My First Vintage TV-RCA 6-T-86 w/ 16GP4

[vinyldavid]

Well hello again!

Got another one for ya. This time I'll need some help.

About two years ago there was a 6-T-86 on the local CL for about $200. My friend AmigaMan wanted to get it. So he talked with them for a while, but ended up deciding that he didn't have room for it. So I jumped at the chance to get it.

The night before we were going to go, I had a sale that didn't go through, and as such didn't have the funds (we had talked him down to $100). So I thought it was gone forever.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I'm browsing CL and see a "1949 RCA Stereo Console TV". Of course interested, I click on it. There is the same unit! for $100 asking price! It had not been powered on by the owner, and he had had it for a couple years, the history is unknown before that.

I go back and forth a bit, convince my mother to let me put it in her living room, and make plans to bring it home. I emailed an offer for $100 for both the RCA and a Sony TC-500A tube stereo R2R. He countered with $125 for both, and I called it done.

Yesterday, AmigaMan and I took the old wagon down to get it. Well, I wasn't prepared for the huge hill that this guy had. It seemed like a 60 degree incline. pictures do not do it justice, but I scraped up my tailpipe trying to back up it (so we could load it in easier), but I couldn't get up the hill. So I went up forwards.

Here's a pic:


Well, we got the thing loaded without too much trouble (there were 4 of us getting it out of the basement/garage.

Here it is loaded in the Roadmaster:


But now I had to back down this driveway with this thing in the back of my wagon. On one side, I would go into a ravine, the other side of the driveway meant I would lose my tailpipe (which already scraped pretty bad going up). The owner of the house guided me, and it took about 5 minutes to back down the 160 foot driveway. Fortunately, no real damage done to the exhaust.

So we got home and pulled it out of the car.


Since I live on the second floor, we removed both record changers along with the bottom front doors to give us handholds and got it upstairs. That's how it sits now.

AmigaMan let me borrow his Sencore CR-168 CRT tester to see how the 16GP4 is doing. I fired it up last night, got heater, no shorts. But it gave me nothing on the emissions side. Disappointed, I went to sleep. A bit ago I went to try again and recheck my procedure. Still nothin.

Then, another friend of mine, mpatoray, suggested to run the tube at 7v heater and see what happens. Well, sho'nuff it started to come to life! In the past hour it's gone from nothing to the middle of the questionable scale! As I am writing this, it's still cooking and rising).


That's as far as I have gotten so far, here's a pic of it all closed up, but it highlights the damage a bit much, the cabinet looks pretty nice in person. I'll get detailed photos with my DSLR later. All photos taken with my spiffy new iPhone 4S.


Later tonight I'll variac the audio side and see what happens. Both changers need work, but all tubes present and accounted for.

Here we go! Any tips appreciated.