"Summit Ridge Drive" - Artie Shaw & His Gramercy Five; 1954 RCA 45-EY-2 Phonograph

"Summit Ridge Drive", performed by Artie Shaw & His Gramercy Five. RCA released this 45 record around 1950. Johnny Guarnieri solos on harpsichord (quite fun and interesting to hear a harpsichord featured in a jazz esemble) and Billy Butterfield solos on trumpet. This session was recorded in 1940. This 45 rpm record was released by RCA around 1950.

RCA publicly released the 45 rpm phonograph and record in 1949 (RCA made reference to the project as "Madame X" during its development). The RCA Victor phonograph Model 45-EY-2 shown here, began production in 1950 and continued through 1954. It underwent a minor facelift in 1955 with the model number changed to Model 6-EY-1.

I found this little 45-EY-2 RCA Victor phonograph in an antique store in Trussville, AL ready for a full rebuild and restoration. I connectorized the chassis so that all the wires can be easily disconnected whenever the chassis is serviced; I replaced all 3 tubes in the 50 watt amplifier, replaced all capacitors and several resistors; I stabilized the fragile 3 x 5 paper cone speaker with a water based poly-acrylic spray, replaced all rubber idler wheels (deteriorated, which is pretty normal for the rubber in a phonograph of this vintage); disassembled the motor, cleaned, relubricated and installed new rubber motor mounts; disassembled the chassis & changer, cleaned and relubricated & adjusted the changer; installed new wiring for the tonearm and replaced the original salt-crystal Astatic cartridge with a modern Sharp 146 light-tracking ceramic stereo cartridge (wired for mono) from Willie Bosco (with diamond needle and custom aluminum cradle).

The cabinet and the platter table have both been stripped and refinished. The platter table also has about 6 coats of clear gloss lacquer on it over new paint which matches the original color. The Bakelite case had a corner missing, with the 4 cracked corner pieces to it rattling around inside the cabinet. I was fortunate to piece the corner back together using mini steel dowels, steel filled epoxy, body filler and glaze, with the final filler & finish wet sanded using 1000 grit paper. Dark brown lacquer was applied to the cabinet as a base coat, walnut tinted translucent toning lacquer was then applied and about 12 coats of clear gloss lacquer (wet sanded between coats), then polished and waxed. All other plastic on the phonograph was also cleaned, polished and waxed.

Enjoy!