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Old 08-18-2008, 03:13 PM
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HELP! Magnavox TV/Record Player/radio Console 1960s

Hello, im new to this forum, so let me intoduce myself. my name is Matt, im 24 and i am from Los Angeles, CA. I recently purchased this Magnavox TV/Record Player/Radio console mainly for the phonograph function since i collect old vinyl records. I wanted something old so the sound would be as authentic as possible. Everything on this console works, but it does have a few quirks. The phonograph takes a while to reach the proper speed, it dosent run too slow at first, just a bit. Buut once it has been running for about 15 mins the speed is perfect. Is this normal, or is there something i can do to correct this?

Regarding the television, i have it hooked up to my cable box, and it gets a picture on channel 3, but it is not very clear and is not centered peoperly. There seems to be a bit of interferance. The sound is clear though. I have tried adjusting the contrast, brightness, vert and horiz knobs, as well as the tuner, but it just dosent hone in the way i think it should. Of course im not expecting HD quality.

The picture is B&W, but i am not sure if it was originally supposed to be color?

Anyway, if anyone has any pointers it would be great. I have been trying to find a vintage television repair service in the Los Angeles area, but every repair shop that i have called has either told me i am crazy for trying to repair this set, hung up on me, or told me to throw it away (which i will not). Does anyone know of any vintage TV repair services in the Los Angeles area or would any knowedgeable soul feel inclined to pay me and my set a visit to take a look?

There are a lot of knobs and functions i have no idea what they do!

Here are some photos.








Thanks for your help!
-Matt
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Old 08-18-2008, 04:47 PM
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Welcome to the forum, Matt! That's a very nice set... I've had a couple of those. It's a Black & White set, and was top of the line. I can't tell for sure from the photo, but it may be a 27" tube (or at least the 24 if not the 27).

What part of LA are you in? I know a few people who might be able to give you a hand with it. I'm not too far, so I might be able to take a look at it myself if I can find some time.

Charles
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Old 08-18-2008, 05:01 PM
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Welcome aboard and you've found the right place for expert advice on vintage equipment.

Let's begin with the turntable. It is a Magnavox Micromatic which was built by Collaro of England. These changers were among the better quality models of the '60's. They use a better quality Electrovoice ceramic cartridge that tracks somewhere around 3-4 grams; so, your records should not wear out very fast on this one. Your speed problem is not normal and is probably due to old dried lubricants in the mechanism and motor. The first thing I'd do would be to take the motor out and clean all the old gunk out and re-oil it. Also make sure that the TT platter turns freely and that the rubber drive wheels turn freely and are in good shape. You might want to start a thread on the turntable forum concerning this TT.

The TV is a B&W. I just fixed a similar model and the chassis was full of those white ceramic cased paper capacitors. I had to replace all of those in order to fix my set. You could also have some dying electrolytic capacitors as well. I'm sure there are tubes in the TV chassis that are either weak or shorted by now. You'll need a tube tester to determine which ones are defective. You could also have a weak CRT (picture tube). Many times, these can be brought back with a good CRT rejuvenator.

I don't know anyone in your area that would be willing to take on this project; but, I'm sure other members will chime in. Like you have already found out, you can forget modern TV shops. Many of them have not been in business long enough to know what a tube type TV is and the older ones have the "I had to fix that junk when it was new and I'm not fixing it now" attitude. There are no "old school" TV shops left in my area and the ones that were here stopped repairing tube sets by the late '80's or early '90's.

BTW, does the stereo chassis in your set uses tubes or transistors? If it's tube, it was probably made between '61 and '63. If it uses transistors, it was probably made between '63 and '65.
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Old 08-18-2008, 05:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kx250rider View Post
Welcome to the forum, Matt! That's a very nice set... I've had a couple of those. It's a Black & White set, and was top of the line. I can't tell for sure from the photo, but it may be a 27" tube (or at least the 24 if not the 27).

What part of LA are you in? I know a few people who might be able to give you a hand with it. I'm not too far, so I might be able to take a look at it myself if I can find some time.

Charles
Wow, thanks Charles! That would be super rad! I live in the Monterey Park area. Send me an email at mattcarranza@yahoo.com so i can send you my phone number if you want to talk.

I bought the console for $150 bux, i thought that was a great buy, but then again i have great appreciation for these machines, so i probably would have paid more!
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Old 08-18-2008, 05:28 PM
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Love that combo,,, My Aunt and Uncle had the identical way back when. I always admired it.
Dan
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Old 08-18-2008, 05:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
Welcome aboard and you've found the right place for expert advice on vintage equipment.

Let's begin with the turntable. It is a Magnavox Micromatic which was built by Collaro of England. These changers were among the better quality models of the '60's. They use a better quality Electrovoice ceramic cartridge that tracks somewhere around 3-4 grams; so, your records should not wear out very fast on this one. Your speed problem is not normal and is probably due to old dried lubricants in the mechanism and motor. The first thing I'd do would be to take the motor out and clean all the old gunk out and re-oil it. Also make sure that the TT platter turns freely and that the rubber drive wheels turn freely and are in good shape. You might want to start a thread on the turntable forum concerning this TT.

The TV is a B&W. I just fixed a similar model and the chassis was full of those white ceramic cased paper capacitors. I had to replace all of those in order to fix my set. You could also have some dying electrolytic capacitors as well. I'm sure there are tubes in the TV chassis that are either weak or shorted by now. You'll need a tube tester to determine which ones are defective. You could also have a weak CRT (picture tube). Many times, these can be brought back with a good CRT rejuvenator.

I don't know anyone in your area that would be willing to take on this project; but, I'm sure other members will chime in. Like you have already found out, you can forget modern TV shops. Many of them have not been in business long enough to know what a tube type TV is and the older ones have the "I had to fix that junk when it was new and I'm not fixing it now" attitude. There are no "old school" TV shops left in my area and the ones that were here stopped repairing tube sets by the late '80's or early '90's.

BTW, does the stereo chassis in your set uses tubes or transistors? If it's tube, it was probably made between '61 and '63. If it uses transistors, it was probably made between '63 and '65.
Thanks for the info!

I believe it uses tubes. I am not too knowledgeable about this stuff yet though. I took the back of the console off last night to see what tubes lit up and i wrote down the tube model numbers and dusted them off. I may be outing myself as a dork, but its so beautiful to see those tube glowing! I'll take a picture of the insides tonight and post them here.
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Old 08-18-2008, 06:13 PM
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Hello from another southern California dwelling old television set nut. A lot of us like to "watch" our sets from the back. I have a 1959 Magnavox like that with the 24" tube: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...highlight=herb The style of knob on yours makes it newer than my '59, probably early 60s. Does it have uhf, if it doesn't it would also have to be 1963 or older. Magnavox transistor stereo consoles usually said "Astrosonic" on the control panel somewhere, if it doesn't the radio and amp unit are probably tube, if it does it's transistor. And I can never quite manage to get those record changers working properly either.
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Old 08-18-2008, 07:16 PM
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Another way you can tell if the stereo is tube or transistor is by the warm up time. If the stereo portion produces sound as soon as it's turned on, it's transistorized. If it takes about 30-45 seconds to warm up, it's tube.
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Old 08-18-2008, 07:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
Let's begin with the turntable. It is a Magnavox Micromatic which was built by Collaro of England. These changers were among the better quality models of the '60's. They use a better quality Electrovoice ceramic cartridge that tracks somewhere around 3-4 grams; so, your records should not wear out very fast on this one. Your speed problem is not normal and is probably due to old dried lubricants in the mechanism and motor. The first thing I'd do would be to take the motor out and clean all the old gunk out and re-oil it. Also make sure that the TT platter turns freely and that the rubber drive wheels turn freely and are in good shape.
What he said. Sounds like you just need to clean out the old gummed-up lubricant from the motor bearings and re-oil the motor. [Use a lightweight oil designed for small mechanisms-- don't use WD-40]. Watch for gummed up lubricant in the changer mechanism and in any mechanical linkages, but don't apply new oil indescriminantly in the changer mechanism-- only on pivot points and sliding surfaces that originally had lubricant. Also, as radiotvnut says, check the rubber idler wheel while you're at it, especially if the turntable sounds like a cement truck full of rocks, or the changer "stalls" during its cycle.
By the way, the Micromatic/Collaro changers are kinda neat in that they have an interesting intermix mechanism in which the changer "feels" the diameter of the record with an indexing arm (later models used the tone arm itself for this purpose) before dropping the record on the platter.
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Old 08-19-2008, 12:27 AM
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mattcarranza mattcarranza is offline
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Here are a few photos i just took. That is about as clear of a picture i can get. Also thought id take one well lit and one showing the glow. heh.





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Old 08-19-2008, 02:57 AM
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That is a nice looking console! It doesn't look like much is wrong with the TV, maybe a adjustment or a weak tube, but it would be a good idea to have your tech replace all the electrolytics and paper caps to be safe, Logan
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Old 08-19-2008, 10:33 AM
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kx250rider kx250rider is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mattcarranza View Post
I may be outing myself as a dork, but its so beautiful to see those tube glowing!
Well then, I'm a HYPERdork..... In addition to getting a charge out of seeing the tubes glowing, they put off a good smell that I like

I'm in Moorpark, so not quite next door... But I'd be happy to take a look at it when I get over that way. This week is tough, but I'll eMail you when I figure out what's up for next week. Coincidently, there was another Magnavox B&W combo similar to yours on eBay that just ended no bids... I'm going to eMail the seller and ask what they're going to do with it. It's out in Riverside County. Maybe I'll go rescue it if they threaten to convert it to a new piece of furniture, or anything. I've always liked those, and now they're getting rare enough that it's time to grab one.

Charles
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Old 08-19-2008, 11:51 AM
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Originally Posted by kx250rider View Post
Well then, I'm a HYPERdork..... In addition to getting a charge out of seeing the tubes glowing, they put off a good smell that I like

I'm in Moorpark, so not quite next door... But I'd be happy to take a look at it when I get over that way. This week is tough, but I'll eMail you when I figure out what's up for next week. Coincidently, there was another Magnavox B&W combo similar to yours on eBay that just ended no bids... I'm going to eMail the seller and ask what they're going to do with it. It's out in Riverside County. Maybe I'll go rescue it if they threaten to convert it to a new piece of furniture, or anything. I've always liked those, and now they're getting rare enough that it's time to grab one.

Charles

Thanks Charles! The smell is great isnt it. Old electronics and machines in general have a great smell to them. I have a 1930s GE Whiz fan (close to 80 years old and i use it every day) that i got from my grandfather and i love the way the motor smells. I picked my console up from an ebay listing that ended without any bids too. i drove down to San Diego and picked it up. Look forward to hearing from you Charles!
-Matt
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Old 08-19-2008, 02:08 PM
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That's a great looking console, and based on the picture you're already getting, I bet it will perk right up after the routine restoration steps (replacing capacitors, cleaning controls, etc.).

If you're not an electronics guy, I wouldn't recommend that you try this yourself. But it sounds like you have an expert in the area willing to take a shot at it.

Have fun!

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Old 08-19-2008, 06:12 PM
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Dork acknowledgement #3...

When I'm done testing tubes on the tube tester, I like to pull them off hot and hold them in my hand and up-close watch the glow fade. Just did that 2 days ago, and been doing so since age 7 and no idea why. It's "just fun". In fact. Dork indeed.

There was a cheap knock-off radio on eBay a few years back that was just a solid-state (IC) AM/FM radio that had 5 tubes mounted on top that weren't in-circuit as part of the radio at all, but just there to look at. I don't remember the maker anymore. The glow may have been neon or LED even.

Your TV looks great, and perfect for this forum. With KX250 on your side, you'll have it rock-solid in no time. Welcome to the forum.
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