A Conversation with the Dyslexic Genus Hurt! Brett Hurt's Antique Phonograph Odyssey and Online Success.

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Wyatt Markus, Joe, Tracy and I, discover the captivating journey of Brett Hurt, affectionately known as Dyslexic Genius, a passionate luminary in the antique phonograph community. From stumbling upon a Victrola in an antique shop over four decades ago to producing 2,000 YouTube videos, Brett's story is a blend of dedication, trial, and triumph. Through hands-on learning and a genuine love for restoring vintage machines, he became a trusted resource for fellow enthusiasts, turning his hobby into a professional vocation that champions the preservation of mechanical skills in our digital world.

Brett’s journey through the world of YouTube began with a friend's simple suggestion and evolved into a comprehensive library of repair tips and phonograph concerts. Transitioning from California to South Carolina, Brett navigated the challenges of filming and built a community eager for his knowledge. His stories of discovering rare phonographs, negotiating deals, and fostering friendships reveal the rich tapestry of experiences within the phonograph community. Brett’s channel not only offers practical advice but also celebrates the enchanting stories behind these timeless machines.

Join us as we explore Brett's humorous anecdotes, heartwarming encounters, and insights into the phonograph market. From the art of negotiation to the joy of community connections, Brett’s tales offer valuable lessons for collectors and newcomers alike. Whether it’s an unexpected encounter on Facebook Marketplace or a memorable road trip to secure a treasure, Brett's experiences capture the essence of this fascinating hobby. Embrace the world of antique phonographs where passion, persistence, and camaraderie create lasting bonds and unforgettable stories.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everybody and welcome back to A Better Life in
New York.
This is another one of theantique phonographs editions.
So I'm back here with Joe Tracyand Wyatt Marcus, and today we
have the specialist guest of thephonograph world, brett Hurt,
better known as and Wyattcorrected me when I said it last

(00:24):
time dyslexic genius.
I got it right, hurt, and Ihappen to be severely dyslexic,
by the way, just in case it'sjust serious.
And also Cheryl is there in thebackground taking care of the
cats.
If anyone has watched hisvideos, they are a mainstay of
the entire antique phonographworld.

(00:44):
There isn't anything you runinto a problem that you can't
find a phonograph video onwhether it's cleaning, whether
it's oiling, whether it'srefinishing, whether it's
chemicals, whether it's a spring, whether it's all the things
that I have no idea how to do,even when I watch the videos.
But he does a great job doingit and he's just had his 2000th

(01:09):
video, if you can imagine, onYouTube, which is quite an
accomplishment for anyone.
So welcome, brett.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
We just hit a million views too.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
That's where it's at, so to speak, Last week.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I don't know, Wednesday or so we hit a million
views.

Speaker 5 (01:31):
Congratulations, that's a lot, that's a lot for a
small niche community.
I think I account for 100,000of those.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, I've watched some of them again and again.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
We liked your one video, if I may, about the
alligatoring.
I think you were doing thewooden horn, yeah, and that was.
I probably watched that five orsix times.
So we've actually applied thatprocess to a couple of our
machines and it worked just likeyou said it would, taking off
the alligatoring yes, and theshellac.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, every situation is different.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
I have a stand-up patrol.
I look at it all the time andI'm afraid that I'm going to
ruin it if I touch it and it'stoo big and heavy to take
anywhere.
But maybe I'll think about it.
All these other experts here me, I'm just a moderator, brett.
Maybe you can give us a littleidea how you got into this.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Roughly 40 years ago we were antiquing and lived in
LA.
I found a photograph it had tobe fun to have.
I had a radio and it played thewrong music and I thought, oh,
that'll be fun to have one ofthose in the house.
And the guy told me that itstill had the original bailing
wire on it and I had a hacksawand file and tools.
So I got the thing home and itdidn't run.

(02:44):
So I thought, well, maybe I canfix this.
I started taking it apart andgot the spring in backwards and
all that up.
Lo and behold, it was missing agovernor weight in the spring
and they wired it together, thegovernor together to run.
And then I met Ray Phillips atthe Rose Bowl swap meet.
This nice guy was looking atrecord stuff and he goes oh, you

(03:05):
know what you're looking at.
I go yeah, I have a Vic Trolleyand I thought it was the only
one and he goes.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Here's my number.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
You ever got a problem and I called him up
because he lived in the LA areaand I go where do I get parts?
And he introduced me to Dwayneat Musical Americana and that's
how it all started and that backin the day with duane you could
go, yeah I have an exhibition.
I need the gasket material, Ineed the isolator for the back.
I figured all that out.
He'd mail it to you and you'dsend him a check.

(03:32):
It was fun back then.
That's how I started.
Then I thought, hey, that wasfun, let me find another one.
So I went out and I think Ifound a junker mine and I spent
a long time working on itcleaning it up and I go wow,
this is fun.
I'm going to print businesscards and go to antique stores

(03:52):
and tell them I know how to fixVictrola's.
I had no idea, seriously.
And then another guy, anothercollector, burt Paisley.
I met him through SolvangAntique Center and I went to
them and said you should go workfor these guys.
I'm doing motor stuff.
So I started.
That's how I started.
Wow.

(04:13):
Pretty much self-taught.
Back in the day, the photographguys would hey, man, how do you
do this?
Soak it in gasoline.
How do you rebuild or reproduceor give it to me, I'll redo it
for you.
And I go no, I don't have themoney for that.
So I got to tell myself to runa lathe in the middle and it

(04:34):
just snowballed from there.
So when I was going to collegeI worked in an automotive
restoration service and theywere like rebuilding Duesenbergs
.
I was a flunky in Duesenbergengines while I was going to
college and I learned a lotabout chemicals and stuff they
used and how they polishedthings.
It was fun, but that's prettymuch my life story right there.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
Can I ask you a question about how many machines
do you think you've worked onor repaired, restored, roughed?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
I have no idea, but we do have a receipt book and I
think I'm in my 15th receiptbook.
Cheryl kept them all.
We have them all upstairs in aroom.
I'm going, I'm trying, and thenwhen YouTube came out, I knew
Ron Devil said he says oh, youshould do YouTube.
And I go, man, I don't know howto do YouTube.
I'm not a tech guy and I have10 machines to work on for

(05:26):
people in the garage because Iwas working full time.
And then down the road a buddyof mine bought an Army Navy and
he said you really need to doYouTube.
And that was really the firstpoint we did.
We didn't know how to doYouTube.
So Cheryl got it, because we'vemoved to South Carolina from
California, and she got on thetown we're in, in Simpsonville.
So she went to the SimpsonvilleFacebook page and said hey, man

(05:49):
, do YouTube.
And this nice lady said Meet meat Starbucks, I'll show you how
to do YouTube.
I didn't know you had todownload the app to do YouTube
and we fumbled through it.
First we were filming this wayand then somebody said we better
film this way.
So we were filming this way.
And then somebody said webetter film this way.
So we started filming that wayand then I thought, okay, we'll

(06:10):
do friday night and sunday nightconcerts, try to build up a
repertoire.
And then the tip for the daything.
At the end, like I do videos,we're having wine in the evening
and she says you need to dosomething for friday night
concert.
I said, okay, let me pick out arecord, we'll play something.
And then I did and that's mytip for the day.
I just grabbed my class.

(06:31):
It went over real well, butwe've been real busy.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
We moved and I had to move the shop and everything
and then it was really I knowthe other day when we spoke to
check out the technology, youshowed me a couple of your
phonographs and you showed mewhich I know you rebuilt because
I watched all the videos is theamberola 5 and I couldn't get
over the the finish on that whenyou were opening and closing it

(07:03):
.
It was just amazing and I couldprobably search long and hard
for a very long time and neverfind one with that quality of a
finish on it.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, I really like them because they have a
flywheel in them, like an opera.
They're totally gear driven, nobelt.
It's literally a baby opera.
And I would buy one of thoseover an Amarillo 30 or Amarillo
50 because it runs so muchbetter and it has a lot better

(07:32):
sound on them.
I think they're really goodmachines.
They're underrated.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Oh, they're terribly underrated, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
So for everybody's edification, that's never have
any idea.
This is Wyatt's thing.
He always stops us so we canexplain what we're talking about
.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Oh, right now you want me to explain things For
everybody's edification that'snever have any idea.
This is why it's thing youalways stop system.
We can explain what we'retalking about.
Oh, right now you want me toexplain things?
Yes, for those of us that areuninitiated into what we're
talking about, brett is a.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
YouTube phenomenon Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
And what I love about Brett's videos is, if I have, I
have a small phonographbusiness too.
If someone asks me how do I dothis, how do I do that, I'm like
go to YouTube.
There's this guy and he'll showyou how to do it.
And what I love, you've got2000 videos covering a lot of
different subjects.

(08:21):
It's going to be on YouTube asa world reference for doing a
lot of these repairs.
And as we go into the cellphone, deeper into the cell
phone and iPad era, people arebecoming less mechanically
inclined and it's awesome tojust say this guy has a video on

(08:42):
it.
Sit down for 10 minutes, 15minutes, watch him do it and
you're going to learn somethingnew.
And everyone that knows mepersonally knows that I always
encourage the teaching of theseskills because that's how they
get passed down and our skillset is slowly falling out of
public favor.
But we're doing everything wecan to keep these skills out in

(09:04):
front and it's important.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
The other thing to point out, if I may, is it's not
like these machines requiremostly require constant repair
and attention.
Right, you're bringing machinesthat have been sitting around
for 80 years back to life.
And there's a lot of them outthere that have been sitting in
attics.
People pass away grandma,grandfather, and then oh, what's

(09:31):
this?
And people like Brett bringthem back to life.
Once we get these machinesrunning, they're pretty solid.
The thing is, they just need tobe brought back to life.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
My point is that when we talk about an ambrose hive
and this is what why it did lasttime we spoke on it is that
ambrose five is a edison thomasedison phonograph that's made to
play ambrose four minutecylinders.
It is one of the more complete,more fancy, more.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
It's elegant.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yes, yeah, and I have a 30 and a 50 and a DX and I've
always wanted.
Matter of fact, I have adiamond disc, which is another
form of phonograph for Edison,where he made these regular
discs, and a chalet, and whenthey showed me the picture of it

(10:31):
, I thought it was an Amarillo 5, because it wasn't that great
of a picture and I wanted it.
And, the worst part, I go.
I absolutely want it.
I don't care, I'll be there.
I got in my car, drove twohours into Connecticut to go
pick it up.
When I got there it was achalet.
I still wanted it, but it justwas a lot heavier than I
expected it to be.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
That's part of the experience.
When I was very young, when Ijust started out in this, I put
out this little tiny ad in thepaper.
It cost $15 a week.
It only came out, I think in theSaturday edition, the weekend
edition Wanted antique wind-upphonographs, because that's what
a $15 ad gets you and going out.
First of all, people didn'tknow how to explain to me what

(11:16):
they had because it was such aforeign thing to them and with
that chalet that you went outand bought.
This is before sending textimages with our cell phones you
just went off of whatever theytold you, and sometimes I would
show up and, yeah, it would be a220 pound machine that I

(11:40):
couldn't move all by myself.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
And they said, oh, it's light, it's simple.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
And then you get there and they're like oh, I
don't remember it being that bigand heavy, and that was back in
1940 when you put it in thebarn, when you were a strapping
young man, right now.
Yeah, and mice were living init.
That's another show entirely,but it's a learning experience
for sure.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Back in the day I couldn't afford them.
They were expensive.
So I was buying junkers, barnmachines and redoing them.
And I got a call 25, 30 yearsago, this guy in Vegas Did you
guys know Slim in Vegas?
He was a big photographic guy.
I had done some work for him inVegas and somebody called him

(12:29):
and he says he had twophonographs for sale and this is
when an opera was going for$7,000.
Yeah, back in the day and hegoes I have two Edison machines,
I want $2,000.
And I'm thinking, holy crap, Idon't have $2,000.
And I'm thinking holy crap.
I don't have $2,000.
I'm paying the house offworking hard.

(12:50):
That's a lot of money to me, tous.
So I go, Cheryl goes, let's goto Vegas.
And look, I said, okay, we'lldrive out to Vegas.
I go out to Vegas.
See this guy.
And this is a long shot.
What am I going to find?
A junker home.
I had a nice drive to Vegas.
So he goes in the garage, hecomes out, almost drops an opera

(13:14):
on the ground, the horns infive pieces, the cabinets
crushed and the paint's fallingoff of the reproducers there.
And I'm going okay, I'll paytwo grand for this.
Then he goes in and he bringsout a Triumph E with a signal in
the same condition, and I'mgoing, wow.

(13:34):
So then I get him home and Icalled Ray Phillips and I said
could you come over and look atthis?
And he goes oh sure.
And he came over and he broughtRon Devilsen and I showed him
the opera and sitting on thedining table, I'm real proud of
it.
I have very few phonographs atthe time and don't know as much

(13:56):
as I know now.
And Ray goes oh, two grand forthat, you can put that all back
there.
That was a real good price.
And Ron's standing there and Igo no, I bought both of them for
two thousand dollars and theywent.
Holy crap.
Yeah, you know, I had itstripped down and taught myself
to pinstripe and I did all thisstuff to it, but they came out

(14:18):
one thing about ray phillips isthat he taught people never to
take the first offer, oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
So that's what I learned from him.
I feel like even it's a fineline when you're out there
buying in the world If someone,yeah, brings out a $6,000
machine.
Yeah, you did the right thing.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
And I did a video on that called walkaways.
You walk up it's in the videos,say you go, this guy has a ton
of 78s, you want to go buy them,you want to go through them.
And this is all personalexperience.
So I go over there and the guygoes yeah, I went through it, I
grabbed 30 78s, let me see whatthey sell for on eBay.
It wouldn't give me a price.

(15:05):
So I let him sit in his houseand go through eBay and I said,
yeah, it changed my mind alittle bit.
Yeah, you have to do it.
It's like buying photographs.
You see a Vic 11 and the guygoes yeah, I want $1,200.
Yeah a little high five.
There's another one out there.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, there's another one out there.
Yeah, oh yeah, praiseexperiences with people, brett.
Did I ever tell you there was?
I got a call.
This is 17 years ago.
This elderly man called me andhe said he had an edison
phonograph.
He doesn't know what it is.
Joe and tracy may have heardstory before, but they said we
have a steamer trunk full ofcylinder records that go along
with it.
And I said, great, I drove fourand a half hours out to their

(15:55):
house.
I walk in the door.
On the floor is an Ambarola 30,which is the small, is an
Ambarola 30, which is the small,little inexpensive Ambarola
that they had back in the day,and it was positioned on the
floor in front of a microphone.
And what this couple would dois they would take a cylinder

(16:17):
out of this huge travel trunkfull of cylinders and they would
play it through the microphoneand amplify it through the
stereo system so they could hearit.
And I'm looking at this a littlecrestfallen.
I drove four hours but I saidoh, okay, I see the machine that
you've got there.

(16:38):
I know what that is.
With conviction in his eyes, helooks at me eye to eye and his
wife is in a rocking chair inthe corner just knitting and
rocking away and he says, shouldwe sell it to him?
And the wife says, yep, we'llsell it to him.
I don't need to keep thesethings.

(16:58):
We're getting on.
I'm 87.
He's 89.
We don't need it anymore.
I'm like, okay, that's thefirst phonograph that Edison
ever made.
I'm like, oh, all right, whatup, keep going.
She's like we won't let it gofor anything less than $12,000.

(17:19):
Oregon buy it.
And I said I don't think I'm abuyer at that price, but gosh, I
sure have driven out quite away to get here.
So this guy, who is 89, hegrabs a fiddle and he starts.
He sits back, he says we'vecome all this way, you might as
well get a concert.

(17:39):
So he sits back and he plays meall these songs using this
technique that he calls doublestrings.
He's playing two strings, twodifferent notes on two different
strings.
It was memorable and amazing.
I'll never forget them.
I did not buy the machine, Ididn't even bother to negotiate,
I just sat and enjoyed.
And then he grabs this banjowith a resonator on it and he

(18:03):
starts playing the banjo.
And I'm just blown away.
This guy's been playing sincehe was 10 years old.
And that's the hunt.
That's what I love doing.
I like the chase, not so muchthe kill, but the chase is fun
the chase is better.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Go look at something yeah, yeah, it's always an
adventure yeah, I had a womanreach out to me on facebook and
said she had some 78 recordsfrom like the 20s and 30s and
she wasn't far from my house andshe wanted 50 bucks for them or
something.
And she had about 100 orsomething records and they're
all acoustic.
And I said to her, just out ofcuriosity, I'm walking out.

(18:41):
And I said, by the way, whatwere you playing this on?
She goes oh, I have this oldphonograph and I'm like you
don't want to show it to me.
I mean, if you're not going tohave any records, no sense of
having the phonograph.
So she calls to her son do youwant to sell that thing?
She brings out and it was a 50,vv50, the portable one with the

(19:03):
crank in the front, the earliermodel, and she goes I go what
do you want for it?
She goes 50 bucks.
So it was great, jeez.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
I am just over, and it works fantastically.
By the way, they were so wellbuilt and so well engineered.
They usually just need a littlebit of grease and a little bit
of oil and they just keeprunning.
It's amazing, you just you hadme thinking, since we're talking
about ambarolas and smallmachines, oh, there was this guy

(19:38):
that called me.
His father had passed away.
Sorry, I'm full of stories.
I'll make this one very quick,but they had an Ambarola 50.
I walk into the house.
He shows me this Ambarola 50.
And while I'm looking over therecords, there's about 200
records on the table.
There's some great stuff Jazz,foxtrots, all the good stuff is

(20:01):
on the table.
And while he's showing me themachine, his cantankerous mother
starts creeping down the stairs.
She's stomping down the stairs,creaking on the stairs creaking
, and you can hear she's upset,you selling your father's
machine and he's Mom.
We agreed that we wouldn't bekeeping it.
That's one thing that he reallyenjoyed.

(20:23):
And she goes up to it and youcan't make this stuff up.
She starts stroking the top ofthe cabinet and she leans over
and she plants her big lipsright on it and kisses the
cabinet.
And now I feel like I'm the badguy and I said are you sure you
want to sell this to me?
And they're like oh, and themother has a tantrum and just

(20:47):
walks off.
The guys tell you what?
It's $710, which was a lot ofmoney for me at the time.
And he's like why don't youjust look at the records?
And I'm going to go talk to herand cool her down and talk
about the machine.
So I took, of course, I got allthe good records and I set them
aside and I said, okay, I'llgive you $100 for all these

(21:12):
records here.
And the mother looked at themand then she just nodded, yeah,
and I said this way you can keepthe machine a little longer.
And she smiled at me, gave me alittle box for the records and
led me out the front door.
And the sons will talk in thefuture, I'll call you.
So I'm going down the frontsteps, I'm going down the
driveway to where my car wasparked and she started screaming

(21:36):
at him and it started.
I heard everything.
Single pane glass window.

Speaker 6 (21:42):
She said he took all the best records.
You should have never invitedhim over here.
Well, this machine's nevercomplete anymore.
Your father's looking down atus and he's just weeping right
now I can feel it and then shestarts grabbing her pearls and
I'm like, oh god, now I feelhorrible.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
You take it.
So what happens next week?
I felt so bad.
I lost sleep over this.
I called them in five days.
I said hi, does your motherstill want to sell the machine?
Yeah, so what happened?
I went back and I paid $710 toher for the machine with the

(22:22):
remaining records, and that'sthe story.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
My best story and I've told very many people about
this was an antique store inEnglewood and I'm in there.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
I know that store In North.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Jersey, in Englewood Emerald 30?
.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
No, I know that store you were in an antique store in
north jersey 30.
No, I know that store you werein, antique store number.
Any guy wants a thousanddollars for everything yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
So I go in there and they have an amber all 30 apart.
Okay, and I've probably beenplaying with phonographs over a
year and I look at this thingand it's an Amber old 30.
This is great and this is whenI have my little business cards
and having fun, mostly to hunt,like Wyatt.

(23:13):
But the husband's gone, thelady's gone, the husband's here
and I go what do you want forall those parts?
He goes 100 bucks.
Okay, everything's here.
I go what do you want for allthose parts?
He goes $100.
Okay, everything's here.
I go home.
I'm excited.
I rebuild this whole thing, putit all back together, I make it
run, do everything.

(23:35):
I think I know what to do.
So I take the machine back tothem and go this is the work I
do.
Here's the phonograph, they'reboth there, I play it.
I said this is the work I do.
Here's the phonograph, they'reboth there, I play it.
I said this is the phonographwork I do.
People come in and want thephonograph, I worked on it and
they send me the business.
And when people would send mebusiness, I'd always take the

(23:55):
antique store.
Whoever a bottle Max, Iappreciate this.
I go in there and I'm happy andI'm good, I crack it up.
It plays Patsy, does you?
Screwed me.
Never went back to that yeah.

(24:17):
Oh yeah, she was nuts thathappens oh yeah, these people
are just like okay, I'm out ofhere, most people are fine.
When we moved to South Carolina, I put my cards out and stuff a
little bit and these peoplecalled me and they're about 45

(24:37):
minutes away.
So we drove out to look at thisphonograph and tell them what
they had.
They had an early Victor.
It was like a 16 with a door inthe back that opens up.
And I said, oh, this is a niceVictor, three spring motor.
It's a real nice machine, Isaid, but it has a door in the
back.
I said it's against the wall.
If the house gets robbed,nobody's going to walk out the
house with a big trollop, unlessthey're really strong.

(25:00):
I said you can just open thatdoor and put jewelry or money in
there.
And the lady's sitting there,these two people are like in
their 80s and she goes yeah,I've been putting money back
there for a long time, savingmoney for a long time.
And these people are like in amobile home.
And then the husband goesyou're putting money back there.
And she goes yeah, he says soam I.
So we turned around and therewas like tons of cash in the

(25:26):
back of the snake.
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
Joe and I have bought a couple of junkers just in
hopes that there's money inthere One of these days we're
going to find one with the stashof cash in there, but we
haven't found it yet.
But you find these ones even inantique stores.
You just got to look.
Make sure there's nothinghidden back there.
We found one with the originalstuffing shipping stuffing in
there and I was so excitedbecause I thought, for sure

(25:50):
there's something under there.
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
I bought a I think it was a Victor V a while back and
I opened it up and you neversee these, the little wooden
piece that fit under the motorfor support when they ship was
still in there.
Wow, that's pretty impressiveyeah.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
The best thing I ever found in a machine was an
uncirculated 1914 penny.
That was about it.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Any of you guys know Burt Paisley.
He's out of California.
Heard the name.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, I was over at his house, marina Del Rey, once,
and on a shelf in his house hehad these flapper silk nylons
with a line up the back and I'mgoing, oh okay, he pulls them
out and he goes yeah, I had themcleaned.
And he points over to hiscredenza and he goes, yeah, when

(26:57):
I took my, my credenza apart,those were inside the credenza
from 1920 animal droppings I did, though I got a machine in.
today I got a victor of 420.
I have to do total ground upthing on and we're pulling it
apart because I got to strip itdown and refinish it.

(27:19):
And Cheryl found a letter themachine's from El Paso Texas and
there was a letter inside,mailed from Mexico to El Paso
Texas, with a nice little10-cent Mexican stamp.
It's on video already and itwas oh, my dear sister, I'm
feeling better.

(27:39):
Yada, yada, yada.
It's all in Spanish.
You can see it in the video,but the handwriting is
unbelievable.
The cursive writing is justfabulous looking.
I have to give that to mycustomer.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
I had a friend that bought a captain's desk from an
old sailing ship and it spent afortune sailing ship and when
they spent a fortune of moneyand when they got it home they
were cleaning it out and theyopened the drawer and stuck in
the back drawer was a stamp andthey took the stamp out and it
turned out that the stamp was anoriginal handwritten stamp by
the United States Post Office.

(28:15):
Oh my gosh, and it was worth amillion dollars.
So things like that happen.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Just not to us.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Obviously.
That's why we're doing podcast.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
My camera associate producer gets mad.
Yeah, he goes.
Brett, if I don't understandwhat you just said, nobody out
there in YouTube land is goingto understand what you said.
You need to dumb this down.
So I understand and everybodyelse understands, and sometimes

(28:50):
we have three or four.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
So what?
I have great editing software,so I edit things.
I I had somebody on once awhile ago and we were talking
and I make and sell CBD and Ihad somebody on and I couldn't
understand anything they saidabout explaining it.
I literally took it apartsentence by sentence and pieced
it back together so it madesense.
It's easy to do if you know how.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
I don't write a script on the videos how people
set all this stuff up.
I just want to come in three orfour minutes and I want to be
out and I just do it off the topof my head what I'm doing, but
it's in little segments.
Like I'm doing a Columbiamachine right now I have the
whole run of the Columbiamachine.
This is the Columbiafour-spring motor.

(29:38):
Okay, let's start taking thisthing apart and I show you how
to take it apart and then how toput it back together and how to
grease it.
I do a whole string of videosnow on things you can do it
anywhere in the world.
I do it chemically andeverything else on how you can
do it, like in India or Brazilor South Korea or any place.

(30:01):
And I have FaceTime a fewpeople.
I FaceTimed a guy in Brazilonce and he had an idea.
They speak Portuguese, he has afriend of his who speaks
English and we're doingtranslation over FaceTime.
Okay, this is how you fix it tomake it work.
I've done a lot of that.
I do all that for free.

(30:22):
I get no money off youtubebecause it's all for free and
I've done a lot.
I just did a guy in switzerland.
I think I helped him.
He had a.
He had a problem with themachine.
I said, okay, this ain't set.
You send me a picture and thenI can tell you how to do it.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
I.
I think that's what'simpressive about all the videos
and everything you guys do isthat it's dedication to the
hobby, to make it live forever,to give people, um, whether you
don't know and we talked aboutthis the other day a little bit
is that and and the three of ushave talked there are four of us
have talked about it too is totry to make this available to

(30:55):
others who don't want to be, whoare on the outside and don't
really know.
They know you crank it up andyou put a cylinder on, but they
don't know if it's a blackcylinder or a blue cylinder or
what difference is or what thereproducers are, and they have a
lot of simple questions andsome people just don't want to
help others, as a matter of fact, criticize people for asking

(31:17):
basic questions.
I won't say stupid questions,but basic questions, and I think
that's important that we all dothat.
I don't know much.
There are a few things I know.
I know the difference between aC reproducer and an H
reproducer.
I know the difference between adiamond and a sapphire.
I know the difference of thingslike that.
So there are things to say andwe all have had problems and

(31:39):
figured them out or had somebodyfigure them out for us, and
that's what's great about yourvideos is that you're constantly
explaining things in a way foranybody, even me, to understand
how you do it.
Whether I can accomplish a task, that's another story, but I
find it interesting just tolearn how it is together, and I

(32:00):
find that the technology ofthese phonographs are so basic
and complex all at the same time.
It's pure genius excuse theexpression, pure genius of how
these things are put together inthe simplest terms, and that's
why they still run.
Of how these things are puttogether in the simplest terms,

(32:21):
and that's why they still run.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, the biggest thing I get is my Victrola.
I'm just using that asnomenclature for all of it.
It doesn't run.
I had a guy email us and he hada D and I go, okay, great, it's
not running.
It's slowing down threequarters of the way in.
I go, okay.
I said it can be a lot ofvariables.

(32:44):
I said the problem with the Dis you've got one little spring
in there.
And the guy goes the guy Ibought it from said they put a
new spring in it.
I'm thinking, yeah, I go, whydon't you crank it all the way
up until the crank gets reallytight?
I get an email back.
Wow, this thing plays.
I go, yeah, I know it plays.

(33:04):
Those little single springmotors you got to especially
like on Vickers, you got tocrank them up.
But that's the biggest thing Iget is the OCD.
I bought it from this guy andhe told me to crank it 15 times
and now it won't play a 78.
And I go, yeah, why don't youcrank it all the way up and
always let it run all the waydown?

Speaker 1 (33:27):
and people put modern records on these things they
put and all kinds of things,even just electrical,
electronically recorded ones.
They're not necessarily, thoughsome play them.
They're not really made forthem and there's many that don't
.
And it's not that they don'trun right, it's just that
they're not made to play thosethings.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yeah, it all comes down to education, with these
having to educate the world.
There are several resources onthe Internet, and I haven't been
to antiquephonoorg, which isthe Antique Phonograph Society
in the United States, but last Iwas told there are supposedly
resources on there for people toaccess so they can learn.

(34:11):
What is my record worth?
What type of record should I beplaying on my machine?
Stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
There are, but I think they're a little dated.
I found them not easy to use.
I didn't find them that.
There are, but I think they'rea little dated.
I found them not easy to use.
I didn't find them that, atleast for me.
I think you learn more fromjust talking to everybody and I
thought, going to Wayne's show,which is the only show I've ever
been at now I've been therethree times that I've learned a
lot from people.
In the beginning people maybenot have been as receptive

(34:37):
because I didn't know what thehell I was talking about.
Maybe people maybe not havebeen as receptive because I
didn't know what the hell I wastalking about.
Maybe I was shy about it.
But as time went on and thistime especially because I was
with these two gentlemen, sothat was a help People talked to
me and I learned a lot more andI negotiated a lot more.
Because you don't really itcomes to a point you don't
really need anything, right.
You see something you want.

(34:59):
You know that there's another,it's not.
If it's something special thatyou know you're not going to see
, you never saw before, you'renot going to see for a while.
But when you average everythinglike I bought a Victor IV, not
the Roman numeral IV, the V,whatever, it is Victrola IV,
yeah, victrola IV.
And it came with a matchingcabinet, and I have one already.

(35:22):
But it didn't have the cabinetand I couldn't buy the cabinet
without buying the machine.
So I dragged my feet anddragged my feet, and dragged my
feet and I got it for half ofwhat he had offered to me when I
was there.
So oh, that was at the WayneShow, that's right, and that's
why now I have one in my officeand one in my house.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Oh good, can't have too many the VV4, it's an
excellent wedding present for ayoung couple.
If you want to just surpriseeveryone there, oh, here you go,
I've got you this.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
I have a hard time with separating myself from a
photograph.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
I may have purchased.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Or, stephen, you did mention the other day that it's
getting close to the time whereyou might consider selling
something there are two onlybecause I'm ready to take the
next step, like I bought.
So I bought my first Triumphand I bought it at auction.
It was rather cheap, except itwas a little bit needed work.
We're lucky enough to knowsomebody who's very good at

(36:32):
Edison, ed Warner.
He loves the project and themore difficult it is, the more
he likes it.
He'll call me five times a dayoh I got this done, oh, this
broke, but I got this.
I got another piece, I put athing and then I had a Fireside
that had a which is anotherEdison model, just so everybody

(36:53):
listening knows and it had thisbeautiful signet wood horn on it
.
And I said, man, I bet you thatwould look pretty good on my
Triumph.
So I brought him that one.
I had him take everything offof it and put the wood horn on
the Triumph, and then I bought aregular black horn that I
haven't put on yet for thefireside.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
This is the psychology of phonographs.
Yeah, I can see it in your eyeswhile you're talking about it.

Speaker 5 (37:23):
He also had to change the carriage configuration for
that other horn.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Because it only had two minute with a C-reproducer
and now has a two and fourminute and has what is it?
The horizontal top with an H.
Is that what's on it?
An H.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
I don't remember, or K, no K, k Would have K, you got
the insert, so it would fit theK.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
So now I have this beautiful thing that I love to
just sit and play.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Triumphs are great.
Two-inch springs, three of them, wind them up.
They run forever.
The only thing is, if you havemore than two springs, people
don't wind them all the way up.
And then when they wind them up, if they have never redone the
spring barrels, then thegraphite and stuff in there that
sticks together and then you'llhear this thump sound On Tri

(38:20):
tri-amp shaft wind them all theway up.
They need to be oiled more thannormal because of that.
The only downfall of a tri-ampthe whole motor is the pop metal
pull.
They're starting to deteriorateright now and usually they're
locking down on the shaft wherethey go between the two parts of
the casting.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
You mean one of these ?

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Oh yeah, Just happen to have one with you, huh I
happen to be atthephonographshopcom.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
I am their guest today.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
I just happened to find this.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
when I came in.
What did you say?
I'm sorry, you're at Brian's,I'm at Brian's.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
Tell Brian, we all say hi, hi, brian Well he's out
in the shop making springs rightnow.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
I would be out there cutting steel with him and
winding him up.
But I saw this little pulleysitting on his table here, so I
figured I'd grab it.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
So make sure he knows he's next on the agenda, okay,
why?

Speaker 3 (39:21):
oh sure, my microphone's, here I'll be right
back.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
You guys talk okay.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Okay, now we can talk about brett now that he's gone.
Okay, so I was.
The thing is so I'm I'mspending the night at Brett's
house.
Okay, I get up in the guestroom.
What'd you say?

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Brett's or Brian's.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Brett, okay, yeah.
So I'm there in the guest roomand then the next morning I wake
up, I look on the wall andthere's this full color photo on
the wall of him in a karaterobe costume.
It's called a gi.
It's called a gi and he is inthe air doing a flying kick.

(40:07):
What did I do?
And I'm like what in?
So I go downstairs, we talkabout it and after a few glasses
of wine because you can't hangout with Brett and just drink
water, a few cups of wine.
He stands up, we're in his denand he's come on, punch me.

(40:32):
I'm like what, no?
Of course not.
I don't want to know and he'scome on, do it.
I do a slow motion punch at him.
It lands on his chest In half asecond.
He had me immobilized.
He is a walking Harder when Iwas 10.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Same time as collecting.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
But it's fascinating.
This is part of the phonographcommunity.
You get to meet differentpeople and you get to learn
about them personally, andthat's one of the things I love
about Brett and Cheryl.
One is the shrimp and gritsthat they make.
I love shrimp and grits oh yeah, and just learning about other
people's lives and, of course,sharing as well.

(41:16):
It's part of the communityaspect of this little hobby of
ours.

Speaker 4 (41:23):
The interesting thing about the fact that you're at
Brian's house is we talked aboutit in the last show.
We used to live what 15 minutesfrom Brian.
He's the first person we met inthe phonograph community when
we bought our first phonographand he told us how to do the
basics and what he was doing tofix our first machine and then

(41:44):
showed us his museum, if youwill, in his house, and at that
point we were hooked becausewe'd never seen a cylinder and
we're just like what is that?
What is that?
And, of course, got bit by thebug.
And then after that, when wewere trying to look at things, I
believe he's the one that toldus about Brett's website.
So we would call Brian aboutstuff and then we would look at
Brett's website and I'm prettysure Joe called you a couple of

(42:06):
times about things way back whenwe started.
And then somehow we got hookedup with Wyatt.
We are collecting and repairingand selling, and doing all that
we do is because the three ofyou shared your knowledge so
willingly that it welcomed uswith open arms, and now we've

(42:29):
made friends and are in thecommunity and meeting new people
.
We haven't met you in personyet, Brett, but we feel like we
know you and Cheryl your angel,if you will.
I believe that's what you callher.
Yeah, Thank you for all you doand make sure you give Brian a
big hug for us and tell him wesaid hello because that's how we
got started.
You need to try a pulley in6061.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
What, oh, you're turning them out of aluminum?
Yeah, they never.
Well, uh, somewhere here thereis a small inventory of pulleys
out of turned aluminum.
I don't know if he knows wherethey are or if they're on his
website, but they're solid.
They don't have the holesdrilled in them or milled into

(43:14):
them, but easy enough to add.
But I'll be.
I'll be looking through partsall day tomorrow, maybe even
later tonight.
I'm so hopped up on coffee I'llprobably be out in the shop
with my headlamp until about1230.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
What do you need?
Parts for something Wyatt?

Speaker 3 (43:31):
It's funny Every time I want to get away from work I
end up driving somewhere that isphonograph related, like last
time I went to Joe and Tracy'sand now here I am.
I drove 11 hours to get downhere to look for parts, and it's
to keep my business running.

(43:52):
I need oddball.
Reproduce your parts.
Springs, clips screws all theselittle things that I don't know
that I'm going to need them, butif I see them and I use my
imagination, I'll be like, yeah,I should probably get that
because someone's going to sendme whatever to work on a
re-producer.

Speaker 5 (44:07):
While you're there, can you find those tiny little
screws?
Hinge blocks.
That plus those tiny littlescrews that hold the Columbia
spring barrel have clamshellstogether.
Those little tiny ones.
You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Yeah, I think the only place we're going to get
those is off of a parts motor.
At this point I don't eventhink Ron had those in stock.
I think he just took them offof parts motors.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
So they're the same as the Grafinole.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
I forget the spring, it's the threading.
I think they're 440.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
Why they ever went to that design I don't know, but
they used number six of them,and you can get away with maybe
missing one or two, but not four, right?
I'll see what I can find.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Another thing that, since this is about Brett, I
don't want to talk about myselfanymore.
I don't want to talk aboutmyself anymore.
What I really loved watchingwhen I was at Brett's house is
that his wife is part of theshow.
I showed up one day and thereshe is polishing this horn very
skillfully in his workshop anddoing an amazing job, and she

(45:14):
seemed to enjoy it.
It's like a thing that couplesdo together and it was really
great synergy.
There's wonderful energy thereand I admire that.
Couples that can I just I didtoo, yeah and joe and tracy are
another example.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
They really you go in the downstairs, you see her
workbench and whatever else goeson and you know that there's a
division of labor there she doesone thing and he does the other
and I do neither.
So it works well for me,because I, I'm just gonna give,
I'm just gonna give this to you.
I'm not even gonna take it home, I'm not gonna look at it, I'm

(45:54):
not gonna see if I can get it torun.
I, I'm not going to do any ofthose things.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
I'm just going to give it to you.
I can't remember if it wasWyatt or Brett who pointed out
that there are so many differenttalents in repairing these
machines, because you havewoodwork, you've got nickel
plating, you've got springmotors, you've got grease,
you've got oil, you've got allsorts of different things.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
It's a multidisciplinary art.

Speaker 5 (46:18):
Yeah, so Tracy and I, as you mentioned, stephen Tracy
works on the reproducers andshe does a fantastic job at them
and I do the other stuff, andwe both clean cabinets and stain
.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Shellac.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
You did a great job, by the way, on my Sonora.
I love that thing.

Speaker 5 (46:35):
That was a fun machine.
It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
I don't know what model is that.
Do you remember I do beautiful.
I don't know what model is that.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
Do you?

Speaker 1 (46:40):
remember.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
I do not.
I forget, it was a tabletop.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
It's a low profile and it's a little bit wider than
the others and I haven't seenit around hardly at all.
Yeah.
But I bought that and the B80that Brett saw the other day
when we were talking and back atme at an auction and strangely
enough, joe had bought somethingat that auction too.
So I was able to go upstate andget it all, pick it all up and

(47:03):
it was like walking back in time.
It was an old barn in thisauction house.
They're all talking.
I I couldn't even.
They had such accents.
You know, in rural new york Icouldn't understand what they
were saying and I pop in mymercedes, a city slicker, and
like you guys, just you know I'mlike I grabbed a kid.
Here's 20 bucks.
Please carry everything out andjust put it in my car.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
I showed up at a country auction once and I
bought this.
They had an Edison standardthere and to further illustrate
how country this place was, Ibought a little graphophone for
$250.
I think I paid $400 for thestandard and I got a round of

(47:48):
applause and as if that's how itis in this little one horse
town.
But I grabbed my stuff, I turnaround and start walking out and
this dude walks after me.
Start walking out and this dudewalks after me and he follows

(48:08):
me out of the tent and I'm at mycar and he yells at me from the
tent he's this, here's myterritory.
Who do you think you are?
You see, this is almost 20years ago and I remember it as
if it was yesterday that'shaunting you a little bit, but.
But when I leave an auction youknow a country auction where I'm

(48:31):
the only guy that buys thephonograph stuff that image,
that mental video, keeps it'srewind and play over and over
again in my mind because it lefta little fear in me and it also
made me self-aware of exactlywhat I was doing and it's have I
offended anyone?
I'm always concerned aboutoffending other people there,

(48:54):
but if you want something a bitmore than me, yeah, so it's also
difficult when you're doingestate sales and estate auctions
.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Right, because it's emotional for some people.
If it's there, if they're doingit and you don't want to offend
and they think something mightbe worth more than it is, you
don't want to offend them bysaying it's not, but to them
it's, the value is different.
Right, it's tough when you goto certain places.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yeah, the stuff is still out there.
Definitely, most definitely.
I have a 78 major collector intown.
He went to a yard sale lastyear.
A buddy of his called and saidthey have 78s.
This is a guy with 200,000 78sand he goes in there it's 50
cents a box and he flips throughit and he comes to a brown

(49:48):
vocalion, ooh, ooh, and he pullsit out and it's Charlie Patton.
Nobody knows that's major money.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Major money.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Like 10 grand.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Is it our job to educate the seller and say oh
yeah, by the way, I just pulledan Edison disc out of your
collection worth $800.
Tell you what, to be fair toyou, why don't I give you $775?
Why don't I give you $7.75?
I've had to deal with it.

(50:21):
I guess it's an education onhow to deal with people when
you're the buyer and they're theseller.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
It was my great-grandfather's.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
I have to say breathe in, breathe out.
I deal in dollars.
I don't deal in sentiment andemotion, just trying to get a
price out of someone.
One of my tricks that was taughtto me almost 20 years ago as
well Everything's 20 years ago,I guess I've been in this a

(50:51):
while Was when someone hassomething that you would like to
purchase, you say how much isit?
And what we usually get I knoweveryone else here has may have
experienced this the seller saysI don't know.

(51:14):
And this is a very dangerousspot because if I know that
after I fix a machine up itcould be 1500 bucks, I obviously
want to get it for 500 or less,and I said whatever price I
give you isn't going to matter.
If you don't have an expectationin your head, why don't we
start here?
You have a number in your headthat will satisfy you.
If I say $2, you're going tosay no immediately, so why don't

(51:34):
you give me the price that isgoing to satisfy you and we'll
start there?
And that about 90% of the timeworks and most of the time it's
a price that's way below whatI'm willing to pay and I'll have
to boost up a little bit,because if they find the crank
to the machine, if the crank'smissing or if they find the

(51:54):
record collection thatoriginally came with it, I want
them to be comfortable knowingthat they can call me when they
find that and not feel like theygot screwed on their family's
antique.
There's a very fine line whenyou're the buyer.
But yeah, at the same time, ifI found a Charlie Patton 78, I
might hey.

(52:14):
They called the price 50 centsa box.
That's what it's worth to them.
They stated that, but obviouslyevery situation is different.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Right now is a great time buying phonographs, because
the prices have just cratered.
This used to be $1,200, and Ispent that back in the day.
I'm on my 50s.
I'm on my sixth credenza.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
I have a cool leather .

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Look at credenzas $350.
I'm going, damn, if I was acollector, starting over just
into this hobby, I'd buy it.
You could get really good dealson these.
Do research, call people or askquestions online about what do
you think this is?
It's like eBay.
People call us or mostly emailus what's this worth?

(53:07):
I'm going to put it on eBay.
I go.
You can put it on eBay for$20,000 and it's going to sit
there forever.
You can sell it for $30.
What you do is you go to eBayand you go, let's say you look
at a Vick 11.
I go go to eBay and there'sthat little thing up there at
the top and you go what havethey sold for and how many

(53:28):
haven't sold at this price?
And you go oh, so this thing isreally worth $200.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
There's this technique when I used to sell
Volkswagens.
I call it the snake.
So you say so, mr Smith, thisVictrola 11 that you have I know
you're asking, you know, $250for it, but on average they sell
for about $100.
I mean, wouldn't you agreethat's a good price?

(53:57):
That's the snake.
They see you nodding in theirhead and you ask open-ended
questions what do you tell you?
What, mr Smith?
How do you feel about sellingit to me for $100?
Because then they have to sitand think in words in their head
instead of.
Will you take $100?
No, because no is easy to say.

(54:18):
There's another thingsalesmanship of the talking
machine Horse trading is what itis.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, it's what it is , but I love it.
I do something different.
I routinely end up with peoplewhose family member love this,
whether it's a husband, whetherit's a father, whatever.
I go on and on about how I'm acollector, not a dealer, and I'm
going to treasure it like theytreasured it and it means a lot
to me and they feel that thistreasured phonograph that was a

(54:57):
part of their family is going tobe in a great home with someone
who's going to treasure it, andthen I always walk away with it
.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
I have friends that go in.
They're choir boys, I call them.
They're major collectors.

Speaker 6 (55:09):
But they go in and say oh, I've never seen anything
like that before.
Oh, I wish I could afford it.
It would look so good in mycollection Next to my VV50 and
my Victor 1.
It would be so perfect there,and I don't know if I have the
money and oh, I can see youreally want it.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Oh gosh, you can have it for $200 or whatever for
some people.
I've seen it all.
I have seen it all oh, some ofthese stores.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
I bought my Beethoven , sonic.
I have both versions.
All oh, some of these stores.
I'll tell you a story.
I bought my Beethoven, yeah,sonic.
I have both versions, schubertand Beethoven and I love
Beethoven.
It holds a gazillion records,yeah, yeah.
So I drive to Alabama to pickthis thing up.
My buddy Howard wanted to go.
Cheryl came, we all drove downin his pickup truck and I got
there.
I paid $350 for the Beethovenyeah, and he had two worker guys

(56:06):
because they were getting ridof grandma's stuff.
So I paid him $20 to throw thatmassive 300-pound thing in the
back.
And then he had some otherparts.
He had the elbows to a VictorHorn outside horn machine the
elbow, and I looked down at him.
A side horn machine the elbow.
And I looked down at him andRon Sitko's old elbows he had

(56:28):
done have two little pinssticking out.
So I'm looking down at theseand he has one that's not the
nickels off of it, it was brass.
And I thought, oh, this is nice, I'll just buff that out and
I'll re-nickel it.
So I set him down, thought, oh,this is nice, I'll just buff
that out and I'll re-nickle it.
So I set it down and he goes.
What?
Do you give?
me, I give you $50.

(56:50):
That's a fair price for it.
He goes hey, you're trying toscrew me.
Talks to the wiper.
This guy just starts going off.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
I hope you had the photograph on the truck already.
I hope you had the photographon the truck already.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
The other story is my buddy, Taylor Sherrill in
Kentucky.
I hope I get this right.
I always get confused withTennessee or something where he
lives.
He texts me and he goes Brett,an Amarillo 1A in your
neighborhood.
So I call this guy, I get onFacebook Marketplace $700.

(57:28):
And I go, okay, hey man, I'llpick it up right now at 7
o'clock at night, let's go, I'llget back to you.
I said, okay, the guy goes dark.
And this guy's a whack-a-doodle.
He goes dark and I say, so whatcan I pick this up?
And they do go dark on you.
So he goes.
He's an estate salesman.

(57:50):
So he's in Anderson, which islike a little over an hour away,
and the lady's house is in thegated community.
I'm like, okay, I'll meet youthere, I'll put in a nap, drive
down, I'll pick this thing up.
There's your money, cash, let'sgo.
So I get there, but with theelectric gates open.
So I pull in and there's aparking place, a parking lot

(58:14):
across from this house by thepool area.
So I parked there and Cheryltexted and said yeah, we're here
in front of the house by thepool, the gate was open.
This guy pulls up the side of mycar.
So I parked here and he pullsin like this, he rolls down the
window and this guy is screamingat me.
It's coming out of his mouthand I'm thinking, okay, I'm

(58:39):
taking a beating for this guy,but you gave me a price $700 on
an A1.
I'm going to take it.
It has both reproducers.
So we're climbing the stairs.
It's upstairs.
My poor angel had to help me dothis.
So we climb upstairs and theguy's screaming at me and the
old lady who's selling off theestate of the house tells this

(59:00):
guy calm down.
I go, okay, Cheryl goes.
What are we going to do?
I says, okay, I got a plasticbag.
We'll pull all the cylinders outof the machine, put them in a
plastic trash bag that's the wayto carry them and I'll pull the
motor.
So I pulled the motor, took itback to the car, got the
cylinders out and I started toroll it to the staircase.
It wouldn't help us.

(59:20):
And I started to roll it to thestaircase it wouldn't help us.
Oh, I have a bad back, youcan't roll it.
So we had to pick this thing upand Cheryl's not that strong.
So I rolled it and we did theass bump down these staircases
Right and I got it to the downand the guy's still screaming,
spit's coming out of his mouth.
And I got to go from the bottomof the staircase to the front
door.

(59:40):
I just pushed it on hard floorsand the guy's screaming at me.
What happened was he had ajukebox and he wanted a jukebox
was like three grand and thenwhen I checked the price, the
jukebox was probably worth $500.
He had his prices split and itwas fun.

(01:00:05):
But my, it was great helphelping me get it down and we
got it into the Prius and drovehome.
But sometimes you have to takethe screaming to get what you
need.
And it was crazy, the guycoming out of the mouth.
I'm up, I'm walking up thestaircase and he's just going.

(01:00:26):
I'm going.
Okay, brett, be calm, don'tyell at anybody.
I'm not really a yeller guyScream, but we got it out the
door.

Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
Tracy and I must be doing something wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Nobody has screamed at us, not yet the first and
only one that ever screamed atme.

Speaker 5 (01:00:43):
Maybe we're paying too much money.
That's why.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
And then Cheryl was going to go.
He sells on FacebookMarketplace.
I'm going to give him a badreview Before we got in the car
and drove out he blocked it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
I saw another Sonora tabletop in Facebook Marketplace
and the guy couldn't sell it orwhatever he said.
So I said no, I'll definitelytake it, but you gotta ship it
to me.
It was up in someplace up bythe adirondacks and I said ship
it to me.
And he's I, I want to find acheap way, cheapest way to ship
it.
And I said he goes, I think Icould do it for 25.
I said I'll give you 50.

(01:01:17):
I don't just pack it up extra,buy whatever, do it the easiest
way.
I don't care, just make sure itgets packed.
So the guy goes dark.
So I'm riding him and I'm likeI guess you're not going to sell
it to me and I'm being politebut a little stern.
Then I found out the guy passedaway.

(01:01:37):
He sold it.
And I felt horrible because Iwas really not nasty yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:01:44):
That's a legit excuse .

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Yeah, well, it's pretty legit and I ended up
getting the one I really likeanyway, which is I like better
than the one he had for sale.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
You always have to be nice when you're going.
There are some a-holes likethis guy screaming at us, but
most of the time I try to bejust like real nice and real
friendly.
Yeah it, I'm trying to be justlike real nice and real friendly
.
Yeah, it's like on thephonograph forums you get on the
forums and there's people inthere that are just yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah.
I'm always going.
You've got to love what you do.
You've got to love what you buy.

(01:02:12):
Enjoy what you want to have asa phonograph and be nice to
people.
Somebody will go in there.
Let's say, buy a Vic-11 andthey'll strip it all down,
they'll refinish it.
But they're stripping it downand refinishing it to what they
like and then you get peoplethat go.
That wasn't all.
Original Made a million Vic-11s, nine hundred and some thousand

(01:02:35):
, probably over a million Peopledon't realize it, like you were
saying.
That's why I was saying, sayingthat's the only Edison they
ever made.
Oh yeah, on an Amarillo 30 theymade millions of these things.
And it's just like when I'm ona farm I got somebody does a
restoration or something or doessome work.

(01:02:56):
oh, man you did a great jobbecause you can always learn
from everybody.
I'm still.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
There was this one, edison, that I did not buy, but
I had to restore it for somebody, actually unrestore it.
It was owned by a doctor whodid all of his own restoration
work and he stripped the cabinetof all of its finish, all of

(01:03:27):
its finish, and then he put on areally thick coat of urethane.
It looked like a bar top, itwas so it looked almost plastic.
And if that wasn't bad enough,on the inside of the cabinet,
the entire inside was alsobrushed with this thick layer of
urethane and so that it wouldfloat in the ocean, because
that's the only reason why Ithink he did this.

(01:03:48):
he took silicone caulk and onthe no, this is not, I'm not
making this up On the inside ofthe cabinet, he put caulk down
all of the seams between theboards so that it was completely
watertight.
They were on a houseboat.
I don't know All of hismachines.

(01:04:09):
He had about 75 machines.
They were all restored likethis and all the nickel was
stripped and redone.
All the felt was ripped off andreplaced.
They all looked over-restored.
They looked like they were madeout of molded plastic.
That's how much urethane theguy put on these, and to get

(01:04:30):
urethane off a cabinet you haveto have a really strong
furniture stripping uh solution.
But I put on three coats ofthis stuff and let it work for
an hour.
It barely touched it it wassomething it maybe was marine
urethane, I don't know, it wasstrong Story of machines.

(01:04:50):
People are going to buy them,as you said, do them up as they
like.
There are several phonographdealers out there now that only
sell things that look shiny,with new nickel and new finish,
and they're perfect and they'repriced accordingly.
And then you have folks like me.
I like them dirty and you cleanthem up and they look original.

(01:05:12):
That's me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
everyone's different I agree yeah, like original
finish, like four, three, I'mgoing to do it.
You guys, take a look at thevideo.
I got spilled paint.
I got finish missing off thetop.
I got a rag door.
Yeah, I'm going to do it.
You guys, take a look at thevideo.
I got spilled paint I gotfinished missing off the top.
I got a door.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to bringit back, but when I do bring him
back, I I try to make it morelooking original.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
It's not going to be there was this british guy that
he I don't even know if any ofhis articles are still on the
internet.
I read almost everything thathe wrote and it wasn't about
antique phonograph restoration,it was about furniture
restoration.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
And this was back when I was learning about
finishes and the one thing thatstuck in my mind he said if
anyone looks at your work, andthey say wow, that's really well
preserved, then you'vesucceeded, yeah you know, the
best thing I ever learned fromanybody in the photograph world

(01:06:09):
was ron devilson and I wasworking on a motor and I'm a
young guy.
You know I'm 30 years oldstarting in this stuff and ron
said your name's on that when itgoes out the garage door.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
And I go and it hit me, I'm going okay.
So in 40 years I've had onecomeback and one no pay.
When they leave the shopthey're going to run.
My philosophy on motors are tryto get one a little better than
it did originally.
Yeah.
Like Victor.
I'm not going to pick on Victor, but I'm going to talk about
Victor.
When they drilled the spindleholes the last of production in

(01:06:48):
the 20s and stuff, the topcasting and then the spindle
shaft goes in the early oneswere real nice Right, they were
reamed out.
The later ones they justdrilled it and popped it.
They're just laminates.
So I try to in the videos I say, okay, we need to fix the burrs
inside and stuff so that runs alittle bit smoother.

(01:07:09):
But the killer is nobody everoils their motors.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
That's the killer.
I got nickel, I did a guy's 10and I prepped my nickel and I
sent it to this industrialplating company here in town.
He does crap for NASA, cia crap,and he nickels it.

(01:07:37):
But when it comes back to me,it's the dull nickel, it's just
gray.
So when I re-nickel like onthis 10 I did there's three
things.
I had to re-nickel Speedcontrol and a couple of screws.
That way you can buff it out tomatch the nickel that's
original.
And the trick is with nickel Iexperiment all the time.

(01:07:59):
Videos, a hundred videos.
Ago I'd tell you to polishnickel out with flint.
Right Now I'll tell you I usefour-hot steel wool and Windex.
I was doing some work and I'malways experimenting.
Seriously, I'm always.
I'm not stuck in the mud.
This is the only way to fix afoamer right.

(01:08:20):
A gazillion ways to fix yourown.
But me I'm thinking okay, howwould I fix this crap in Russia?
How do I polish the nickel out?
They don't have flicks, theydon't have brass, so they don't
have whatever I go okay, let meexperiment.
Put some four-ounce steel wooland spray it with Windex,
started wiping down the tonerand wiped it off with a towel.

(01:08:43):
Damn, this one's really good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
A little cheaper too.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
I'm always experimenting like how can I do
it better?
How can the motor run better?
What I've gone to now is I packa spring barrel.
I like green grease becauseit's a synthetic polymer.
It never hardens, never goesaway, it's good and I think this
is really good.
So back in the old days when Iwas first going out I don't know

(01:09:12):
why I did this I just saidmaybe I can just thin that
grease out just a little bit.
I want the grease to be alittle bit thinner.
So I give it a shot of WD-40,and everything works well.
I've never had a motor bitthinner.
So I give it a shot of WD-40,and everything works well.
I've never had a motor comeback.
So now what I do is I'll packthe barrel and then I'll put a
wee bit of run of WD-40 in thereafter I pack the barrel with

(01:09:35):
green grease.
And I thought I figured this outbecause I make graphite grease.
You have a brass gear to asteel gear, like on a Triumph,
like Edison cylinder players.
How can we protect that brassgear from wearing out against
that steel gear in the Triumph,where it has a lot of power

(01:09:56):
through the spring motor?
So I did research.
I called my niece, who's achemical engineer used to work
for Lockheed.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
Houses Resources.
Come on I have Houses,resources.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Yeah, I go I have a brass gear to a steel gear.
She says, well, I'll talk toyou guys, you know, and we have
the $2,000 we spent on the gearsor something.
No, I go.
How about graphite?
And I was thinking graphite,because that's available
anywhere in the world.

(01:10:27):
So I took graphite and I mixedit into a little tub of green
grease and then it turned intodough-making bread.
I'm thinking, okay, thatthickened it up.
Okay, so I added a little bitof STP and I thinned it out.
And so then I was looking at aspring barrel and it was some of

(01:10:52):
them are bent this way afteryou pull them out, and then some
of them are really bent thisway, and then you have these
marks right down the center ofthe spring.
I go, I think it's going todrag because you'll rebuild a
motor and then you'll get thethump still.
Why did I grease the barrel andI still get this thump that's
sticking on that high spot ofthe spring.
I don't want to have to redo aspring.

(01:11:15):
So, instead of STP, put alittle bit of STP.
Works there every time Smoothsit right up.
The key's not going away and thegreen grease isn't going away
and you're good to go.
And then when the shaft goesthrough the spring barrel, you

(01:11:36):
don't know how to use STPbecause you're never, ever going
to go back to that shaft.
It goes through everything.
You can tell.
If a motor's run hard, you pullthat shaft out, say a Victor.
You pull that thing out, seewhere it marks on that shaft.
You go okay, they ran thisthing, they re-greased it.
Some of them.
You pull out.
Be nice, stp, it never goesaway.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
I love this I'm really better at if you ask me a
question, I can answer it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
The trouble is that we're all interested in
everything that everybody wantsto say.
I'm not quite sure my listenersare, but that's you know, I
don't really care.
Part of it is I have myoriginal listeners and then who
all seem to have loved when wespoke last time, and then
there's a lot of phonographedpeople that listen.

(01:12:26):
I got emails from New Zealandand people that knew Wyatt, a
guy in New Zealand or whatever,and I get them all over.
There's two things going onhere.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
I did buy a new toy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
You did.
What is it?
Nickel-plated triumph.
I will not show any jealousywhatsoever.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
There's a video on it .
When he got it, it was abirthday present, right, and it
is just.
It's mahogany with.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
Mahogany with nickel is just amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
With nickel-plated and it is glorious.
It's like the Super Bowl trophy.
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:13:02):
All of those plated ones.
They came with a little ID tag,the signature tag, with the
umbrella-style Thomas Edisonsignature, and that's what makes
it very special.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
I'll say one thing about buying photographs before
we all disappear, because ifyou're collecting photographs,
sometimes money gets in the way,like the nickel-plated
triumvirate.
Luckily we had the money to buythat.
Yeah, if you're starting out,find out what phonographs they
made Poor people, middle classpeople, and then they made the
Bezos stuff which was customfrom the factory.

(01:13:37):
Yeah, they built crap Like in1917, you could spend $45 to
$1,750 for a Victor phonograph.
You walk in to look at aphonograph and you say, okay,
that's a VTLA with an electricmotor, fairly unique and rare.
Rare doesn't consequent money,but that's very fun.

(01:14:01):
So you've been spending $300for a phonograph.
And now that guy, now this.
You look at this thing and thisguy wants, oh my God, $100.
Yeah, and it's a little old inthere and it's clean.
All you got to do is clean thecabinet.
Okay, I'll gamble on that.
That's what you do, that's whatI've always done.
But I started out with junkersand redid them all.
But I started out with Junkersand redid them all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
It's funny because I like the cheap ones, it's
something I don't know theeveryday ones and I'll post them
and people will say that's notvery collectible.
I'm like it's a part of history, it tells a story about it.
I love it.
The first, I think phonographthree, four and five I bought at

(01:14:44):
the first Wayne show for $150each and I was happy as hell to
get them in my car.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
Yeah, the horn and stuff that phonograph five.
Maybe it was a five.
No, it was a four.
Maybe I was sitting looking atthe marketplace in the morning
with Cheryl and I looked atCheryl and I go do you want to
go to Savannah Georgia today?
No, I go.
Vic Phi Apogony Horn $700.

(01:15:14):
No way she goes.
Oh yeah, let's go Text theseguys 730 more.
Oh yes, phil, I'll be therewith cash.
It's like my.
They made phonograph recordcabinets.
They have.
They made a two drawer, fourdrawer and a six drawer, but you

(01:15:34):
could order a 12 drawer Specialorder.
One.
I'm on Facebook Marketplace thisthing's in Savannah too and I
go hey, honey, you want to go toSavannah today?
$300.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Yeah, yeah, what I'm saying is snooze.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
I agree, I'm always all over it.
I'll be there today.
I'll be there today.
I'll be there in 10 minutes.
That guy sent me a green oakstandard.
He had it.
He goes listen, I don't havethe horn, it's in my office, I
just want to get rid of it.
A hundred bucks.
It was a dentist in Long Island.
I'm like I'm getting in the car, I'm going up.
It was perfect.
I haven't done a thing to it.

(01:16:21):
So I know why it's going tocrap out on us and I thank you,
brett, for all your time, noproblem.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
Anytime.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
You're welcome to be on anytime you want.
I appreciate all your time andtelling the stories, brett, as
well as I appreciate everyoneelse.
I look forward to otherconversations with everyone and
I hope people listen as many tothis podcast as the other one we
did the four of us Tracy.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
I always appreciate you.
Yeah, questions, I'll answerthem All, right, great.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
Anybody want to put your contact info on it?
I did it again.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
You want to know about Fixin' Phonographs?
It's on YouTube.
It's Dyslexic, genius, hurt.
All right, thank you everyone,Everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:17:10):
Thank you for listening.
I appreciate all of you.
I am so addicted to this hobbyI'm like in withdrawal every day
.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
I'll see you all and ask my tip for the day Good
night everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
Thank you all.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
Take care Bye.