Stacks O' Wax, Hot Tracks and Nothin' But the Facts, Ma'am...

A little while back, I picked up this Newcombe portable record player, from the thrift store. It cost me the princely sum of $21.99 (Who sets these prices, anyway?) and would have been cheap at twice the price, as far as I'm concerned.

It has a built-in tube amplifier, and a single 6x9 speaker, for the latest and greatest in monophonic sound. The feet of the unit are spring loaded, to insulate it from vibration, and the Tolex covering is mostly in good shape (a bit of staining on the lid).

Plus, dig that perforated metal speaker grille!

Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers spin away, comforted by the glowing tubes, within.
(Sorry that the picture is a bit blurry. I had to turn off the flash to catch the glow of the tubes.)

I have quite a few old Blues LPs that I bought when I was in high school and college, in my stack, many of them from obscure reissue companies such as Springboard International. It's good to know that I can pick this up on 8-Track, if I want to listen to it as I cruise up and down Main Street, with my girl by my side.

It's amazing how good some albums sound on this rig (though I suspect my Pink Floyd albums will be merely listenable, through one speaker). There's something about the tonal characteristics of a monphonic, tube amp which lends itself well to Juke Joint music.

Plus, there's just something right about the sound of a needle being dropped onto the record, as an intro to the first song on a side. If someone ever writes an app for the iPod to make that needle drop sound before each tune, I'll buy it and download it.

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