Gold McIntosh

Rich Andrews

Well-Known Member
I seem to remember that some of the McIntosh tuners or preamps had gold knobs, etc. Which ones had that and what is the history behind the gold trim?
 
Rich, if you look through the various photos of McIntosh tuners and preamps, you can see some of the "gold" ones on Berner's great website.

http://www.berners.ch/McIntosh/en/Frame_McIntosh.htm

If I had to characterize McIntosh appearances, there have been four phases:

1)1949 to 1955 - original gear which was mostly green in appearance.
2) 1955 to 1962 - mostly gold and black highlights
3) 1962 to 1971 - two tone, light gold/silver and black
4) 1972 to today - mostly black with silver/gold accents.

Of course, the above is a generalization, there were some two-tone amps that went well into the '80s. Are you thinking of the C20 preamp and MR65 tuner for example, or even further back to the MR55 tuner days.

Gold seem to be really popular in the '50s when you look at Scott, Pilot and Fisher vintage gear.
 
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I was curious about this MR77 I saw on ebay. The item # is 3077268608. It certainly looks different. Were some people putting gold knobs on otherwise normal units? The gold panloc buttons would be a little tougher to install.
 
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I think its the picture. The knobs are more silverish than gold inreality. That's my theory.

Brian Levy who hangs out here owns an MR77, maybe he can comment.
 
Those are the original style knobs. The knobs from this period are not a true silver but depending on supplier had a bit of a range towards the light brass or gold color in terms of hue. I've seen a range of about 3 degrees of hue. This difference is so small that many people never seem to notice it. I've also noticed that the Panloc buttons always matched the knobs on new units. On used units I have seen these mismatched. One way to check if possibly the unit was repaired as besides seeing if the felt is missing.
 
That is interesting, I've never noticed that. I've heard of A/B ing
pieces of gear but not knobs and buttons. At least on gear! :D

Carl
 
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