More Dansettes

Another of the Dansette style record players I've had in various states of disrepair!

This example came from the antiques and collectables warehouse, Bygone Times near Chorley in Lancashire.

It looked good but when I tried to move the switches they immediately came away in my hand. They had been broken and "fixed" with a weak glue that was not strong enough to stand the pressure required to turn the switches. I had to replace them with the knobs you see here, being unable to find anything that resembled the originals.

For a while the record player worked quite well though. Eventually however, this didn't last long as the electrics were shot. The amplifier went, then the belt drive and in the end I scrapped it and went looking for another! Which I'm sure will turn up in an entry before all that long!

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Magnavox Dansette Deluxe!

I lost an Ebay auction for a Garrard record deck earlier today so thought to cheer myself up by crawling up into the attic and finding one of my record players out to play with.

The Magnavox is a deluxe type of Dansette, with a second speaker in the detachable lid and a stereo cartridge. Unfortunately it refused to play at either 33.3 or 45rpm but the 78rpm speed is working ok so at a guess either a belt has snapped or is slipping.

Anyway I dug out a few rock and roll 78s and spent a few minutes chasing the Ebay blues away!

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Dansette Destroyed by Cat

It is with sadness that I have to report the demise of this wonderful Regentone HandyGram record player.

It lived in a small suitcase-like container and played both 78s and 45s with equal wobble. This was due to wear on the bearing upon which the turntable rested and so it was possible to tilt the playing surface a little bit and just about impossible to get it to sit exactly flat. Anyway all that is of little moment now as in mid-record (Max Bygraves' Tulips From Amsterdam in case you're interested) one of the cats thought it would be a good idea to jump on top of the record.

Interestingly the motor coped with this quite well, however in turn this meant that the cat suddenly started to spin at 78rpm and he had a mild panic, crashing into the playing arm and managing to snap it completely off by breaking the Bakelite plastic. Max seemed to escape with relatively little damage other than a little excitement at being played in four separate grooves at once by curved claws... (Yes I know there's only one groove...) Ho hum, Dansette much missed, consigned to the tip...

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Record Player or Steel Cutter

The early record players were almost as brutish as the old-fashioned wind-up gramaphones.

Just look at the playing head of this record player. Put the needle on your finger and you have to be brave to let go with your other hand on the playing head! These players wore out records in no time.

They turn up fairly regularly and almost every antiques shop will have one. The problem for collectors is that these, like the first radios, are not so much a piece of sound equipment as a piece of furniture!

You would have to have a mansion to house a collection of these. I'll stick to Dansettes!

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Young Pops!

Hey, groovy, Man!

I love playing vinyl and have a saddening and somewhat scary ability to splash out on old decrepit record players so when I came across this old album cover on Flickr I sort of empathised with it straight away.

Although this couple do seem to have several day's worth of records stacked around them totally devoid of covers and protective sleeves... Probably not the best way to keep them in pristine condition!

Come to think of it if any girlfriend of mine had grasped a handful of records and ground them together I'd have done my nut... And what is she wearing for Pete's Sake - is that a travelling rug she's wrapped round her to cover her knees?

My Dansettes are currently up in the attic, as we had a bit of a space crisis at the Burke household. Not a space crisis as in Buck Rogers racing around the living room firing ray gun blasts but more of an ultimatum from Fran that she needed to see a minimum square footage of carpet in the spare room.

Question: how can it be spare if it's full to the brim???

I must get them down and have a play sometime soon...

Dansettes

I have to admit to being a terrible hoarder. There are all sorts of collections strewn about the house.

I bought a jukebox because I had a load of records I never played and then, having got a jukebox, I went out and bought a load more records... Anyway, I thought it was time to get some reader feedback going here! I'm looking for memories of Dansettes - record players that you could sit on the floor with, perhaps cuddled up to someone or perhaps on your own, playing your favourite 45s or maybe even 78s!

What sort of Dansette did you have? What sort of music did you play? When you wanted to have fun, when you were feeling sad, lonely, rebellious? Email me with your memories or simply add them as feedback on this article. Feedback entries have to be approved by me before they appear - so links to inappropriate websites and to businesses unless relevant will not be approved!

To get in the mood take a look at the web site of this collector who has 150 Dansettes!

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