My new old radios - all bought in September

[RetroToday]

September was a very busy vintage radio buying month (for me), couldn't pass on some great deals. Local garage and yard sales were kind to me and I bought a Philco radio and Peerless speaker at the London Vintage Radio Club (London, Ontario Canada) fall swap meet.
Some of the ones I bought need a little TLC and others are in great shape and in good working condition.

I also picked up a couple of oscilloscopes (radio repair equipment) for free from a retired repairman who says he will help me learn how to fix tube radios - I haven't taken pictures of the oscilloscopes yet.

Here are the radios:

1934 Genereal Electric Canada, model K-80. Brush painted in a gaudy silver, but in good working condition otherwise.

1936 Philco Canada, model 359c - A very compact model for that period in time, it's only about a foot wide

1937 Viking Canada, model 763-E (built for Eaton's department stores) - Needs some TLC, speaker is toast!!!

1937 McMurdo Silver Masterpiece VI with Clifton cabinet - In beautiful shape, this radio is apparently quite rare too. I love the chrome and the deco styling.

circa 1939 Marconi Canada, model 201A - Anyone out ther know what the original knobs really look like?

Late 1920s Peerless Reproducer - This is just a speaker for a radio, no radio inside this cathedral style box.

As always, you can see the entire collection in my Flickr galleries, the entire collection link is listed in my signature below.

 

[Dinerman]

Great radios. You planning on stripping and refinishing that first one?

The fourth one blows me away.

 

[Flivver]

What a *great* haul!

That Masterpiece VI is spectacular! IMHO, the Masterpiece VI is one of the finest (and best looking) radio receivers ever built. Congratulations on finding such a nice example. Is it in operating condition?

 

[RetroToday]

Great radios. You planning on stripping and refinishing that first one? The fourth one blows me away.

Yep, I will strip the GE radio soon. After I finish restoring my old General Electric desk fan.

The McMurdo Silver is my favourite of the bunch too. It's from the last year that company was in business - competition with manufacturers like Scott and Midwest drove them into a financial crisis.

Flivver: It is in good working condition. Had to replace a fuse that was already blown when I got it, but it works nicely. It does need a proper on/off switch that is missing for some reason. To make sure I don't ruin it, I also want to have it looked over by a professional, I don't know enogh about radio repair yet and this is a very sensitive piece of equipment.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I bought my first ever vintage radio today and just learned about all of the hazards with tube radios (http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=23714). You obviously know what you are doing and can fix them up which is great! Your radios are all so beautiful.

 

[imoldfashioned]

1937 McMurdo Silver Masterpiece VI with Clifton cabinet - In beautiful shape, this radio is apparently quite rare too. I love the chrome and the deco styling.

That, my friend, is a thing of beauty! Tsk, the goregeous things always seem to be the rarest too.

 

[John in Covina]

I like the Viking model too!

 

[dhermann1]

I only have a few antique radios, but I can feel the bug raging within me. I'm gonna need more, soon! The Masterpiece, wow, what a beauty! How many tubes? I assume it's hi fi? What kind of frequency response does it get compared to the average good contemporary radio? I've seen a couple other super high end radios of the time. I guess the exposed tubes were part of the cache. Very nice, Thanks for sharing. I'm always encourageing people in the Lounge to get into this hobby. These old radios are just beautiful objects, and they can be enjoyable to play as well. They really add vintage atmosphere to your decor. And you can get nice ones for as little as $120, all the way up to . . . well, pretty big bucks.

 

[Dominic]

If only I could be so lucky in garage sales... Still, what you managed to get is simply jaw-dropping.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Beautiful radios, Retro! I especially like the third and fifth ones. But all of them are beautiful. Bully for you!


Lee

 

[RetroToday]

The Masterpiece, wow, what a beauty! How many tubes? I assume it's hi fi? What kind of frequency response does it get compared to the average good contemporary radio?

Hi dhermann1,

The McMurdo Silver Masterpiece VI has a whopping 21 tubes and each of them is encased in a chromed can. Most makes of consoles at that time had 7-11 tubes.
It also came equipped with a very large Jensen Speaker.

It is hi fi for it's day, with great frequency response. Of course, there are a couple bands (like Police band) that are no longer used and you can't pick up anything. A lot of the older radios, especially this one, can pick up stations from across the globe.

About the exposed tubes, it's not really meant to be displayed that way, but it looks great with the chrome "box" off. Here's a couple more pics:

With chromed box top on

A closer view of the radio portion.

Sorry, I know these images aren't the greatest, I will have to take some better ones. I quickly discovered it's very tricky to photograph chrome.

 

[RetroToday]

I bought my first ever vintage radio today and just learned about all of the hazards with tube radios. You obviously know what you are doing and can fix them up which is great! Your radios are all so beautiful.

Thankyou everyone that responded for your kind comments!

And, PrettySquareGal - Thanks, but by no means am I an expert on fixing the electronics, yet.
I'm going to learn how to do everything soon - I've found a couple of nice people who have retired from the radio & tv repair business, but are very willing to help me out with what I don't understand.

I'm happy you think they're beautiful as I do too. Even if they don't work, they still look great sitting there - half the fun of owning one.

I'd like to see a pic of the one you just picked up. Maybe I can even help you out one day with what I know so far about them. Or, at least direct you to somebody that knows better than I do. The AntiqueRadios forum is where I go to get a lot of my help, there are a lot of nice, helpful people there too - http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/index.php