The 424A record player was the first of Philip’s disc-jockey range and came out in April 1953 just when the vinyl boom was beginning to take off. At an affordable 11 guineas it was a very versatile small record deck offering 3 speeds (78, 45 & 33 rpm) and could be used at multiple voltages. The ‘disc jockey’ name would be well used by Philips into the 1960s for several of their subsequent machines and the’ disc jockey major’ in particular would sell extremely well in the UK. However the original 424a was clearly not very popular so today appears to be quite rare (even the radio-museum archive only has a period photo of this rather than an actual example). This machine requires an external speaker and amplifier to work which was probably quite annoying for the owner, so the future disc jockey’s were offered with a everything built into the case which maybe explains their popularity.
This great example came from an elderly gentleman who used to have an audio shop back in the 1950s and from the accompanying literature was clearly sent over by Philips head office as a shop demonstration piece. It is therefore a very early example of this machine and comes in wonderfully complete and original condition. Indeed, it looks as though it was probably used a few times then packed away and forgotten about for nearly 65 years.
I have plugged this in and it seems to be working ok, although everything is naturally very dry. I would recommend the new owner gives it a proper service before use. The head contained an unusual double stylus pick up but one of the stylus’ on this machine appears to be missing. There was also some corrosion to the external metal hinges which has been cleaned off as best as possible.
