Modern additions

The Fradetophone relies in essence on the original construction with the addition of a bare minimum of modern parts. A cartridge, Shure SC35C wired for vertical grooves, mounted on a normal length arm. The arm has to be of the straight type, and the cartridge is aligned in its shell by using the extant slits in a way not intended by its makers.

The arm is moved by the phonograph's original feedscrew, so the arm's own movement is really minimal. It only moves to compensate for the imperfections of the original machine and of any cylinder warped with old age. On the side of the phonograph's original metal framework there is a rest for the arm when not in use.

The original mechanical drive has been supplanted by an electric motor, itself a 1930's vintage DUAL motor built for gramophones. This motor has an efficient speed control by a three-weight governor, speed control being essential for cylinder playback.

From the cartridge the signal is fed either directly to a PC soundcard for processing, or as in the image above, to a Velleman linear preamplifier housed in the phonograph's wooden base. There is also a power amplifier, and on the side of the phonograph we see an 8 ohms loudspeaker output and controls for treble and volume.

Christer Hamp, 1999