Hi all!

Bought this set on eBay a few weeks ago, and finally got to pick it up last weekend..! I know mid-50's B&W consoles tend not to be terribly exciting to many collectors, but I think this happens to be a pretty sharp-looking set. Maybe it's just me though. I remember seeing this particular model several years ago in an ad showing RCA's full TV lineup for 1955 while flipping through old _Life_ magazines, and thought it was kind of a "standout" with its mix of contrasting finish colors and the neat latticework in front of the speaker grille cloth. It was a bit spendy at the time for a 21" B&W console in a regular "hi-boy"-style cabinet, so I would guess it wasn't a big seller though. [list price for this set was $339, whereas the least expensive console with the same chassis was $259, and the few 21" consoles they offered that more expensive than this one were in larger, fancier cabinets with multiple speakers.]

It's an RCA 21-S-522 "Benson". The seller indicated that his father was a TV repairman and this set was originally left unclaimed at the shop by a customer. The seller's father eventually took it for use at home, where it got used for a while before being put up in the attic.

In any case, it's evident that *someone* must have liked this set, because from the looks of things on/under the chassis, it's been repaired several times over a fairly long time period. Only two of the tubes appear to be original; even the CRT is a replacement (a Channel Master 'grade A' tube with no obvious date codes, but at least it tests good). Since the seller had already powered it up anyway, I went ahead and soft-started it for a quick run after giving it the once-over. It has obvious vertical issues, but some new caps should take care of that (and the vert output tube doesn't test so great either). I need to dig though my bunch-o-tubes and find a good 5U4 rectifier for this thing too, as it's rather weak. Also the tuner is in pretty serious need of cleaning. Everything runs nice and cool though, so no big problems there. I'd say that's all quite good though considering it's still in 'as found' condition..!

Cabinet is in very nice shape except for the top, which has a few fairly good-sized scratches and has a worn spot in the finish near the center where something like a vase or lamp must have been. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do to fix that up. Any thoughts? Fortunately, the cabinet is solid hardwood rather than veneer, and the top panel is nice and flat, so if all else fails, it'd be easy to sand/refinish the top, but I figure doing a blonde finish that color-matches the sides might be tricky, especially since I don't have *that* much experience with cabinet refinishing, and never messed with blonde finishes before.

Anyway, I just happened to think this is a quite nicely-styled set for its type, and thought I'd share some photos of it.

Nice set! :)

EXCELLENT score !! Vertical issues aside, pretty good picture, too- I always liked that style of cabinet myself. Ya done REAL GOOD- in no small part saving a worthy veteran from an uncertain fate.

EXCELLENT score !! Vertical issues aside, pretty good picture, too- I always liked that style of cabinet myself. Ya done REAL GOOD- in no small part saving a worthy veteran from an uncertain fate.

Thanks for the feedback! Nice to see I'm not the only one who thought this set looked pretty nice. :) Actually, you could well be right about that last point, since it turned out I was the only bidder-- so who knows what would have happened.

By the way, forgot to mention-- there was *one* thing I did to this set before those photos were taken, and that was remove the front safety glass to clean the glass and CRT face. When I first got this thing home (which was kind of an adventure in itself), I noticed that in certain lighting, you could see sort of 'ghosted' shapes/formations on the CRT face; it almost looked like phosphor burn-in, but I figured it was probably just some accumulated dust on the CRT. Sure enough, it was-- in fact, I couldn't *believe* just how much dirt there was on the CRT face. For the most part, it was so evenly spread out that it didn't actually look all that dirty before. Amazing what a difference that can make!

Very nice set! I have always liked the styling of the mid 50's RCA consoles...both black & white and color. I have an RCA CTC-4 in a blond cabinet that needs some touching up. A friend suggested having the surface airbrushed with the correct color and adding the "graining" that a blond finish has. An interesting idea, I have never pursued it but I think that might be a way to go. In any event, that's a great set you have there.

Gilbert

I have noticed on some mid-early '50s consoles like this, there is so much dirt/smoke/crud accumulated on the screen from 50 odd years, they sometimes look like they've been on fire.

Is this the set you picked up in Rochester? It's got a great cabinet design. I really like the looks of it.

My first old tv, which I still have, is a cousin of this with a less interesting cabinet. It always had that same "conehead" stretch and back then, as a teenager, I couldn't hope to fix it. Aside from that it was a very reliable set until the day I decided I could recap it! Many happy memories back in the eighties, sitting in front of that set watching Perfect Strangers & Mr. Belvedere. Someday I'll fix it right. Everyone needs at least one of these RCA 21 inchers.

Is this the set you picked up in Rochester? It's got a great cabinet design. I really like the looks of it.

Yep! That's the set I picked up in Rochester.

Looks like I'm going to have to order up some new caps. In the meantime, I replaced the tired 5U4 and the dodgy vert tube, and that made for some definite improvement. The height and v-lin can now at least be adjusted to something reasonably close to correct without throwing the vert oscillator way out (it still needs recapping though). ...And the width/HV performance is much better now with the new B+ rectifier-- the picture didn't quite fill the entire width fully before, and it bloomed if you advanced the brightness very far, but now it fills the screen nicely and blooming is about nil.

One thing I have noticed, though, is that this set has about the most pronounced "turn-off spot" I've ever seen on any TV. When you switch the set off, you get a *bright*, tightly-focused pin-point of light that takes several seconds to even *start* to defocus or dim out, and takes perhaps 30 seconds to fully disappear. You can even see a visible "halo" around the spot that looks sort of like when you have the intensity control turned up too high on an oscilloscope. I don't see any actual phosphor burn-in, but this can't possibly be good for the CRT... Is there a typical cause/solution for this, say a bleeder resistor in the HV section?

Beautiful set. A suggestion for the top. Have a piece of glass cut to size to cover the top. Then find that original RCA "Benson" ad, have it enlarged and place it under the glass. Makes for a great display.

-Steve D.

Yes, a beautiful set. I'm hoping that since time has moved on as it has that mid/late 50's sets will grow in popularity. I have long thought that they are beautiful and interesting. They are in some ways more practical for regular use I feel. If for no other reason the larger screen sizes and many times the circuitry is much simpler IMHO.

Beautiful set! Well done! Congratulations!:thmbsp:

One thing I have noticed, though, is that this set has about the most pronounced "turn-off spot" I've ever seen on any TV. When you switch the set off, you get a *bright*, tightly-focused pin-point of light that takes several seconds to even *start* to defocus or dim out, and takes perhaps 30 seconds to fully disappear. You can even see a visible "halo" around the spot that looks sort of like when you have the intensity control turned up too high on an oscilloscope. I don't see any actual phosphor burn-in, but this can't possibly be good for the CRT... Is there a typical cause/solution for this, say a bleeder resistor in the HV section?

Don't know about that specific set, but what I've seen done in newer sets that apply the brightness control to grid 1 of the CRT, and video on the cathode, is to tie a big bypass cap between the brightness line on that grid 1 and B+. The cap acquires a charge while the set is on. and when the set is turned off, the B+ quickly collapses to near 0V. The brightness circuit has a fairly high resistance, and that bypass cap slowly bleeds off, forcing grid 1 very negative. To cut off beam current, and no bright spot on the screen. The cathode gets cold and stops emitting before the bypass cap discharges.