'49 Admiral TV/radio/phono combo
 

I bought this for $125 (I probably paid too much) today. Cabinet still looks decent except for some minor scratches and it still has all the tags and instruction book. B&W's of this age are almost impossible to find in my area.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...dmiral0001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...dmiral0002.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...dmiral0003.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...dmiral0004.jpg

Looks like you have hours of enjoyment ahead of you.

It's always cool to find original documentation like that. The little pink pamphlet suggests that they might have bought it on an installment plan (?). Says something like, "please return this book with your payments."

Phil Nelson

Great looking set.

You're lucky that it came with all the knobs. They are not easy to find.

Is that the 20B1 chassis? Which CRT does it have?

Admirals of this era respond well to restoration and will reward you with many hours of reliable service. I hope you'll post details when you decide to work on it. Nice find!
-Tony

I can tell you this much so far. There is a brightner hanging off the CRT. It's a round glass tube and I think it's a 12". I'll check further when I can dig into it.

Wow, I have this same set! Bought mine in 1981 at Goodwill for $8.00!! The set I have came with almost all of the same paperwork you have. My set needs restoration but that will a project for a later time. It does have a 12" CRT. The CRT in my set worked when I first got it, but it finally died. The radio worked last time I tried it several years ago. It will be a fun project to work on. Having the paperwork makes it even better. Keep us posted as you progress with it.

Gilbert

Well, I have bad news to report. The CRT has an open filament. I have not found a type number yet; but, from my other readings on this set, I'm guessing it's a 12LP4. Now, when I obtain some $, I've got to start looking for a tube. What should I expect to pay for a 12LP4 and are they hard to find? I did resolder the filament pins without luck. That dang brightener probably had something to do with this!

BTW, the chassis number is 20B1 and it's a model 30F16.

According to the information in the Rider TV manuals some of the 20B1 chassis use a 12BP4 CRT. If you can also use this CRT it may make your search for a replacement CRT easier.

I decided to unsolder the base just to make sure the wires were OK. It's now confirmed that the filament is open. The base is marked 12LP4 and is branded National Video Corp. of Chicago. The writing is faded and I didn't see it until I removed the base. Now, the hunt is on for some money and then a 12LP4. I hope I don't run into any more hard to find bad parts with this one!

OK, I fired it up (on a variac at low voltage, of course) and the main filter cap started spewing it's guts at about half-normal AC input. Now, had I been the average person and fired this thing up from 120 volts, I would have probably fried a power transformer. I was hoping that the electrolytics would still be somewhat good so I could get some indications (HV, audio) from the TV so that I'd know where I stand before buying a CRT. I'll replace the electrolytics in the power supply and try again.

I might have some fun with this TV when I fix it. I know a bunch of people in their 20's and 30's and most all of them think expensive HD TV's are the only way to go. I think I'll invite them to a super bowl party next year. I won't tell them beforehand what they'll be watching it on.

Ha, that might be your last football party!

There was a local junque store that had one of these; funny thing was every time I'd go in there I would ask about it and the price was always different, sometimes up, sometimes down. Range was $85-135. I kicked myself often for not buying it (at any price.) Now if I found it I wouldn't have room so it wouldn't matter. This will be a good set...I like working on 'em.

That's hard to answer. They seem to becoming more scarce. Maybe one will show up at the ETF auction. I paid about $40 for two. One I knew to be really weak and I thought the other would be weak, but acceptable. Both had more serious problems than indicated, but I was happy to have duds to get rebuilt.

5AXP4's seem to show up fairly often and are inexpensive. You might get one just to check out the set before making a more serious investment if you have to go for a rebuilt CRT.

John

I love the combo's like that, great score.
Dan

By the way, Video Display Corporation does sell 12LP4 CRT's and other replacement CRT's but they are very expensive. A 12LP4 is $239.

http://vdc.mybisi.com/

Yes, but they've been showing zero in stock. $239 wouldn't be bad if it's NOS or rebuilt. I had to pay $270 to get one rebuilt.

John

Thats a nice one ...hope you get it working.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...dmiral0003.jpg

Have any of you 78rpm record collectors noticed that the top record on the stack pictured on the Triple-Play phonograph manual is a blue label Columbia record from about 1920-1922 vintage? This would be an acoustic 78 produced before the microphones & amplifiers entered the recording chain in early 1925. The label had gold lettering against a medium blue background, & was the label used just before Columbia's "flag" label, which had a pair of colorful flags on either side of a coppertone or bronze background. How neat for me to have noticed this!

ALSO-pretty weird to use an early 1920s Columbia 78rpm record in an operator's manual illustration for a record changer made at LEAST twenty-five years later!

I have a Columbia 78 from around 1930 with a similar looking label with gold text a black background, with the round Columbia/musical note symbol at the top - looks a lot like what's on that brochure.

I just recently acquired one almost identical to that but the mirror-image!!!
How do you date these things?...I'm a TV noob. Mine is probably "newer"..the back panel isn't quite so "sparton"....I kill myself.
Anyways...just like a noob i plugged it in and the radio works fine, the TT needs some help, and the tv works, but just has a wide horizontal bar across...Probably best that someone looks at it that knows their stuff!!
It's a cool looking turntable though..:D

I had one of these years ago . Picked it up at a estate auction . It went for 20 bucks . The tv worked great after a recapping but the radio didnt work . At the time i just got into repairing stuff and was told it had bad IF cans . I wound up giving it to a friend . CAn kick myself in the butt now for not saving it . Those admirals are getting rare to find .

There are several ways to pin down a date on these things. One way is to look for date codes on original tubes, transformers, speakers, etc. A second way is to see what date the Sam's Photofact service data was published. A third way is to check price guides (and they usually use the methods I mentioned to nail down a date). In my case, it was easy since there was documentation stating that the customer bought it in January of 1950. I assumed, from this date, that the TV was actually made in '49.

It sounds like your TV is suffering from no vertical sweep. At any rate, I wouldn't plug it in again until all of the electrolytic and paper capacitors were changed. If one of these caps shorts, the damage could be costly (as in burning up a transformer or other major part that may be difficult to find).

I brought mine up on a variac and the main power supply filter cap spewed it's guts. I'd hate to think what would have happened had I plugged it directly into 120 volts!

I did have another Admiral combo similar to my "new" one; but, I think it was a little newer. The screen was rectangular. I can't remember if the actual CRT was round or rectangular. It was in sad shape and I tossed it.

OK, I now have a usable 12LP4 CRT in my possession. A member of the ARF had a late '50's Dumont tube that was weak but usable. When I first connected it to my tester, (B&K 480) it checked in the red (which I expected). I wasn't really worried because I've seen B&W tubes check bad and actually still make a watchable picture. After about 30 minutes on the tester, the tube checked in the green. It's now been on the tester for 1.5 hours and I'm about to go check it again. This tube probably just needs to be used.

Now, would there be any need for me to save the dud 12LP4? The only reason I would suspect that I need to save it would be to have it rebuilt; but, I'm open to suggestions.

I'm probably not going to install the new tube until I'm done recapping the chassis.

I would save the dud 12LP4. Even if you don't plan on getting it rebuilt, someone else may want it for that purpose. I haven't seen any show up on the bay for some time.

According to Scotty the guns are getting scarce also. He keeps the old guns in case he needs to get them rebuilt.

The 12LP4 in the Philco I haven't started to work on yet behaved like your replacement. It looked completely dead. Then a couple of sudden jumps and the emission started to climb to a decent level and the G1 cutoff was acceptable. As near as I can tell it had been just sitting unused for 29 years.

John

OK, I let the tube cool and fired it up again at 6.3 volts. It starts out in the low end of the "bad" section; but, comes up to "good" after several minutes. I did try the "clean and balance" function of my CRT tester; but, it didn't help and I decided not to push my luck with the rejuvenate function. On my tester, when you press the button in either clean and balance or rejuvenate mode, the meter needle suddenly rises. You hold the button down until the needle falls back down. In this case, the needle just barely moved and fell back down. I still have the same test results, weak for a few minutes and then it checks good. I'm not going to press my luck by trying to get anymore out of it.

I will save the dud CRT in case I decide to have it rebuilt or someone else needs it for rebuilding.