Edison Model O Reproducer second hardest type to find

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This is a Steve Medved reproducer auction. I research, rebuild, and enjoy reproducers, both Edison and Victor. Edison continued to improve his reproducers; t are seven different variations of the model O reproducer and three different types of turnover rod end known. Who else do you know that even cares? Serious reproducer collectors are as rare as the Alva. This is the second hardest O to find, the first being the all brass top O . The brass and iron and brass are desirable because they never swell and are stable. This late large top is pot metal but it is very stable like the diamond B and C tops are. By the time the late large top came out the O was virtually obsolete. All diamond B and C tops are pot metal, even the diamond C with the brass sound tube has a pot metal top. This O is the best sounding O as I made the hole the same size as the latest one. On the final O Edison made the hole at the base of the sound tube larger. I only know of 7 of this type of O with the late large top and 20 of the dome top ones with the poor pot metal. This O has the greatest space above the diaphragm and increasing this area was why Edison made the dome top reproducer. My late large top NOS O from Oz sounds better than my iron and brass because of the improvements Edison made. In some photos the sound tube looks like it is a different color at the top and bottom, this is merely a refection. The all brass top O t was less than 5000 made, t were less than 10,000 of the iron and brass ones made. Since the N joined the serial numbers at around 22,000 I can only guess how many of the flat and dome tops were made. When I first got this O the sound tube was a dirty unplated piece of round stock with a flat top and smaller hole drilled in it. I cleaned and polished the sound tube and had it nickel plated after enlarging the hole to proper size. The broken stem was repaired by John Nagy and the turn over knob was made by me. It looks better than the reproductions made of a square piece of nickel plated brass with a washer soldered to the end and a crude pointer soldered in an ill fitting hole. The first two styles of turn over knobs do not have pointers, this reproducer originally had the pointer but my skills are limited. This reproducer has the original diaphragm and I repaired and re soldered the link to the yoke. The styli are rotated and the sound is wonderful, better than my NOS O which was rebuilt by another person. Both styli are original and cemented in with shellac just like Edison did. The screw head that holds the stylus bar assembly is broken but if this ever causes problems I will fix it at no cost. This reproducer looks and sounds great. This O fits tightly in a large carriage that has not been worked on. I removed about .005 from the inside of my large carriage to accommodate the minor swelling of the Diamond B and late O reproducers as I will not remove the nickel plating for such a small difference. My reworked carriage accommodates my iron and brass O and unless I knew I opened up my carriage I would not be able to tell. My carriage was rusty and I used a rubber Dremel polishing tool to remove the rust, it was not until later I realized the advantage this provided. .005 is the thickness of a piece of white paper, .003 is the thickness of the yellow notebook paper. The early large top is the worse pot metal of all as you can see. Serial numbers range from 41000 to 49000, but some were made in the early 60000 range with good pot metal. I have never seen an all brass top O and I have seen only six or seven of the late large top like this one. As of May 16, 2010 I have seen 84 of the iron and brass, and 71 of the flat top pot metal ones and about 20 of the poor pot metal dome tops. The O and N shared serial numbers; the N appeared around 22,000, first the round weight then the trowel, then the bent weights then finally the N-56. I believe after the fire only the N-56 and the bent weight N wer... read more

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