Picked up an early VT-71 from CL

[Eric H]

Took a 100 mile round trip to Morongo and bought this Blond Motorola VT-71 for $50.

It's quite early, not as early as the one Bob has but early enough. The serial number is 13104, the chassis is a TS-4D and the date is March 25 1948, it has no fine tuning.

The cabinet's in pretty rough shape, there's water damage to the bottom on one side, a bit of water damage on the top edge and some veneer chips on the lower left side, the finish is actually not terrible.

It's also missing the back and bottom cover as well as the channel selector knob.
It's not unfixable, I probably have most of that stuff, I'm just not sure if it's worthwhile when I have several good Mahogany cabinets laying around and probably other sets in need of a good 7JP4, plus I have an identical set in good condition. Did i mention the 7JP4 is excellent? well it is!

Plugged the tube into my other VT-71 and it came right up bright and sharp, one of the best looking JP4's I've seen. (the good set needs some attention, it's having sync issues).

This set has a cardboard deflector or shield to the left of the CRT (viewed from rear) I've never seen that on any of my other VT's, was it an early thing or have all the other just been lost over the years?

I thought the mask had been cleaned off at some point because it wasn't stuck all over the face of the tube but it's just laying in a hardened up puddle in the bottom of the cabinet, unfortunately it discolored the gold face a bit.
I found a knob from an Admiral stuck in the goo, they were probably using it in place of the missing channel selector knob years ago.

Pictures:

[kvflyer]

The VT-71 really is a neat set. I have four of them. Why? Well, I remember one being in my basement as a kid. Dad was working on it. I have restored one so far and it works just fine. I also got a blonde cabinet one with the correct "butterscotch" colored knobs as well. It is in queue.

Nice set, thanks for sharing it with us.

[EdKozk2]

Hi Eric,
I found that same piece of cardboard in my VT71M-A under the CRT saddle clamp. I have a TS-4C chassis.
Does your TS-4D have a horizontal and vertical blocking oscillator ?
If your not going to fix or use the TS-4D, I'd be willing to purchase the cabinet and chassis. I could use a better plastic bezel, mine has a crack in it.
PM me if your interested.
Ed