1968 Magnavox - Should I get it?

[compucat]

Regarding the delicate nature of PC boards in vintage tube TVs: Since this is such a problem, has anyone thought of or tried to get reproduction boards made? These would be boards with all the traces onto which we could transfer the components from our sets. Imagine giving these old board mounted tube sets another fifty years of chassis life without bridging or bypassing traces.

[Randy Bassham]

Magnavox was a factory direct to dealer operation, they didn't go through distributors like RCA and Zenith. In the distributor set up a TV shop or very small dealer could go to the distributor and buy one or two sets and take special orders also, the distributors were also the factory parts depot. Magnavox was sold in high end department stores such as Marshall Fields in Chicago, in smaller towns some music stores were Magnavox dealers and all parts were ordered directly from the factory. It took a larger investment for someone to become a Magnavox dealer and in the case of Magnavox HEC's Home Entertainment Centers they had to agree to handle only Magnavox products, this began to change in the late 70's. Also for many years Magnavox was a (Fair Traded) product which meant the factory set the prices that the dealers had to sell the product for in order to keep their franchises, until this was outlawed. Magnavox had fair market penetration where they had dealers. Many independent service shops didn't care much for the Magnavox sets because of the parts situation where they would usually have to get them from a local dealer somewhere and most of the time the dealer would hold them up for full retail on parts. The guy I worked for was notorious about this, I've often heard him say "Why should I tie up my money in parts so they can make more money".

[Bill R]

I remember the Magnavox Home Entertainment Centers. Randy, I have family in Poplar Bluff, and I spent quite a bit of time there. When we would go into town no trip was complete without a stop by the Magnavox store. This was in the late 60's and 70's. I lived in Memphis and spent quite a bit of time at the Allen & Bean service center. When I bought my Star system in 1978 Bill got it for me through the service center. They were always good to supply parts and such. I had a minor problem with the set while it was under warrenty. When I went to the service center Rudell (the tech) gave me a stack of modules and said " use what you need and bring the rest back ". I didn't have to wait for a service call.
Times were good.

Bill R

[Carmine]

I think the popularity of Magnavox depened a lot on the local dealer. I see a pretty good number of them around here, and remember at least two Magnavox dealers in my area, 12 & Harper & 11 and Ryan-ish (both gone now). The dealer at 12 & Harper was also a repair shop. They sold used sets, perhaps as a way to make up for only having $$$ new Maggies.

The only old sets I ever saw at estate sales in Sun City were Magnavoxs. I also noticed the the local Maganvox dealer had huges ads in any old Sun City calenders, phone books, etc. Business must have been good.

I remember a white cabinet tube set playing, with a good picture at a Estate Sale around 2003. Right off the bat, I was kinda concerned about that old set playing pointlessly at the sale. I would have bought it, but somebody beat me to it... I hope it was a TV collector, but shudder to think it might have been a future fish-tank Not much interest in "old" in Phoenix.

[Tony V]

Around here (Central VA) Magnavox's were sold at our local Grand Piano and furniture store which is now named Grand interiors as they dont sell piano's anymore or electronics. They carried the complete line until the early 80's when they changed out to RCA's, Zenith, Sony and Fisher branded sets. The reliabilty of the newer sets caused them to do away with selling any of them. I used to see plenty of them here but havent seen but one in the past 5 years. I've owned at least 11 of them including two theater units with phantom remotes. All of them were 60's models and color sets except for 2 b/w ones. One of them was the rare 19 inch consolette. Magnavox's had their issues but have seen alot of them still in use all the way up into the late 90's so obviously they werent the worst sets to have. I would buy another one if i could still find one in at least semi-working order.
Tony

[andy]

Originally Posted by compucat

Regarding the delicate nature of PC boards in vintage tube TVs: Since this is such a problem, has anyone thought of or tried to get reproduction boards made? These would be boards with all the traces onto which we could transfer the components from our sets. Imagine giving these old board mounted tube sets another fifty years of chassis life without bridging or bypassing traces.

This wouldn't be too hard to do at home. All you would need is a scan of the board after removing all the parts, or good digital picture of the board traces before removing the parts. You could then clean it up in an image editor and print it full size on special etch resist transfer paper.

I doubt a commercially made replacement would cost that much, depending on how many you had made.