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Old 11-23-2016, 06:57 PM
benman94's Avatar
benman94 benman94 is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 1,190
Biting off more than I can currently chew... with an RCA 641

So I had this potential diamond in the rough today: an RCA model 641TV. I acquired the set from John Estep; he had acquired it along with a few other sets (including a second 641TV), and eventually decided it was excess to his collection. He offered the set to me, I hemmed and hawed for a while before eventually deciding that this set would make an excellent addition to my 621TS, 630TS, and 741PCS. John was kind enough to give the set to me on the condition I made a donation to the ETF. I sent Steve McVoy and the ETF some cash for the CRT rebuilding fund, and the 641 was mine.

Sun to Snow Transport (out of Pellston, Michigan in the upper Lower) picked it up from John in Pittsburgh yesterday, and delivered it to my home outside of Detroit today. I can't recommend Sun to Snow highly enough. Anyway, the set has definitely seen better days, and will need extensive work to get the cabinet looking presentable, but everything seems to be there and accounted for electronically. If the TV chassis doesn't give me too much trouble, I'll spend the extra cash having the cabinet and changer restored and make it my "daily driver" bedroom set. Right now, the set is residing in the garage. Too much to do at the moment to get it inside and upstairs.

The set is probably from the NYC area. WOR, WQXR, WMCA, WHN, WJZ, and WNBC are the presets on the radio. WHN changed its call letters to WMGM on September 15, 1948, and WJZ became WABC in 1953. Given that this is a 1947 model year set, it's reasonable to conclude it was built no later than September of 1948.

It's definitely seen plenty of use; of the three 5U4s in the set, two of them were changed out to 5U4GBs. I pulled a few tubes at random, and none of them were even RCA branded, much less originals. That said, I suspect the CRT is original. What looks like a possible datecode of some sort is stamped on the base of the CRT. Any ideas what 0/48 might mean? In any case, the CRT in the set, rather surprisingly, is the second best CRT I've ever put on the Sencore. The only tube I've seen test better is a 12KP4 I had Scotty at Hawkeye rebuild for me.

If anybody knows the name of a superb cabinet guy, please let me know. After really looking at this cabinet, I've come to the conclusion it's probably quite a bit beyond my current refinishing and repair ability.













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