I had a 1964 Silvertone metal-cabinet table model color set in the early 1970s. To the best of my knowledge, this set had the RCA CTC12 chassis, minus the illuminated channel selector indicator or knob, but otherwise the design screamed RCA. Most early Silvertones (and most other brands of color sets made in the '60s except Zenith) used RCA chassis CTC 12 or later. By the early '70s, however, Wells Gardner was manufacturing sets which Sears later sold under their own name. I saw one of those early '70s WG-made Sears sets here on AK not long ago.

I remember Wells Gardner. It would be interesting to get one of those sets. I remember some they put out in the late 60's that had "panels" like a solid state set, but with tubes. It was interesting that when we had to get a new replacement panel and it would arrive with all the new tubes in place. Pretty interesting design. EVERY-thing was on a panel, including the flyback. I can't remember what year they were made, but I am thinking 1968. The ones we serviced were under the Coronado nameplate, but all the tubes and picture tube were marked Wells Gardner. I even remember 1 set that we went on a service call and the customers kids had shot the picture tube with a BB gun! The set still worked, but we were always nervous on having that tube implode and warned the customer. Anyway.... anyone else remember any Wells Gardner sets they worked on or have now?

I always thought Wells-Gardner made sets for Montgomery Ward and that Sears sets were made by Warwick Electronics? We used to have a Sears b/w portable from about 1968 and the shipping tag on the box said Warwick.
So who *did* make sets for Wards? I notice in reading my old Consumer Reports that Ward sets were never rated very well. Don't think I've ever seen one mentioned on this forum.
Bob

I was given a bunch of old Consumer's Reports magazines for the labor of removing them from a basement at an Estate sale. However, the oldest were from about 1979.

I'd be interested in knowing how they rated some of the better known sets; RCA, Zenith, etc. (maybe you could scan???)

I personally find their reviews of more complicated products to be a bunch of biased BS! These guys rated the first '78 Dodge Omni as "unsafe" because if you swung the wheel back and forth repeatedly at speed you could spinout! Funny, they never changed a damn thing about that design in 12-years of building them, yet no one else ever mentioned this problem (and they stopped soon afterwards) Also never mentioned that problem with the VW Rabbit which was an almost identical design (with the same engine)!

Most likely the team of East-coast-socialist toaster & toilet testers had never driven a transverse powertrain FWD car, and decided to gain some cheap publicity with this idiotic "test".

They do a lot of other wierd stuff too, like very different ratings for cars with identical platforms, but different names & trim. Wonder if they do it with TVs too?:dunno:

From 1988-1992, I worked for the sears service center near cincinnati. So, i was able to find out, by looking at model #s, who made their sets for them. It's been a long time, but I think I can still remember most of them::

Sets that had model#' that began with 528--- warwick.
model #'s that began with 562-- toshiba.
model #'s beginning with 564-- sanyo.
model #'s beginning with 580-- goldstar.
model #'s that began with 143--(mostly stereo equip)-- fisher.
model #'s that began with 721-- samsung.
model #'s that began with 934-- hitachi.

You are looking at the FIRST three digits on the model number-- that is the id #.

Hope this helps someone..

I have a Sears & Roebuck Color Television made 1984. The back states that the console was manufactured in the USA from components made in Japan. The Model is 564-49100450 The address is given as the Sears Tower, Chicago Illinois. My friend Dennis at the Radio Forum said set was built by Sanyo back in the days when people still knew how to design good TV's. Sanyo had taken over the assembly plant of Warwick a few years earlier after Warwick literally put themselves out of business by making sets that no one could repair, not even the Warwick engineers. The fact that Sears owned Warwick, and had already been buying some electronics from Sanyo, factored heavily in the changeover.
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/368/picture638.jpg (http://img64.imageshack.us/i/picture638.jpg/)
She works very well for a 26 year old television. Here is a photo of her insides.:banana:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6128/picture629n.jpg (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/picture629n.jpg/)
I guess you could say this was an American made out of Japanese parts television made in the USA at the Warwick plant.
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8403/picture633.jpg (http://img718.imageshack.us/i/picture633.jpg/)

To my knowledge, RCA didn't start building sets for Sears until the CTC175 era.

Wells-Gardner sets were sold under the Truetone, Bradford, Coronado, Penncrest, Airline, etc.

Many of the Wards Airline sets were made by Admiral and Wells-Gardner. GE, Sharp, NAP, and exen Zenith made some of their later sets.

How oddly strange that the CRT bezel and layout strongly shares similaraties with Zenth of the same era..

I mean if I didn't read the thread and zoomed down to last picture, I would have thought that set is a Zenith first glance, minus the red LED display of course, I dont think Zenith ever used red LED's, they have always been green.

Zenith used some red LED's on their non-cable ready electronic tuning sets. And, those oddball B&W Zenith's with electronic tuning used a red LED.

Really, I learn something new every day..
:D
Zenith used some red LED's on their non-cable ready electronic tuning sets. And, those oddball B&W Zenith's with electronic tuning used a red LED.

Sears owned Warwick, then Sanyo bought the plant and in a few short years Sanyo own a huge share of the American market.
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/475/picture645.jpg

Then who was LXI? We had one for the family tv for like 10 years, bought in 1989 from Sears, and I understand that was a sears brand set.

Wells-Gardner sets were sold under the Truetone, Bradford, Coronado, Penncrest, Airline, etc.



It seems like there are 3 of these in every Sams folder, yet I have never seen on or had the option to grab one in real life. They must have been short life junk

Then who was LXI? We had one for the family tv for like 10 years, bought in 1989 from Sears, and I understand that was a sears brand set.

LXI was simply a Sears house brand that they started using in the late '80's. They were simply rebadged sets built by other people. I recently junked a mid '90's 27" LXI that was a rebadged RCA CTC177.

It seems like there are 3 of these in every Sams folder, yet I have never seen on or had the option to grab one in real life. They must have been short life junk



I've had a few WG sets, both tube and SS, and they were shot by the time I got them. I recently tossed a '73 25" console that was a hybrid set with the plug-in modules. The later solid state chassis looked just like the tube chassis, for the obvious exception of it being all solid state. Then, in the late '70's, they built a stand up chassis. I think WG got out of TV's by the early '80's and I think they are still in the arcade game monitor business.

I've got a friend who used to fix Truetone TV's and I used to see a lot of WG built Truetone sets at his house. Those solid state sets made a good picture; but, they didn't hold up that long. One good thing I can say is that the ones I saw used a Rauland (Zenith) CRT.

Sears Roebuck bought 50% of Warwick in January 1958. Whirlpool wound up owning 57% or Warwick in 1966.

In December 1976 Whirlpool sold the Warwick TV business, along with its Sears contract, to Sanyo. At the time Warwick planned to continue production of electric organs. Sanyo improved the Forrest City, Arks. factory and added 1000 workers to the 300 or so still employed at the time of the Warwick sale.

In short, Sanyo's purchase of Warwick was about the only good story amongst slews of sell-offs and factory closings in the 70's & 80's.

I have a Sears & Roebuck Color Television made 1984. The back states that the console was manufactured in the USA from components made in Japan. The Model is 564-49100450 The address is given as the Sears Tower, Chicago Illinois. My friend Dennis at the Radio Forum said set was built by Sanyo back in the days when people still knew how to design good TV's. Sanyo had taken over the assembly plant of Warwick a few years earlier after Warwick literally put themselves out of business by making sets that no one could repair, not even the Warwick engineers. The fact that Sears owned Warwick, and had already been buying some electronics from Sanyo, factored heavily in the changeover.
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/368/picture638.jpg (http://img64.imageshack.us/i/picture638.jpg/)
She works very well for a 26 year old television. Here is a photo of her insides.:banana:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6128/picture629n.jpg (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/picture629n.jpg/)
I guess you could say this was an American made out of Japanese parts television made in the USA at the Warwick plant.
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8403/picture633.jpg (http://img718.imageshack.us/i/picture633.jpg/)


that set is a sanyo made tv very good sets. and had an excellent picture. steve

As RCAman said, Glenn Waters' pic is a Sanyo board...

On the RCA-built Sears, I only know of one model, and it was indeed a CTC-12. Evidently, there was a period of time when Sears bought RCA chassis for their color sets.

Charles

Where did Silvertone come in here? Or were they their own.

Silvertone was another Sears house brand that was used from the teens, on wind up phonographs, and was finally phased out all together in, IIRC, '71. In it's last days, the name was only used on higher end color TV's and stereo consoles.

It seems like there are 3 of these in every Sams folder, yet I have never seen on or had the option to grab one in real life. They must have been short life junk
Those were house brands of chain department stores..
Silvertone, LXI, and SR2000 were Sears,
Bradford was W.T. Grant (made by GE in the 70s),
Penncrest was JC Penny's,
Airline was Montgomery Wards.

I believe that the electronics dept at Sears was Dept 61, hence the LXI line of TV's which is the roman numeral for 61. I used to work for Sears about 20 years ago and I think at the time most if not all LXI TV's were Sanyo's. I didn't work in electronics tho, I worked in hardware.

I have some videos of the the Sears & Roebuck Color Television made June 1984 made in the USA at the Warwick Plant. I also have one of a very nice Silvertone Console stereo:banana:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5vJ7mV9lk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbVTH2ppKU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00fhPXmDMmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzlr6ZppWnI

The TV department at Sears was Division 57.