eBay sellers don't always tell the whole truth... Sony KV-1201U
 

Don't we all love it when we buy a collectible TV, drive 100 miles round trip to get it, only to find out that the seller left out a very significant detail? Well, sometimes I do love it; LITERALLY! I went last night in the rain to pick up this Sony KV-1201, which I need like a hole in the head. But they've all but disappeared, and the price was right (free). The lady and her husband had bundled the set up all nice & dry for me, and we loaded it in the back seat of my truck. This morning, I brought it in and unpacked it. Well, it's basically what she said it was, except for one detail. She forgot to tell me it's BRAND-NEW! This is the same woman who has been selling off her Dad's collection of new-old-stock Sony products on eBay, and this is one of those items. It didn't have the box, so she probably didn't realize it's another unsold, unused item. I have scrutinized the set all over, and can't find one lick of evidence it was ever powered up. Even the high voltage jelly on the bell of the CRT is clean and clear, and that gets black & nasty after only a month or so of use. Especially in metro Los Angeles, where all this stuff lived. The only unfortunate part is that since it wasn't in a box all this time, there are a couple of scratches on the plastichrome trim, and the SONY emblem fell off. I have a Sony emblem, and the scratches are livable, and I'm sure happy to have this thing! Here are some pics... I have NOT cleaned it; not in any way! The way you see it here, is exactly how it came. A very scarce film of white house dust is all it has, and there is no more house dust on the anode lead or any other HV-charged area, than anywhere else. No marks anywhere on the AC plug prongs, and the antenna terminals are 100% virgin.

Charles

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...010/KV1201.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...V1201openl.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...KV1201neck.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...01antpanel.jpg

Wow...

Nice set! Have you powered it up yet?

wow..WOW

Great find!

So what is the power procedure on a brand new 30+ yr old piece of electronics? Just plug it in and go for it?

I say just plug it in and go for it.... :D Awesome score. I have one somewhere but it's a high hour martyr.

I haven't powered it up, and I probably will Variac it. That has the type of power supply that should be OK with a Variac, unlike some other solid state sets that can get unhappy with a Variac. If I don't do that, I'll at least stimulate the main input filters with my cap checker first. I can't wait to see what that CRT looks like, since they're usually a little weak due to many decades of use. I remember the last time I put a brand-new 330AB22 in a customer's set, and it was awesome.

Charles

do you have to worry about low voltage causing no osc on the horz? during a variac power up that is? I have been told (and do) to pull the horz out tube when doing a slow startup.

Wow! Excellent score! Mine was horribly dirty when I found it. I have been blessed with a perfect CRT though. I bet she looks pretty when you power it up, it already does now with nothing on the screen:D

Good news! I powered it up cold turkey, just hoping that it would be OK, and it is! No problems, and the CRT is the best I've seen since the last time I put a new one in a customer's set!!! Amazingly, the tuner contacts and volume pot aren't even dirty! I guess the original lube is still intact. Perfect gray scale, perfect convergence, and all!!! So since the Sony badge had fallen off and got lost, I poked around and found one, and now the set is 100% flawless. I probably won't keep it here in Moorpark, as we do get a salty, damp ocean breeze in the afternoon and metals tend to get dull here. That metal framework in the chassis just gleams, as do the plastichrome knobs. I've seen these sets where that is all dull and powdery, and that won't be allowed on this set.

I don't think so on this power supply. The oscillator starts up suddenly at about 75 volts, but at full 15.75. The tube sets' horizontal oscillators can start up slowly, and hotplate the output. I used to use a Variac to start Sonys after replacing the horizontal output SCR, and to test the oscillator, I'd run that on a 9-volt battery and scope it at the collector of the horizontal driver first, before trying to start the TV. There was an electrolytic cap that would sometimes go bad, and flatten the oscillator; causing the new output to blow after a couple minutes if it wasn't checked out thoroughly.

Charles

Great news, Charles! Better safe than sorry after replacing those SCRs, right? Expensive and (I'm assuming) hard to find these days.

How about a screenshot? Mine has all the symptoms you've pointed out on these--dull knobs (pitted/oxidized) and a thick nasty black-film over the inside of the chassis and on the bell of the crt....A lot of old Sonys seem to be dirty like this inside. Wondering why?

Killer find for sure though.:thmbsp::thmbsp:

That's a nice looking set, I would love to see a picture of this TV running with its new Sony badge attached to it.

Me too:thmbsp:

That's a fine little TV. I suspect there are very few left in that condition.

Need running pics.

:worthless

+1:D:thmbsp: :worthless:
:smoke:

Here you go! I wish I had better skills & camera to get really good screen shots. Believe me this photo doesn't do it justice.

Charles

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...201picture.jpg

I believe you.....:drool::D

Charles,

What is the official use of the grey plastic knob behind the deflection yoke. I have the same one on the PVM I posted about, and the manual quickly eludes to "dynamic purity".

BTW: it was a combo of the yoke positioning and the degauss circuit. Once I pulled the degauss coil, and manually degaussed the thing, redoing the beam landing and fixing the degauss cct put it to bed. There was 30v on the degauss coil even after 20 minutes.

Honestly I don't remember exactly, but I can look in the manual. I'm curious now. ON the later Sonys with the gray knob sticking rearward, it's a primary purity setting (to center the red bar in on the screen with the yoke pulled back). Probably the same here, but I'd hesitate to say unless I look it up. That little 330AB22 has electrostatic convergence through a second anode connector on the side of the neck, and it had a different setup procedure than the newer Trinitron tubes. I think the last time I did a setup on a 330AB22 had to be 25 years ago.

Charles

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Wow Charles, that is an awesome find!! I have the same set, unfortunantly, it's dead as a doornail, and I have to figure it out. But, wow!! Brand spanking new!

i have this same set, but in the opposite condition!

Mine is all beat up and has a million hours on it, the phosphors have darkened (burned) so much with use that it looks like a "black trinitron"

Of course it no longer works, it only displays a weak greenish blank raster, but it's so cute i can't get myself to strip it for parts and throw it out.

It's amazing what turns up. That's quite possibly a once in a lifetime find Charles.

Thanks! I do have a spare KV-1201/1210, which needs the HVR block but is otherwise a good working set, afaik. (CRT unknown), if you need parts. But are you permanently relocated Back East, or are you still in Ventura occasionally?

New in the box sets are extremely rare, and too bad this one was missing the box. It probably was there, but maybe was tattered. All the other Sony stuff this lady was selling, was still sealed in boxes. I got two other sets from her; a 1981 KX-1901, and a 2001-ish 13" Trinitron that she said her Dad kept new because it was the last non-flat Trinitron made. My wife took a liking to it, and it's now her daily kitchen watcher (box carefully kept, of course).

Probably my most exciting new-in-the-box TV I have is a 1948 Motorola VT-71. Sadly, the rubber CRT mask melted anyway, and ruined the gold paint inside the front bezel. I'm not sure yet if I'll replace that, or leave the set virgin with the melted mask.

Charles

No im still up here in Folsom, but I might be down in Ventura in the middle of this month sometime, ill keep you posted!! Hey did you ever find a yoke for that Zenith of mine? Im thinking of puttin my nose back into it..

No luck on the yoke yet, but I do still have that jig for you. No rush; just give me a heads up and I'll have that here for you. I think I better have that jig here in Moorpark, as your wife will put a contract out on me if I let you see the sets piled up in that building in Chatsworth where the jig is :scratch2: ... But on the other hand....

Charles