DIY Linear tracking gramophone build and test!
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- Building and testing a linear tracking gramophone out of mainly common items and materials. Improving the design and solving a few problems on the way!
This is the higher quality, re-edited compilation video of a set of experiments I did a while ago.
#diygramophone
#diyphonograph
#78rpm
#78rpmshellac
Thanks for a very interesting video. Maybe it's just perspective, but it looked as though the needle point was going in a line that would pass in front of the central axle, rather than through it.
Quite possibly. With contraptions like this, it is very easy to get things misaligned and not notice while filming. Thanks 😀 👍
Beautiful orange bakelite horn! 😁
Thanks 😀 👍. Rather more modern, unfortunately 😉😅
WOOOOOOO we been waiting for this orange horn gramophone thanks mrrgstuff!!! 😃
Thanks 😀 👍. Glad you enjoyed it 😀
i think the apollo gramophone and this one is the best one far
@@goober890 Thanks 😀👍. The DIY one was a lot of fun to build. It was a few years ago, and I really ought to rebuild it better 😅
ok :)
Very interesting. Could you drastically shorten the length of pipe if you plumbed in your horn to just past the soundbox and then capped off the end of the remaining pipe, maybe you could make some kind of crane or support that could sit above the turntable?
Yes, there are certainly lots of variations on this design which might work better than my version. Thanks 😀 👍
Hi, the idea is very interesting, there are a couple of things that I believe you should address (by the way I say this with some competence of 78rpm records, I wrote a book on the subject). The solution you are adopting to force the pipe moving is adding more pressure, but this isn't a good idea, I promise. You are adding tens of time the pressure suggested for a correct reproduction (think more 7g for an electric pickup, just the weight of the pickup for acoustic ones), doing this you will be causing enormous wear to the record, especially the bottom and right hand wall. You are also dampening the pickup, which will work less effectively and with grater distortion and worst sound. This is why in old acoustic gramophones the horn is not one piece with the arm holding the pickup.
The pipe is also very long, so you loose the correct proportion; from the point where the pickup is attached to the end of acoustic horn you would want to have a profile which is an exponential curve (or as close as possible): this will heavily affect the sound.
I say all this meaning to encourage you to experiment naturally!
Have you considered detaching the actual horn from the section holding the pickup? Maybe a short section of pipe sliding inside the other? This would allow you to reduce the pressure of the pickup, and reduce the weight of what the pickup has to push. The problem of wear is very crucial when working with records, and that's the main reason why in the end you avoid using acoustic pickups. But the concept is intriguing. Keep going! :)
Thanks very much for the interesting comments and all the information 😀 👍. Yes, it's a very crude machine which certainly is not kind to records. I also agree that the profile of the horn is incorrect and will not help. I built this a few years ago, but have re-edited the videos for a higher resolution compilation as I thought many of my newer viewers would not have seen the original videos. My intention was to try and build the very simplest linear tracking gramophone I could, but as you can see I got distracted and spent a lot of time experimenting with it! I may revisit it as I am sure I could do a better job nowadays. I have also built a power assisted linear tracking record player: czcams.com/video/fI880kTJ5b0/video.htmlsi=6mhR5tffPM-aPalz
and also upgraded my cylinder phonograph with automatic power assisted linear tracking:
czcams.com/video/EE-sP0BRzvQ/video.htmlsi=K98OFAbtZDVWU5Pg
Also very interesting to hear you wrote a book on the subject. I looked it up on Amazon as I had not come across it before. Thanks again 😀
Very cool!
Thanks 😀 👍. Glad you enjoyed it 😀
yo did the soundbox move by itself
As the record turns, the needle travels around the spiral groove, and this causes the soundbox to move across the record. There is no other motor, only the one turning the record
oh okay i got it now thanks :)
I feel like you may have missed the core concept of linear tracking record players...
If you are referring to reduced record wear, due to better tracking, then this solution clearly isn't the best, though the tracking angle of the needle does stay constant, and it is indeed linear tracking. This is a very simple 'groove rider' type design. To improve this requires the addition of power like in this one I built:
czcams.com/video/fI880kTJ5b0/video.html
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the core concepts of linear tracking and seeing any devices you have built. Thanks.