Why no love for this GE roundie ?

[Tom S]

GE did have some bastard chassis. I worked for a shop that handled GE in the later years. My folks had a 1969 GE KE chassis. Great picture and fairly reliable too. I have RCA's now and a GE porta color as well. Along with a 67 Motorola

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Tom S

GE did have some bastard chassis. I worked for a shop that handled GE in the later years. My folks had a 1969 GE KE chassis. Great picture and fairly reliable too. I have RCA's now and a GE porta color as well. Along with a 67 Motorola

When I was buying and selling used sets, some 40+ years ago, I didn't sell many GE's. They weren't that big of a seller around here and wouldn't bring top dollar. There were GE plants here and many of the employees didn't even buy them.

[DaveWM]

I got one locally, think it was 10$, only one I have come across in the wild. Make ok pic.

[Tom S]

Here is a pic of my folks GE from 1969. I should have kept it. DammOur Old GE.JPG

[Old Moto Nut]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

When I was buying and selling used sets, some 40+ years ago, I didn't sell many GE's. They weren't that big of a seller around here and wouldn't bring top dollar. There were GE plants here and many of the employees didn't even buy them.

I think you're exaggerating. I never saw or heard of that much trouble with GE sets. I'm not saying they were the best, but they were far from the worst. And, to imply that GE employees didn't buy them because they thought they were bad is just not believable. Big GE consoles didn't sell that great to begin with because RCA and Zenith always had the market cornered. And when you were dealing with used consoles was a time when everybody wanted smaller sets, so they were even harder to sell.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Old Moto Nut

I think you're exaggerating. I never saw or heard of that much trouble with GE sets. I'm not saying they were the best, but they were far from the worst. And, to imply that GE employees didn't buy them because they thought they were bad is just not believable. Big GE consoles didn't sell that great to begin with because RCA and Zenith always had the market cornered. And when you were dealing with used consoles was a time when everybody wanted smaller sets, so they were even harder to sell.

This was in Milwaukee. There was a Hotpoint and several GE Medical Systems, plants scattered around the area.

[Old Moto Nut]

I still think you're full of it. I knew and know a lot of men and women that worked at Appliance Park in Louisville and never heard any of them complain about a GE set. Knew some that worked in Decatur, IL too and same thing.

[Tom S]

I will say some of the early solid state sets were a pain QA JA MA MB and so forth. But in general I had a YM chassis in a counsel set. Wide band amp failed and flyback with horiz out transistor. Had the set from 80 to 87. Hell my Sylvania I got in 87 crapped the crt after 5 yrs. And I mean bad too. The GE was a great set.

[Bill R]

I didn't see that many GE sets for repair, but the ones I did were always, always dogs. There was a reason RCA and Zenith had the market cornered in Memphis. They simply had better pictures and were preceived to be more reliable. I think every manufacturer had their share of bad designs.

[Tom S]

How bout the RCA HV cup failures. Bang bang bang. for one. Zenith solid state upright chassis cap failure. Chews the neck off the crt. LOL

[Old Moto Nut]

I agree there were some GE chassis that weren't so good, like the JA and QA. But, the KE's were good sets. So were the KC's. I always thought the early H sets were really good at the time and for the money. I mean, they were pretty reliable and didn't need much adjustments, and were cheap for a color set in 1966. You couldn't say those things about a roundy set a few years earlier. Sure, by the 70's there were much better portables, but GE kept cranking them out. All manufacturers made gems and lemons in their history.

BUT, I don't remember people believing GE sets were bad in general. It wasn't until I started reading posts on here that I ran across anybody generalizing them that way, and from one person in particular.

What I can generalize about GE consoles is that they had two problems: cabinets and pictures. GE cabinets were nothing special, and they were one of the first to adopt laminated particle boards. I remember when a GE console would come into our family's store and it would be put next to a Motorola set with a Drexel cabinet, there was no comparison. When you'd turn the GE on and look at the picture next to a Sylvania, again there was no comparison. The GE's usually had to sell for $50-100 cheaper to make them competitive. HOWEVER, the Motorola and the Sylvania sets were more likely to be back in the shop getting fixed before the GE would. And, the GE CRT's lasted longer too.

I'm colorblind and my eyesight's not the greatest, so personally I never minded the softer picture and colors of GE's. That's what kept me out of the electronics business, I couldn't read resistor codes or wiring colors. My granddad said I'd never make it because I took too much time having to rely on schematics and tracing to fix stuff. By 1980 my dad had moved on to a different business and my granddad sold out, so I wasn't around much newer GE stuff.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by Tom S

How bout the RCA HV cup failures. Bang bang bang. for one. Zenith solid state upright chassis cap failure. Chews the neck off the crt. LOL

I believe...had it not been for the safety cap problems.. and triplers too..there would be a LOT more SS Zenith chromacolor I and II sets still out there...at least the ones with he delta tubes anyway. The 100% in-line tubes Zenith made are NOWHERE near as good at the deltas.

[jsowers]

My dad bought a KE chassis GE 21" table model in 1969 and we used it as our main TV until 1986. It was still working when replaced, but the picture was getting overly green. The "instant on" was always in use and the TV had very few tubes replaced in its lifetime. I replaced it with a Magnavox remote table model and moved it to my living room, where it still sits. I thought it was and is a great TV.

We didn't have any more trouble out of it than any other TV and it sure lasted longer than the Toshiba 25" that replaced the Magnavox. I think mom got three years out of it. I have lots of memories of dad watching sports on the old GE and my watching Dark Shadows until it was canceled. It was our first color TV.

We had lots of GE appliances from the same store, Butler-Conrad. The KE GE replaced a 1962 GE 19" table model with a vertical chassis that went to my grandmother's kitchen and worked very reliably up until 1983 when it was replaced by a small Zenith. I have it in my basement. If you ever see My Favorite Martian, it's the same model Bill Bixby had in the apartment.

Mom still cooks on her 1953 GE 40" stove. It's just rock solid reliable. They made very good appliances in their day, but it's likely their day has passed. The last GE appliance I bought was a washer about six years ago and it's been reliable too. No problems at all.

[snelson903]

i would have bid on it if i noticed it in time .

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Old Moto Nut

I agree there were some GE chassis that weren't so good, like the JA and QA. But, the KE's were good sets.

JA and QA were far better than the real GE lemon: EC Chassis.

Originally Posted by Old Moto Nut

GE cabinets were nothing special, and they were one of the first to adopt laminated particle boards. I remember when a GE console would come into our family's store and it would be put next to a Motorola set with a Drexel cabinet, there was no comparison.

You don't recall the Ethan Allen GE Sets - all wood, and the only plywood in the whole set was the back - a piece of Baltic birch three ply. I first saw one with a MA chassis, but later serviced several - all were easy fixes. In one GE Service guide I have, there are 18 Ethan Allen models for the represented chassis. I'm not sure if they ever had a tube set or a hybrid chassis in an Ethan Allen cabinet - I know I've never seen one.

GE got banged around by the consumer magazines. They won a few battles - Consumer Reports reported they only had 7 new models one year in a misprint, and two months later, they gave GE a whole page to display several nicer models among their 67 new models - and the apology from Consumers Union.