Free Curtis Mathis Color Console Combo in OHIO
 

Saw this on that auction site. Claims to be free, but pickup only and busted CRT. Near Columbus. CHeck it out!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Consol-T...QQcmdZViewItem

Looks like they used that cabinet as storage... I see other crap in there with the tv/radio stuff! :yes:

If anyone decides to get this set, I have a CM boxed-chassis for it. Everything is there except the HV cage. Box says it was tested in 1974.

CTC-17 clone... I have worked on those. Nice set in its day, but hardly collectable in my opinion. 300 lbs of particle board :thumbsdn:

Charles

I kinda doubt there's much particle board in that one. My CM roundie is from '66, and it doesn't have particle board in it. I don't think they started cheaping their cabinets out till later.

Not sure this one's particle board, but it was about the late 60s that I think they went cheap. I worked on several of them with really horrible particle board cabinets that would start to fall apart as soon as you go to lift. But the earlier ones were VERY NICELY made. The big B&W sets, like the ones with 6 and 8 legs, were a whole different animal from the later ones.

Charles

My B&W CM from the early 60's is real wood veneer over particle board.
I know this because I busted up an identical parts set that was too beat up to save.

It's very thick, good quality particle board however and it weighs a ton!

I recall some big cabinets in the 70's that were a combination of real wood, particle board, and plastic! I guess that's when manufacturers started to get really cheesy!

My first set when I got my own place was an Sears electronic tuning set from '75. It was a large console... the sides were plastic, front was plastic and wood, top was particle board. This particular set had the electronic touch controls. If the humidity was high, it would get stuck on ch 2. To make it stay on the channel you wanted, you'd have to put a penny on the touch control. Originally, this set was my grandparents' first color set.

My CM B&W set is all wood/veneer except for the bottom inside.

Eric, were you using it for firewood??? Or you just felt like being destructive that day??? :D

Yes, I recall the consoles went to molded plastic for all the carved detailed parts, while the flat areas were still wood on particle board.

Even Zenith went cheap on the cabinets on the Chrmacolor II consoles in the 70s.The fronts are made of plastic.On my 1985 Advanced System 3 the entire front of the cabinet is plastic and the curved trim along the bottom.The rest is particle board with veneer.Still a pretty cabinet as long as it never gets wet.We all know what happens to particleboard once it gets wet.

I prefer the metal cabinet 23"/25" Zeniths, they were still making them into the early 80's. I think the metal cabinet RCA's went out with the delta gun tubes. At least on the RCA's, you can convert the metal cabinet sets into consolettes by screwing legs into the fittings provided in the cabinet. Am not sure if the Zeniths have those but they likely do.

I have metal case ,table top, color TVs from the early 1970s from both Curtis Mathis and Zenith. The difference in the quality of the electronics is amazing. Zenith has the hand-wired chassis made like a tank. The Curtis Mathis has all tubes except the Horizontal section on a PC board.

As expected, I got the Zenith working fairly easily. Still have not gotten the Curtis Mathis working, it is sitting in my garage. I have thought of throwing it away, but the color CRT is in very good condition.

Most of the Curtis Mathes b/w chassis from the early 60's are built like a tank, just like the Zeniths, with hard wired circuitry and 3 IF stages, 90 degree deflection 23" CRT etc. Their tube type stereos are very well made too. Somehow as time went on CM just got cheaper and cheaper.

I have the feeling that the CM quality started to slide when the son took over the company. Not sure when that was, but the 70s would be in the ballpark. Then, Curtis Mathes Jr. was killed in that jet plane fire in Texas in about '86. I think I still have the newspaper. That was the end of the company for all intents and purposes... Now the only time I see Curtis Mathes, it's on a rebranded Funai at K-Mart.

Sad.

Charles

Curtis Mathes Jr age 54 was killed in the airliner fire of Air Canada flight 797 on June 4, 1983 at the Greater Cincinnati airport. All of the tube type CM color sets I"ve ever seen were RCA chassis, the B&W sets were hand wired sets built by CM. The ones from the "Most Expensive sets and darn well worth it" days IIRC were built by NEC that they said was warranteed for 5 years, actually they sold you a CTV with a 5 year service contract. I've got a 23" CM that obviously has an RCA chassis. It's on my list of things to do.

I got a CM brochure from 1962 today, and they had some large cabinets. I think I have seen pictures here of some of those taller entertainment centers they had, but there is one in here known as "the montgomery" (model m-3024) that is 110" long! 1100$, or 1250$ with a reel-reel tape player added. Also it doesn't list any color televisions, it just says "color convertible" infront of some of the models, they must have just been putting a different company's chassis in it. It also has a page talking about their b&w tube and chassis, which doesn't mention a color one.