The Band is Here!

Hello!

Yay! Our Gramophone came! We were so excited this weekend when the FedEx man delivered our package. We unboxed it and cranked it up. It totally started to spin!

Our lovely online find

After inspecting our new Gramophone, I suspect that most or all of the mechanical parts is new old stock. The mechanical pieces are made a lot better than some of the other metal pieces found on the player. Also, all the mechanical pieces have show some patina from age. The horn, tonearm, crank, horn bracket, and case are all reproductions while the voice box, turntable platter and motor are all vintage old stock. I'm not surprised that the motor still works, they made then sturdy back in the day. The Gramophone came to us from India, via the port of Los Angeles, with a vintage Indian 78 rpm record. Though the music on the provided record would have fit our theme nicely, we were all excited to find more 78's. So that afternoon we ran over to Pauline's.

One of many treasure alcoves at Pauline's

A mix of 12", 45's & 78's

As you can see Pauline's is definitely a place you have to dig and search, but it's our favorite way to shop. I knew Pauline's would have exactly what we were looking for. As KBD, Thom and I combed through the stacks, we looked for period appropriate music and of course songs that we just plain love.

KBD & Thom get excited

We ended up finding a whole book (about 12 records) full of jazz, swing, and fox trot's from various performers and a few other records of songs we love. I'll see if I can post a video of the gramophone in action. It was a fun afternoon. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with lunch and beer. It was a hot afternoon that day in Alameda.

-HWC