found a way to replace the cartridge in your original teardrop set? I have a
set with the same arm and am using a home-rebuilt cartridge. You said you found
a ceramic one that did not bottom out. What was it? Where to get one? Is its needle
still the metal replaceable one? If not, will the needle ruin records? I measured
my tracking force at 80 grams. That includes the pot metal cartridge case, but the
new innards are much lighter than original.

My set is an RCA U10 radio-phono, also I actually USE the TV input with the set it was
intended for, a TT5.

I was told to use an Astatic 51-2 cartridge which can be gotten cheaply on eBay. The new cartridge is very small and light and, with it's flanges, was easily installed in the old tone arm with the use of a few washers. Without the heavy old metal cartridge the bakelite arm is reasonably light. When you place the arm down on a record the needle does not bottom out. I'm sure the tracking pressure is on or close to max, but it sounds great, and I don't use the unit a whole lot. My collection of 78's are mostly the common popular ones so I am enjoying them without worry. No, the new cartridge does not use the replaceable steel needles. I actually screwed the old set-screw into a small cube of plastic which I epoxied to the top of the new cartridge at just the right position so it sticks out of the notch in the arm. It looks better IMO like that than without anything there. Hope that info helped!
PS - Lucky you with the TT-5! I would be tempted to trade my entire collection for one of those. It's a beautiful piece of art-deco and TV history - Joe

Scan this book, please. Many vintage phono owners would love to have it, myself included.

Getting close... hopefully this coming week. Hang in there!

Ok, so where should this end up? It'll be a bunch of PDF files, or one big one, or maybe sections... initially not indexed but later it will be. Is there a place here on this site to upload stuff like this? Or is it discouraged due to long-outta-date copyright? Not a fan of Dropbox, etc. because years from now they'll change their structure, and all the links will be dead. Should really be here on-site, or perhaps in Audiokarma land, where I will go look next...

... where I found akdatabase.com. Looks like the place to be, as it is audio-ish in nature.

And that's gonna be nope.

All scanned in... all 515MB/300 pages of it. of it. Compresses to slightly smaller, but not a lot. 300dpi -- needed for some of the diagrams and charts, etc. (Book is worthless if you can't read it.)

So, does Videokarma have a Digital Docs area like Audiokarma does? And how would one get this doc to whoever has posting authority? I suppose I could Dropbox it to that person, but don't want to just put it up on Dropbox (or other) permanently, because policies and interfaces change, causing links in threads and discussions to break. Better to be hosted on VK/AK.

VK has no docs section, I and others advocated for it in a thread, a OT fight broke out, thread closed, I cleaned and reopened later, site admins eventually got interested in adding a section and then it just stopped...

Would it be inappropriate to proceed with posting on AK (due to the 'special relationship), with a link? There's less ancient/mid-fi activity over there, but it is actually audio.

Moderators, thoughts?

I don't see a problem with it.

I have made the inquiry to their Digital Docs email address. We'll see what happens.

On edit: Submitted, and under review. Fair warning, it's way larger than their usual submission, so it may not be approved.
Also, as I've stated it's more 'mid-fi' than hi-fi, which may or may not be a good fit for their brand. Up to them, ultimately.

I love this John Vassos design classic RCA phono attachment. Streamliner era deco styling at it's best. I also love your Columbia LP attachment a great deal, a very nice piece of history. I love seeing vintage phonos playing again. I love these two the same way I love my new to me 1966 Fisher Custom Electra VIII and the Dual 1010 with Pickering V 15F cartridge and the 3 way speakers which is my living room casual fun system.

I am no moderator on AK, but I would like to see on digital docs, a VideoKarma centric digital doc repository for the equipment we cover and discuss. And maybe this could be a VideoKarma addition to these forums. Some thoughts, fellow enthusiasts. We could have Antique Radios, TV along the lines of the forum dividing lines, Antique Radios, Transistor Radios, Antique phonographs, transistor phonographs and radio phonographs, the Console sections, for mono and Stereo, Test Equipment, as some beginnings. What do you think?

There was a thread lobbying for that a while back that fizzled in the 11th hour...the optimal time to advocate this was back then.