“Nothing sounds quite like an ice cream van, and this post on EM411 left me wondering how they work. This is what I found: ‘Early models consisted of a hand tuned Swiss musical movement (like a music box) fitted with a magnetic pick up and the amplifiers used radio-type valves. In 1958 reliable transistors came on to the market and efficient amplifiers were built to work directly of the vehicle’s battery…’”
Link:
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/04/why-do-ice-cream-vans-sound-way-they.html
