Electric gramophone phonograph pick-up. Early - make unknown.

[@garyschneider2170]

Norman, glad that you're still on the internet! Gary Schneider Alameda, California

[@RWBHere]

Norman, modern 'enamel' is designed to melt away when a soldering iron is applied to it. Use a little fluxed 60/40 solder, and it leaves a wire end which is ready for use. No worries about snapping wires whilst trying to strip them.

[@grammofon16]

love when you speak of these old pickups hope more to come

[@transformingArt]

The sound is much more decent than I have expected despite the hum. Anyway, it is always so entertaining and enlightening to see your videos. So much thanks!

[@bixanorak]

Thanks for writing again! Sorry I have not commented on your videos for a long time, I must become more organised... Best of luck to you and your wonderful channel.

[@robertfenney]

Thanks Norman! That was a great little project. I really like seeing the vintage equipment and tunes you share!

[@JackOfAllTrades2022]

Your a smart man Norman, love watching your videos, you remind me of me with my experiments! Thanks again for the needles , they work very well!

[@bixanorak]

Hi there - nice to hear from you again. Hope all you other projects are going OK, & glad the needles are going OK. Best regards, Norman.

[@MyDiesel101]

Norman, you are amazing!

[@Sprangleweed]

A most interesting and informative video, Norman. Thanks!

[@Palifiox]

Litz wire is what you need, but you have probably heard of it before. It was used in the windings of telephone receivers which typically had a 1 to 2 meg ohm resistance. Also, consider the dodge of the "bucking coil". You probably know this but early radios often used the output of the rectifier tube to magnetise the speaker, which also acted as a choke to smooth the DC output along with one or two capacitors. This would have induced a loud and intolerable hum in the speaker, but the voice coil also carried a short winding to oppose this hum, usually about 7 or 8 turns if I recall correctly compared to a perhaps 20 or so so supplied by the audio output valve. The method was dropped when better, more permanent magnets appeared for speakers.

[@edmondedwards6729]

at 7:25 he strips off the enamel mechanically with a blade. I have done repairs to delicate wires like this and used a butane lighter to burn off the insulation (only takes a second) then tin the ends with a solder pencil and that worked fine without the risk of wire damage

[@bixanorak]

Hi Edmond. Thanks for writing. I haven't tried burning off the enamel - a good idea, thanks. Cheers, Norman.

[@RonLH]

Wonderful, Norman!

[@manishrajkamal8740]

Great dear, amezing knowlage

[@bixanorak]

Thanks you for your kind words! I'm also sorry I can't reply to all the other nice people who have written in - there are more videos to come. With best wishes to you and your family, Norman.

[@manishrajkamal8740]

@@bixanorak thanks a lot welcome always

[@edmondedwards6729]

at minuite 7:15 he might have used a used a solder gun and plenty of solder dripped onto the end to melt off the enamel and give the wire a solder pre coating for attachment to the heavier lead wires which go to the terminals. I used this trick many times when working on early phonos

[@frankartieta6752]

I must say I love your videos ! I

[@bixanorak]

Hi Frank - thanks for writing. Glad you like the stuff - there's more in the pipeline. Sorry I don't always reply to all the nice comments, but I've been trying to do so in 2018! Cheers & again thanks, Norman.

[@dr.bharatbapodara3223]

Very informative.!!! I've 2 gramophone player.. purely mechanical...

[@PA2OLD]

Thank you very much for this fine video Norman. As always very interesting! But please, try to get a bit higher resolution, at least 360 pix, that would help. On my large monitor a 240 pix video is just not good for full screen. Hope to see the next video very soon! Greeting from the Netherlands, Ben Oldtimer.

[@borisromanoff4244]

Great!😊

[@litoboy5]

Amazing

[@JackOfAllTrades2022]

Ever tried using this type of magnetic cartridge and using it to cut records with it, would it vibrate enough with the output of an amplifier enough to produce sound on a blank record? Would be interesting to try.

[@bixanorak]

Hi there - thanks for writing. Yes - they were indeed used for that purpose, starting in the early 1930s, for use with home recording devices - the needle embossed a furrow on an plain aluminium disc. Later of course, the discs were given various coatings: gelatine was one, plasticised with glycerine; but nitrocellulose (often plasticised with castor oil) won out in the end. Cheers, Norman.

[@6dBperOctave]

Oh, the times I've tried stripping shellac and broken the wire. I'm intrigued by the use of the metal cylinder as the permanent magnet. I'd have thought it easier to make the coil core the magnet and use the cylinder to complete the magnetic circuit. But you did say the core was wires of soft iron. At 1'25", in the diagram: when I were a lad, lines of magnetic flux ran from the North (seeking pole) to the South (ditto)! Keep 'em coming. You should have a series on tv (Quest?).

[@bixanorak]

Well, I'm pretty sure the wires in the tubular core are 'soft iron' - though I often get things wrong. Sorry about ignoring the convention on the direction of magnetic flux. However, your valuable comment (and link) on the double-button carbon microphone has explained much to me re. the carbon granule three-wire pick-up. I rigged up an approximation which worked much better and intend to put up a short supplementary video. Many thanks!

[@neilforbes416]

+Norman Field. Have you forgotten that magnetic pickups need to be earthed? If you can find a way to earth the pickup, the hum should disappear. This is true of modern stereo magnetic pickups, thus it should also be true of 1920s-vintage ones too.

[@pjd4268]

Ohh...haha..I"m looking at your pic head on and thinking, hey hows the LR movement turned 90 deg to become forward and back..trying to think of the mechanism that makes that happen..but..the mech is 90deg. so the stylus moves and the iron moves 90 deg to the groove.. Duhh. (pic at mark 9'.20''.

[@bixanorak]

Thanks for writing! Just watched the video again, & I was 'off the beam' in not realising right away, that virtually all early electric pickups were were designed to simply replace a soundbox. Soundboxes usually tracked tangentially - so the electric replacement needed to do the same! Best wishes to you & yours in 2023. Cheers, Norman.

[@roybo1930]

This is truly AWESOME! Wonder if You could use it to Record with??? If You Reverse the process! sending the Music into it rather from it! Very Interesting indeed! Are The soft Iron Wires inside the cylinder for induction??? Electric Fan`s from the 1800s to 1910s used cloth covered winding's that made the Wires look much larger, as with a lot of products from that time! and I LOVE AND "Messing Around by Fess Williams using "Bud Jackson`s" (I don`t have the Record in front of Me so I may be wrong on the name of the artist!!) Name on Brunswick! You are AWESOME Indeed!

[@shafi3151]

👍

[@ravinderblackmore]

very interesting video. i have a hmv model 522 radiogram and the magnetic pickup dosent work.

[@Nico93]

I have the his masters voice version of these heads, what type of radio do it useally work with?

[@bixanorak]

You fitted that type of pick-up in place of the acoustic sound-box on your old gramophone. Then, you connected the wires to your radio set. From the early 1930s, most radios had a socket on the back marked 'Pick-up'. You put the wires in there, and the audio would come through the last one or two audio amplifier stages of your radio. You might have to find a place on the dial where there was no radio station; but later radios had a position on the band-switch, so you could select 'Gram'. These sockets were provided well into the 1950s. I made a video using the HMV No.15 add-on pick-up a couple of years ago, which is still on KZbin. Thanks for writing!

[@debarghyaroy9948]

Omg you sir are an institution.

[@fakharvoice9215]

AMAZING>>>>>AWESOME>>>>>for this video thank you, v.v.v.v.v much.I M 4rm pakistan

[@shivadholgroup4696]

Sir this is price

[@jblucio3177]

If you don't mind me asking but are you Australian and if so what parts are you from?

[@bixanorak]

No problem, but sorry, no, not from Australia. We're in Birmingham, England. Thanks for writing, and all the best to your & yours. Cheers, Norman.

[@RWBHere]

The hum can be removed by grounding the pickup correctly, avoiding hum loops of course. Nonetheless, well done. And if you don't want the pickup, it will find a good home chez nous! ;-p

[@andrewandrosow4797]

It can to use as a recorder!!!

[@039dalekmoore2007]

It could be a cutting head with the right stylus also ! just reverse its use .