I found this rare set from an old repairman who has retired this year. It's the only case of a TV with bakelite cabinet built in Italy, branded CGE (Compagnia Generale di Elettricità).

CGE was founded in 1921 in Milan and originally was the italian division of GE. This set was built in 1961, I have repainted the gold part on the front and replaced some paper capacitors on the vertical oscillator and syncronism separator. It used 18 tubes and a selenium rectifier.

The rear cover is also in bakelite!

Marco

From the look of that cabinet (and especially the knobs!!) they either somehow maintained their ties to GE or had reestablished them by the time this model was made.

Wow, that is a cool looking set.
It does look very similar to it's American cousin on the outside, the chassis however looks totally different.

Cool!

Love the cabinet. White(or gray?), gold, and brown bakelite look great together.

That's a beautiful TV!

Wow, that is a cool looking set.
It does look very similar to it's American cousin on the outside, the chassis however looks totally different.

Looks too well built to be a GE product.

It's fun seeing sets from Europe and Italy that look very similar to their American cousins, and yet, are totally different.

This little GE looks like so many early 1960's GE's from America. Most of them are dead and gone, now. I grew up with a 1963 GE 19" that was purchased the day that President Kennedy was shot, because my mom was stuck in bed due to hurting her back in a fall, and she wanted to watch everything that was on the news about this.

That GE broke down yearly, and usually it was the 23Z9 vertical output tube. Amazing what one can remember all these years later... I finally "GOT SMART" and bought 2 23Z9's when the vertical failed again, then, lightning got the set and the tuner exploded, literally, there in the set. Somewhere in this disaster I call home, I still have the spare 23Z9. NOS GE Compactron.

Looks too well built to be a GE product.

That was exactly what I was thinking!

i have this same exact set, mine works great but needed a hack repair as one of the low voltage secondary windings on the flyback got open circuit when it warmed up, so i had to modify the circuit to do two jobs with just one winding.

the speaker and i think also the chassis were the same found in some Italian made Telefunken sets.

Me Likey !! Be mindful of that nasty ol' Selenium Rectifier, though...They let go, & make a BIG Helluva Mess, & STINK of rotten eggs to High Heaven ! (grin)

That selenium rectifier has 18 plates. Is it good for 360 volts, half wave, or 180 volts, full wave. For full wave, it would have a center tap. It would great to see a schematic, on that set.

Great job man! I agree, it looks like a GE but way to well made inside to be one LOL! Can we see some cute anime girls on this one too??:D

I get tired of GE bashing. My own experience growing up around their 50s vintage sets that belonged to family and friends is that they were very reliable and were kept in service as second sets into their second decade. All such sets whose whereabouts I still knew in the 1980s were still working at that time. So there.

that's good looking set ,i was noticing that selenium rec .too what is your reg house hold outlet voltage in Italy ,i had a complete made from germany in the 50's stereo console ,a freind of mine got while he was stationed in germany during the 60's ,it had adjustble input transformer made in it ,so it could be used all over the eurip. i still have the chassie and trans ,he insisted on making the console into a liquier cabinet . i even still have the little light bulb's from inside the cabinet that are frosted white there voltage are 220-250 volt i think, they have a diff. size base screw type.

I get tired of GE bashing. My own experience growing up around their 50s vintage sets that belonged to family and friends is that they were very reliable

It was later that GE became pure evil, when they raped and pillaged RCA. :tears:

Can we see some cute anime girls on this one too??:D
:yes:

@ Dieseljeep: I put the schematic of the power supply as attachments :)
During next days I'll post the entire schematic.

Now I recall that CGE imported the GE Portacolor and another model BW 11'' with compactron tubes. I seeing the same american chassis under the brands CGE, Telefunken Italy and Siemens Elettra .

It was later that GE became pure evil, when they raped and pillaged RCA. :tears:

I'll never forget the hopelessness I felt (sept 1986?) when hearing this news at a dealer that sold both. As a bench tech and delivery animal, I would freely discuss the virtues of both makes (in addition to Sony and Panasonic)to anyone bored enough to feign interest.

It really took the fun out of unpacking and delivering the vastly different models, knowing Thomson now owned both. :thumbsdn:
It just did not feel the same after that and I quit the business a few months later. :sigh:

But prior to that GE and RCA already had some sort of association, didn't they? Or am I mistaken?

But prior to that GE and RCA already had some sort of association, didn't they? Or am I mistaken?

Westinghouse and GE, both worked together to establish Radio Corporation of America. IIRC, the US government made them divest from RCA, as part of their anti-monopolty program. At the time RCA held most of the patents for radio and every manufacturer of radios had to have an RCA license to build radios in the US.

:yes:

@ Dieseljeep: I put the schematic of the power supply as attachments :)
During next days I'll post the entire schematic.

Now I recall that CGE imported the GE Portacolor and another model BW 11'' with compactron tubes. I seeing the same american chassis under the brands CGE, Telefunken Italy and Siemens Elettra .
Interesting power supply. A lot of choices for the input voltages.
I had a GE service manual, that covered the "C" line models. It showed a schematic for a set that was intended for export. A 12" B/W model. They refered to it as a CCIR model. IIRC, it was a variation of the common SC chassis.
The only Porta-color, I saw was the model that used the cabinet and CRT, yoke and convergence, but with a German built chassis. Probably on this forum.

Here in Italy up to late 70's we had several areas with different AC voltages, it's for this reason that all radios and TVs built in Italy had several choice for AC input

The italian CGE portacolor is very similar to german Kuba... cabinet, CRT, yoke and convergence are made in US, but the chassis was built in Italy with a PAL color decoder

In this video you can see the italian Portacolor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDZBAOR7GwE

Westinghouse and GE, both worked together to establish Radio Corporation of America. IIRC, the US government made them divest from RCA, as part of their anti-monopolty program. At the time RCA held most of the patents for radio and every manufacturer of radios had to have an RCA license to build radios in the US.


I always had the impression that even after that point they still maintained some sort of association, because in 1947, when the founder of Brazilian television, mister Assis Chateaubriand, went to the United States to buy the equipment for two TV stations, the equipment for one station was supplyed by RCA and for the other was supplyed by GE.

The italian CGE portacolor is very similar to german Kuba... cabinet, CRT, yoke and convergence are made in US, but the chassis was built in Italy with a PAL color decoder

In this video you can see the italian Portacolor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDZBAOR7GwE

That video had a soundtrack that gave the shivers, taking me back to my days learning how to work on TV in the mid-70's. :music: I saw few 1967 RCA CTC22, a cute 15" set, but it was NO competition for the HC chassis Portacolor. The 11" GE sets clearly were a better value and needed less maintenance, think mega 5GH8 failures for RCA here.

BTW and IMAO, GE and RCA TV sets had very little in common from the late 1940's up to the "reunion" under Thomson in 1986.