EXPERT Handmade Gramophones
EXPERT: Ahead of the crowd
EXPERT Handmade Gramophones was founded in June 1930, by Ellis Michael Ginn.
Just a few months earlier, Michael Ginn had lost control of his namesake company, EMG Handmade Gramophones. He sold his house and moved back in with his in-laws in Highgate, London.
In direct retaliation and with his usual gusto, he started up EXPERT, opening with a new showroom at 55 Rathbone Place, just off Oxford Street.
David Phillips, his brother-in-law, joined him and together they set about designing and handmaking one of the most renowned acoustic gramophones ever built: the EXPERT Senior. Ginn's ego demanded the best and with The Senior, he set the benchmark very high - with only the VICTOR / HMV Orthophonic Range and the later EMG Xb Oversize gramophone, coming even close.
The Second World War years were tough on EXPERT. Ginn returned to the army and later the navy, while Phillips took on the daunting role of 'Incident warden'. Ginn's son Joe, who had started to help out in the business, went to the RAF. Even after the War, EXPERT struggled to survive and it took several years for them to get back on their feet.
David Phillips started to design new amplifiers, while Joe Ginn was given the task of repairing pick-ups and also designed the excellent EXPERT thorn sharpener. The final incarnation of the acoustic EXPERT Senior was launched in 1947.
Through the early 1950s, EXPERT started to look healthier. The company's electrical reproduction range, conceived by David Phillips, took on a life of its own. Surviving EXPERT catalogues show a vast range of amplifiers, tuners and speakers on offer. Phillips was always trying to stay ahead of the crowd, producing excellent quality Hi-Fi components which were sold individually and fine-tuned in custom made radiograms. Not many of these bulky radiograms survive, as they have more often than not been cannibalised for their valuable and highly sought after innards.
Even with the high quality of products and rave reviews, EXPERT were losing ground trying to compete with the growing array of companies now mass producing electrical gramophones and radios.