I'm swapping emails with someone on freecycle who has a couple sets to give away. One is a Hitachi and sounds fairly new. The other, though, might be worth me dragging home...maybe. The fact that her description mentioned knob tuning was enough to perk up my ears. She wrote me back with a model number: SE2505P. I looked it up in Sams but it wasn't there; there are similiar numbers. I pulled Sams 1423-3 (model SE2551W1, et al) and it is a 4-tube 23EC15 chassis. This is pretty much a stab in the dark, though. Can anyone cross that model number better? Not a big deal, but she isn't that close by and I hate to go on too much of a wild goose chase.

That model shows Sams 2801-2, according to the online index. I'm not in the basement where my Sams are right now; but, it sounds like a late '80's or early '90's set. I know that's not what you wanted to hear; but, better to know now than to find out AFTER you've driven to pick it up. I'll see if I've got the Sams tomorrow and let you know exactly what you're dealing with. I'm anxious to see if it really is knob tuned. If it is, it's a later one.

Thanks! I was looking it up in my '89 index. Thing is, you never know about the descriptions people give you. It could be anything. If it's from the 90s, unfortunately, it wouldn't be worth me walking across the street for.

OK, I went ahead and pulled the Sams and it's dated 1/91. It uses a 9-516 main module. The set is not knob tuned and I can't find any reference in the Sams to a mechanical tuner. All models used the same electronic digital tuner. Either someone does not know what knob tuning is or Zenith used the same model number twice! The newest knob tuned Zenith I've seen was a cheap 19" "custom series" set from around '87 or '88.

I forgot to mention that I've worked on several sets with this chassis and they were all made between '88 and '90. In fact, I just gave one away just to get it out of here.