Victor Victrola VV-50

[Junk Yard Dog]

#43295 1922 with mahogany case. The latest off the bench, fully serviced, reproducer rebuilt, and playing like new. I have done a lot of this model, this one will be sold, but I have at least 20-25 at any given time. Victors first portable phonograph in the spring of 1921, it would remain in production until 1925 with some minor changes along the way. Available in oak, and mahogany only, these have a room filling sound, and are so well made that people started using them as house phonographs instead of buying more expensive machines. Victor caught on to that, and the next generation was a smaller fabric covered box. 50 means $50, the original selling price, close to $650 in todays dollars. The 1920's saw a portable phonograph craze, everyone wanted to haul along the jazz records and machine in the fliver to the park. This one got a new mainspring, it's reproducer is rebuilt, and properly tuned, and is playing Jazz records again.

[ffuries]

Damn, looks awesome........Just think how many of these survive and are usable because of people like you.....!

[tomaustin]

really nice job.............my mom's household had a similar unit when was a young girl...the needle broke.....Her Dad ran out of kindling and chopped-up the case and started many fires with the remains............my mom told me she cried when she found out.......

[Junk Yard Dog]

Damn, looks awesome........Just think how many of these survive and are usable because of people like you.....!

About 20 VV-50's, hundreds of other Victor models, and HMV's, Swiss Paillards, Columbias, Outings and other US off brands, been doing these machines a long time.

[Longcolt44]

Well, the Covid is good for one thing. It gives The Dog time to do the intricate time to fix the little intricate things it takes to make wonderful music come from these great old boxes once again.

[Junk Yard Dog]

really nice job.............my mom's household had a similar unit when was a young girl...the needle broke.....Her Dad ran out of kindling and chopped-up the case and started many fires with the remains............my mom told me she cried when she found out.......

The needle itself is changed on these for each play of a record, it's steel, and comes in three sizes to regulate the volume and tone according to the record played. Likely what broke was the reproducer, or soundbox to use Victors terms. This is the round part the needle is attached to, and is the heart of the machines sound reproduction capabilities. I repair these, but it sounds like it's too late in this case. By the mid 1930's electric machines had taken over, the old machines that once cost a fortune to buy, and were considered serious status cymbals weren't valued anymore. They ended up in attics, barns, the shed or the dump. A few were kept in the house and taken care of for a century, I have one such machine being serviced now. 1920 Victrola 11 VV-XI, probably the most popular machine Victor ever built. This one is in amazing original condition, even has a small stack of records that were bought with it, and look unplayed. All the original accessories the dealers provided are still with the machine 101 years later. I have a few more minor things to do on that one before it's finished.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Well, the Covid is good for one thing. It gives The Dog time to do the intricate time to fix the little intricate things it takes to make wonderful music come from these great old boxes once again.

Between this winter, and last winter, plus the rest of the year I have fixed over 50 machines and sold more than 30 of them, including some very rare models. I currently have six more that just came in and are waiting. Several more tabletop Victrola the 9th's ( VV-IX) a very early VV-VIII ( Victrola the 8th tabletop from 1912) I have a special request for the smallest Victrola, the VV-IV, Victrola the 4th tabletop model, that one will be done this weekend, and shortly after on the way to it's new home. The latest walnut VV-XI may end up staying with me, but two party's are expressing interest. I do already have a 1918 oak XI, and a couple of parts machines that could , and likely will soon become one working machine.

[tomaustin]

that is not a hobby.....you may enjoy the work you do on them, but there is some serious $$ in this effort.....good job...Tom

[Junk Yard Dog]

that is not a hobby.....you may enjoy the work you do on them, but there is some serious $$ in this effort.....good job...Tom

Average is 20-25 hours spread over days or weeks, even years to get a machine back together and working. Removing the baked on grease of a century or more from a motor is very time consuming working with small picks, and such. Just testing the motor and reproducer after service requires playing 20-40 records to settle everything in. It helps pass the time during the lockdown, some rare machines I will make a good profit, but the ordinary models I break even. If I was to charge minimum wage for the time spent these machines would be priced out of reach.

[tomaustin]

is this an inherited skill..? back in the day, seems like most families had a skill area of interest and as a group, the towns began to form..............

[Junk Yard Dog]

is this an inherited skill..? back in the day, seems like most families had a skill area of interest and as a group, the towns began to form..............

No, this comes from buying a VV-50 similar to this one at a flea market 35 years ago, and then finding out it would be $350 to fix and service it. If I can rebuild an engine, I can learn to fix a Victrola because I am not funding somebody's retirement fund. I learned, then bought more phonographs and learned them also. Once the basics are understood these are not complex machines, just a lot of grunt labor scrubbing them clean. The reproducers require some skill, tricks need to be learned, tiny tools are needed. It's easier today with so many of the reproducer parts being reproduced, no need to scavenge parts off of other reproducers to get one working. That may have been OK when they were five or ten bucks, but now we are over fifty bucks for a cruddy, and damaged reproducer on eBay, or the shows. Victrola doctoring vanished quickly after the 1930's, the Victor dealer network collapsed in 1929 when the company was absorbed by RCA who had no interest in making acoustic phonographs. The hobby of collecting talking machines is s old as the machines themselves, we have so many rare machines today because of these early collectors. Phonograph collecting isn't as popular as gun collecting, but in recent years it's on the rise.

[tomaustin]

my dad carried the RCA Victor line in his furniture store in Mississippi beginning after ww2 and until marketing music items really took off in the late 50s-early 60's......a ton of Elvis was played on the 45 record changers which played through the radio units....the fun part of today is the question by youngsters of why were all the songs so short...the 45's had a 2 1/2 minute max on those small records......went to a ZZ Top concert recently and that is the plague they face with all of their early hits...so they created a medley of those early songs and just roll through them.....and we don't care !!! great music......and I do remember when LP's were born.......

[SA1911a1]

That looks great, Jim. You are preserving history.

[Junk Yard Dog]

That looks great, Jim. You are preserving history.

How is that Victrola the 9th doing?

[steelbuttplate]

Those are ?? 78 RPM ? Got Louis Armstrong ?

[SA1911a1]

That looks great, Jim. You are preserving history.

How is that Victrola the 9th doing?

I really like it, I have bought about a hundred records.

Most of my friends aren't impressed with it, which sort of surprised me because I think that it is as cool as grits! To me it is amazing, with the loud needles and the open doors just how much sound that those old machines can put out. I just wish I had some records that in better shape to play on it most of the stuff that I have been able to find are on their last legs. I have been keeping my eyes out for another player, but they don't show up in the shops often and when they do, the people want way too much for them, working or not.