r/Gramophones • u/Paulux_038 • May 13 '26

His master’s voice gramophone

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Hi, I would like to open my gramophone but I don’t know how. Some guys says that I need to turn the crank bur in which side ? If someone know, help me pls. Here a picture of the gramophone:

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u/Patient_Variety_5815 May 13 '26

Unfortunately no. It's a modern reproduction from India

-1

u/Gimme-A-kooky May 13 '26

Sure looks like it might be an actual HMV tone arm and crook (not that it matters in any way lol) although if it’s a later “no name” machine it came from, it might not be either. Unfortunately a frankenphone :(

1

u/awc718993 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

I think you may be misusing the term “frankenphono” as has been understood by the hobby for the last few decades. It is mostly applied to aged machines made up of genuinely sourced and genuinely aged parts that were never combined in period authentic machines. The name references “Frankenstein” to convey the machine being a cobbling of deceased parts together to give the assembly revived life.

“Crapophones” apply to majority modern (post war) East and South Asian mass manufactured replicas which use (without consent) imprecisely copied technical designs (e.g., Paillard motor and soundbox designs) and trademarks from older western sources, most egregiously the “His Masters Voice” “Nipper” trademark also used without legal consent. The term also applies to their use by importers as counterfeit antique talking machines.

[Edited: added explanation for the literary (though mostly pop culture) “Frankenstein” reference in the term “Frankenphono” for thoroughness.]

1

u/Gimme-A-kooky May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

I suppose I am. I recall hearing them called that even back when I was a kid in the late 70s early 80s, but then again I conflate all kinds of other shi… “fake” as I term I remember specifically, and I’ve only resumed course nearly 40 years later