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Two Geemarc "Mayfair" telephones - GPO 746 replicas...

Started by twocvbloke, March 30, 2014, 04:56:39 PM

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twocvbloke

I dunno, you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once, just like the buses round here... ::)

I was only intending on buying one, the Ivory, but, I found the Black one going too just before the Ivory ended, and forgot I'd put a sniper to work on the Ivory, so I won both... ;D

Anyway, the Black one, £9.99 plus £5 p&p:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380870106462

Looks in reasonable condition, apparently has a faulty dial as pushing buttons does nothing, probably just the MF/LD switch in the wrong position, or some failed "eco friendly" tin solder that's given up that needs treating with Lead solder, but it's something to play with at least... :)

And the Ivory one, £4.43 plus £6.95 p&p:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161259528135

Cheaper than the black one, and is apparently NIB, so no need to fix, though I will examine it internally to see if the dial issue that the Black has is a common fault, assuming it is faulty, or not... :)

Ever since Owain got a Direct Line phone (Geemarc Park Lane (GPO 782 replica) with wheels), I've wanted one myself to play with the Cortelco style ringer inside, mostly to see if I could fit a genuine C4A ringer (or a 2-wire version, if I can get one or two!!) inside, but since the Direct Line phones are few & far between and the last one I tried to buy was sold by a scammer, these Mayfairs will do for now to satisfy the curiosity... ;D

Anyway, obligatory pictures time:

twocvbloke

These arrived today at last, the black one has the Cortelco-style ringer (and sounds rubbish), the dial's definitely dead, no signs of life there (might have been a lightning survivor of sorts), but it's a reasonable copy, the handset is very much like the original No. 3, even having screw-on caps, internally it's too different to fit with traditional hardware, but, that aside, it feels "right", even the cable looks and feels good for something made in the far east... :)

The cream one though, yeugh, they may look alike, but, jeez, they've cheapened it over the years, for one, the ringer is not the same, it's one of them cheap single-gong things with the slit in it that sounds like junk, the general feel of it is rather flimsy, and they changed the handset design to something terrible, it looks vaguely like a No. 3, but there's too many sharp lines, the handle is much thicker, the transmitter cup seems to be slanted around the rim, and the whole thing is one of those two-piece affairs clipped together and held in the middle by two screws, and being thinner plastic, it's flimsy and lightweight, all in all it reminds me of that ProTelX pretend-500, cheap, lightweight, sounds awful and built to a budget of 1p... ???

I'll get some pics up later, right now I have to deal with the local council about the bin men who are too lazy to empty our bins...

dsk

You did a good buy compered to this: http://tinyurl.com/q5cnt6n  £989.99  ;D
Yes it looks like a good copy, and the dial hiding * and# in center are smart.
If it had a rotary dial I could have been fooled to guess for an original one.
When it eve feels right in the hand, I understand its more expensive tan other replicas.
Looks like most of them are priced to £30.

dsk


twocvbloke

Yeah, I saw that £989.99 one, I'd like whatever medication they're taking for such optimism... ;D

Just fiddling with the black one, and I think it's DTMF chip has blown, cos it's not doing anything at all, I think it suffered a cas of one point twenty one gigawatts, which would make even Doc Brown run away... :o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5cYgRnfFDA

Just a shame the chip is soldered in place, though it seems to be a black blob on a small PCB suck into the holes where a DTMF chip would go... ???

Need to go through the pics now to resize them for upload... :)

twocvbloke

I keep distracting myself from the pictures, been trying to figure out the black phone's DTMF chip wiring, and as to whether or not I could whip it out and drop in a new one, but it seems the design's not universal, though the ivory one is a perfect match, so I'm pondering the idea of stealing that one (cos I don't like the phone!!) and fitting it in the Black... ;D

Anyway, pictures, before I forget... ::)

The Black first:

twocvbloke

More black ones, with the last two being the two phones together with handset comparison:

twocvbloke

And the ivory one:

Matilo Telephones

Very interesting. I wondered about these. There is a whole series of classics, all from the same manufacterer I assume.

302, 500, Trimphone.
Groeten,

Arwin

Check out my telephone website: http://www.matilo.eu/?lang=en

And I am on facebook too: www.facebook.com/matilosvintagetelephones

twocvbloke

Quote from: Matilo Telephones on April 03, 2014, 07:06:08 PM
Very interesting. I wondered about these. There is a whole series of classics, all from the same manufacterer I assume.

302, 500, Trimphone.

Geemarc only seem to have made the Trimphone, the 746, the 782, and the Directline 782 on wheels, the rest I think are made for various brands, including Steepletone, ProTelX, Crosley and many others, they usually have the US copies such as 500s and 302s and 354 wallphones... :)

Mr. Bones

Interesting phones, mate!

     Thanks for sharing!

Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus

twocvbloke

Thank, I've not decided how to proceed with the black one, cos I would actually like to get that working, the other one I don't fancy keeping, but taking it's DTMF generator seems a waste, even if it's a cheap toy phone... ;D

twocvbloke

One year on, I've performed an intestinal transplant between Ivory and Black, I decided that the ivory just annoys me too much (flimsy, poor quality, horrible to operate, etc.), so it has donated it's innards (pretty much everything bar the ringer and the line & handset sockets!!) and the black one now works perfectly, even with that dodgy cortelco-esque ringer... ;D