Some notes on the Regina music box
Copyright 2006 by Lynn Bilton
SEE ALSO: Purchasing a Music Box, A Brief Tutorial
Note: If you came to this page looking for a Regina music box for sale, please check the listings in the disc music box category.
1. A very brief history
Regina wasn't the only brand of music box, but at least in the United States it was certainly the largest and best known. The company was established in 1892 when Gustav Brachhausen, a founder of the Polyphon company, was sent to the United States to establish a factory. The earliest Reginas were little more than Polyphons disguised in domestic cases, but soon the boxes were equipped with combs and motors fabricated in a Rahway, New Jersey facility. Sales were very strong from around 1895-1903, but changing tastes and the arrival of the talking machine as a competitor for musical entertainment conspired to end the era of the music box. Many music box competitors were out of business by around 1905, although Regina was still manufacturing a few machines as late as 1919. The exquisite sounding short bedplate machines, introduced around 1910, are considered the finest instruments Regina ever made and the pinacle of music box development. Regina shifted production toward a combination phonograph-music box dubbed the Reginaphone, and later segued into the vacuum cleaner business.
2. Disc sizes
Eight inch
Eleven inch
Twelve and quarter inch
Fifteen and a half inch
Twenty and and a half inch
Twenty seven inch.
A 32" disc was cut for a star wheel-activated piano, but this instrument is not technically a music box.
The fifteen and half inch Regina was by far the most popular size; the estimate I've heard is that around 100,000 were sold.
3. Disc interchangeablity
As a rule of thumb, discs won't swap between different brands of music boxes. However, the following size discs will interchange with comparable Polyphon records:
Eight inch
Eleven inch
Fifteen and half inch
4. Assessing condition, in general.
I recommend you read our excellent companion article, Purchasing a Music Box, A Brief Tutorial, by the same distinguished author as these notes. However, human nature being as it is I doubt you are going to read the tutorial, so I am going to distill that article to its very essence. Here it goes:
The projections on your disc snag the star wheels as the disc rotates. The star wheels rotate and pluck the teeth on the comb. The dampers, pesky little fingers attached to a rail below the comb, move in and out of the comb and stop it from vibrating before it is struck. Your case incorporates a sounding board like a fine musical instrument to enhance and enlarge the sound.
5.Assessing condition, specifically Regina
I again recommend you read our excellent companion article, Purchasing a Music Box, A Brief Tutorial, by the same distinguished author as these notes. The following are some condition/repair issues relating specifically to the Regina music box.
a. Laterally activated dampers. The stalk of each damper is tensioned against the side of the star wheel. As the star wheel turns it brushes against a little dimple on the stalk and pushes the damper away from the comb. Ergo, if the dimples are worn the dampers don't work. The correct solution is to solder a new damper onto the rail, an experience that can be likened to do-it-yourself open heart surgery.
b. Syncing the comb(s). The star wheel gantry is held down by three screws on the underside of the bedplate. The gantry contains soft solder, and over time the screws can loosen and the gantry can slide. You can hear this on a double comb machine by turning a star wheel at the bass, treble, and middle sections of the comb. What you should hear is one PING. If you hear PING-PING then your combs are out of sync.
6. Motors, early and late
Regina motors were in general not trouble-prone. Early Polyphon type motors usually appear in a short case and employ a brass spring barrel. You can identify these by the start-stop switch, which is engaged back and forth rather than side to side. Later, more robust motors used a cast spring barrel. The only issue with early machines that I'd warn you about, and which you are not likely to encounter, is this: there is a very, very early version of the Regina that used felt-and-brass damper fingers. You can distinguish these machine, which again you are not likely to see, by looking for a decorated tin damper cover which will completely obscure the comb. I recommend that you do not purchase a machine with this type of damper assembly.
7. Parts
Permit me to repeat that almost all parts for an antique music box must be hand made. This is particularly true of the comb; as the musical zoologists like to repeat, there is no such animal as a new comb. The few parts for the Regina that it may be possible to order include loose dampers, dishing wheels, star wheels, or tensioners for your pressure bar. Try Nancy Fratti for parts.
8. The Regina Lady
The slightly overweight classical lady depicted in the lid picture of many Regina models is the Muse of Music.
