Bush 1960 Record Player

[Tony Moore]

Hi All,

I went on a trip down memory lane at the weekend. Braved the ladder to climb into the loft at my Mum's house and located my late Sister's old Bush record player! (I knew it was there, having stored it away around 20 years ago!)

I had thought it would be ruined but no, it seems to be in actually very good shape. Would it still work? I had my doubts. To make sure nothing would immediately pop I opened it up to see if I could determine the state of the components. It's in wonderful condition, a bit of fluff but other than that looking good. Three valves, only two caps that I can see, probably both paper in oil. ()

Anyway, I turned it on! It works! Turntable is a little rumbly (It needs lubing and I must check out the bearings and idler wheel) but it still works after all these years. Wow, they knew how to build them in those days! It sounds really quite nice too. It's an old Bush from around 1960, mono but with a stereo compatible cartridge.

I've done some Googling on them but I can't find any of the same model as this. Most seem to be the newer squarer boxy shape, this one is two tone grey with rounded corners. I wonder if it's worth selling? It would require a refurb for good measure just to ensure that the bearing doesn't get wrecked or the caps explode.

I have a lot of good memories of listening to my Sis playing music on it all during growing up so it's got some sentimental value but where to store it? Stick it back in the loft for another 20 years?

Some pics:







ps. Just found out it's a 1961 model. Same as me!

[Marco]

Very nice, Tony - a veritable classic!

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Looks in great nick Tony,sure it must be worth a good bit.I reckon there's a lot of people who collect such things.

[alb]

I think the value depends mostly on the rarity.
I put a Dansette on Ebay a while back, but despite being in very good nick it didn't reach a very modest reserve. Probably it was a fairly common model.
Good luck.

[Beechwoods]

Tony, have you tried asking about this over on the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - there is a very knowledgeable bunch over there and despite the name it caters well for old tape recorders and turntables. Someone is bound to know more about your machine.

[Tony Moore]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for that link, I'll give that a try and see what happens.

Cheers,
Tony

[DSJR]

None of you are old enough, but at Junior school we had a "Goodsell" record player which sat on a speaker cabinet on castors (10" or 12" full range driver). The finish was in a birch or similar and the turntable as a black (or plain-chocolate brown) Garrard TA2 like the one in this record player. All that country dancing we did to the sounds emanating from this record player

Mind you, when we had a term in the "Temperance Hall" back in 1964, we actually used a wind up gramophone playing 78's.......

P.S. These days, country dancing is for girls only and my knees are giving out - Stannah Stair-lift here we come... (all those Isobariks I carried upstairs on my own years ago )

[The Grand Wazoo]

It's an old Bush from around 1960, mono but with a stereo compatible cartridge

Am I the first to say "I had one of those!" ???