Thursday, August 20, 2015

Longines Symphonette Turntable

My neighbor, knowing I'm a garage sale fanatic, approached me about a month ago looking for a turntable for his teenage daughter.  I didn't have anything, but told him I'd keep an eye out.  It was only a few weeks before I came across this Longines Symphonette turntable at an estate sale.  They wanted $15 for it, but the volume was spotty.  I knew it was most likely just a dirty potentiometer and easily fixed, but I played it up for a $5 discount.  A little squirt of DeoxIt and it worked great.

It's a neat little system, but certainly not state of the art, even for the late 1960's when it came out. This would have been your basic teenage starter system which fit in perfectly for the scenario I was filling.  It's strictly a turntable, no built-in tuner. It was cool looking enough to make me second guess giving it away, but in the end I did and my neighbor's daughter was ecstatic.






The speakers are metal with a faux wood finish and sparkle grill covers.


Longines Symphonette was known to me only by their record album compilations. You see a lot of those at estate sales. I don't believe they were related to the watch company of the same name.



***Update***
Since writing this post, I came across an ad in a 1970 TV Guide that explains the connection of this turntable to the Longines album compilation.

8 comments:

  1. It's beautiful, and it was cool of you to give it to your neighbor's daughter. That's the kind of gift that is not forgotten.

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  2. What a Beaut and a heck of a gift! And for that low of a price, you totally scored. Sheh...good luck finding ANYthing like that out here in L.A. for a price like that. Man! Oh wow, look...2W2N, my neighbor! =D

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  3. R u interested in purchasing one. I have one too.

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    1. Thanks, Maya, but I'm up to my neck in turntables around here.

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  4. This is the exact turntable I used as a kid. I wore out my Lynn Anderson records and Patsy Cline....

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    1. Thanks for dropping by, Terry. Did you get it for subscribing to a record club?

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  5. Just came across this..hopefully will get a response. Little more info on your Deoxlt fix. Audio is a bit spotty, in and out, on mine but it seems like it could be the wiring. It's been just sitting in mom's house for about 35 years. - Thanks

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    1. Hi Dm. When you say the audio is spotty, does it change if you flick on the volume control knob? Typically, that's an indicator of a dirty rheostat which deoxit will fix. If the sound comes and goes with no effect when adjusting the volume knob, then it might be something else.

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