I have a couple of Bakelite phones myself (and just one Touch-Tone for checking voicemail) and really enjoy them. Picked them up at garage sales and antique shops. Then had them re-wired and/or fixed by a guy here in Portland who worked for the phone company for a couple of decades.
One of the first things you notice when you are using a Bakelite phone is its weight. Bakelite is less like todays plastics, more like smooth black river stone. Heavy. As you're talking into it, part of your brain is chewing on the fact that this thing will outlive you. These are definitely the types of phone where you don't want to be hit with the receiver ala Dial M for Murder.
Unlike present day phones, when an old Bakelite phone rings, brother, you know it — for, if you're unaccustomed to it, you may be wearing whatever you were just drinking. Loud; using actual bells and a hammer like that obscenely loud alarm clock your brother used to use when he really had to get up early.
The only downside the Bakelites seem to have is when you have two lines. While normally you get that "click click" to indicate someone on your other line, on a Bakelite phone it feels like someone just flicked your eardrum with their finger. I guess that perhaps it's the pressure change in the little earpiece diaphragm thingie, or maybe it's just the volume, but yikes it ain't pretty.
Note: Depending on the phone, sometimes you can open them up and slip one of those "replacement erasers" (like you put on the end of a favorite pencil who's eraser is all gone leaving just the paper-ripping ring of metal) over the hammer; this will reduce the clang-iness of the ring. | 
