1930 RCA VICTOR Orthophonic Portable VV 2-65 LEO REISMAN Body and Soul

[fromthesidelines]

The first selection is a rare "alternate take", that ultimately had 19 takes recorded between July and October 1930. Only two were issued- one, recorded on September 19, 1930, featured Frank Luther as vocalist...and THIS one {a later issue of 22537}, featuring a slightly different arrangement and lyrics, recorded that October 10th, with Frances Maddux as vocalist. The second was recorded on September 3, 1930, with Frank Luther as vocalist (and one of my personal favorites).

[MrXnews2]

Wasn't there one more RCA portable from 1939-40 that was beige, with an angled crank and "RCA" on the record holder?

[sanfranphono]

@MrXnews2 Hello the 2-65 came in all kinds of color variations. Burgundy, dark green, with gun metal hardware, recently I even saw a green one with cream colored motorboard.

As to your questions, yes there are late RCA portables, however, they are cheap generics, just with the RCA logo. They are pretty crude: die cast tone arms with no ball bearings and a rather ugly soundbox. Not recommended.

[MrXnews2]

@sanfranphono Thanks. The RCA model I was referring to was one on the "moldyapples" channel, in "One Cigarette for Two". Yes, it does seem cruddy in comparison to these nice Victors (at least these were contracted out to a decent company, whereas Edison portables weren't the best...)

[DIYPhonophile]

Such rich sound!

[avnostlga]

@Sanfranphono I have the tray with my 2-65. Very nice to have but is mediocre to transport records. Thank you for disassembling the sound box in your video. My 2-65 came with an RCA sound box. Clearly someones bad idea after production. Having finally secured the correct Orthophonic modified sound box, the performance of the victrola is impressive. I must have lucked out, as my Orthophonic is in remarkable shape, with even the rubber being pliable. The bearings look a little crusty though.

[sanfranphono]

@avnostlga would like to see some pictures. Can you shoot me a message through youtube? I wonder if the tray was original or an accessory. There's very little published info on the 2-65. The RCA Soundbox with the copper mesh is correct (not the late one that is chrome plated). Have someone look after the ball bearings, they really need to be worked on.Yeah, it sounds great doesn't it. You are lucky that you don't have split seams etc. Usually all these late Victors suffer from fabric problems.

[avnostlga]

@sanfranphono I sent you a message. In Re the tray: It is also gold plated, and the felt bumpers match the felt inside the sound box. I would be willing to bet that is was original to the victrola. If not, definitely made by Victor for the 2-65 since it has no record carrier.

[sanfranphono]

@ericalbany apparently they made a tray that sits on the spindle to carry the records. I have seen only one 2-65 that had it.

Cheers

[ericalbany]

@sanfranphono

The tray is nice enough for me to consider making a substitute. I can't get the automatic start to function on mine - when I got it the entire unit had seized up and I had a long slow process of removing the rust and corrosion. I have only one complaint about the machine's design- to do even the least amount of adjustment you have to remove lots of screws.

[sanfranphono]

@ericalbany No, I don't agree with that - to get to the brake you just remove the turntable. The brake itself is adjustable and a little bit fiddly for the auto start, but not too difficult. Sorry, comparing this with other portables, it's a pretty standard machine, simpler than the columbias.

[ericalbany]

@sanfranphono

Sorry, what I meant to say was to get at the MOTOR you have to remove a lot of screws,

[sanfranphono]

@ericalbany Hey compared to the 2-55 it has three times the number of small fiddly screws when you take the motorboard off. I think it's all a matter of degrees.

Keep on with the good work!

[transformingArt]

It seems that you are using the similar technique I use for transferring the sound from my HMV 102 - what kind of microphone do you use? And you should know that using 44100kHz option would allow you to get the best results.

[sanfranphono]

@transformingArt I'm using a BLUE Snowball USB Condensor Mike. Decent.

I don't think with the wav file being noodled twice through MPEG compressors (one time in the video editing program, and once more at Youtube) it will make much of a difference. Youtube always sounds different from the original file.

Best