Standard Talking Machine Model AA Gramophone Phonograph

Here we have my standard talking machine model AA, which I purchased from a dealer at the National Vintage Communications Fair in the Birmingham NEC about 30 years ago at least. This was sold originally to me as a Columbia AU, but I noted that the centre spindle had been milled down to accept a normal sized record. Not knowing much in those days and well before the Internet this I thought was a nice machine which it was. With a bit of digging I confirmed that this was not a Columbia AU but a Standard Talking Machine AA, as the Centre spindle had been modified.

I was able to have a new centre spindle boss manufactured to the original spec, which is removable, so you can play both types of record, and I also noted that there was no etching or inscription on the reproducer, which again pointed to a Standard Talking Machine AA rather than a Columbia AU.

The base plate had obviously been repainted and re-finished by the dealer, (probably very rusty) and as there was no gold lining or manufacturers logo I assumed that this was because it was a Standard Machine rather than a Columbia. In fact it should have gold lining and logo

A couple of years ago I discovered that it had the wrong winding crank, this was when I acquired a Columbia top wind AJ Graphophone without the correct crank. Unbelievably I found that the crank that I needed for the AJ was actually on my AA! So I was very fortunate to be able to track down and acquire the original correct winding crank from the United States for the AA. What a piece of luck!

Recently thanks to Facebook groups and the Internet I found how the baseplate should actually look and thanks to Facebook I got in touch with very nice gentleman at phonodecal.com in the United States who supplies really good quality replacement waterslide transfers.

On the basis that I have never applied one of these transfers I decided just to get the logo and do the lining by hand and what you see now is the finished article, which I am very pleased with indeed.

Finally, after all these years, the machine is brought back to its original spec. You can see one of my uploads of this machine pre-baseplate restoration. It’s had a right old chequered history, but at last everything is looking great.

It’s playing an original Standard Talking Machine record. These came in two varieties. This is the 7 inch variety, for bigger record you need to take the winding crank off as it doesn’t clear the record. A rather interesting design quirk but I’d correct to spec. Thanks again to phonodecal.com. I hope you all like the clip and that this is of interest. Please like share and subscribe to see my other clips as and when they’re uploaded.