Capehart Farnsworth 661P Aquisition

[pendulum]

This Capehart 661P had been listed on Craigslist for a few days, and today I made the 3 hour drive to pick it up. Upon seeing some photos of the set, I had assumed at some point the mask had been widened and the cabinet refinished, as the set looked dramatically different than any other example I had seen of this set.



When I got the set home, the first obvious fact was the rusty backside of the set. However, the remainder of the set and underneath are rust free and in good shape.





The picture tube is a farnsworth branded one, which has a neat label and interestingly no aquadag coating, even though there is a grounding strap for it.



Looking in the cabinet, I can see that the set was approved June 15, 1949, which seems pretty late for this model.



I'm starting to think that perhaps at the end of this models production, Capehart decided to use up the old cabinet design with parts from some of the newer models. This model Capehart for 1950 has a really similar crt mask.



Also though the control labels are mostly gone, the one that is left, which is behind the safety glass, clearly shows that it was on a wood finish, not the yellow that other versions of this same model has.




I will start working on this set in the next few weeks. If anyone with this set could take some photos of the knobs I am missing I would really appreciate it. Additionally, anyone with ideas on this set I would love to hear them.