1960's RCA Victor Console

[50nstillhifi]

Acquired this baby a few weeks ago and immediately started to clean out 50+ years of grime and dirt...the floor of inside the console had a few millimeters of yuck!

What a beautiful console.. chock full of "old world" electronics.. and given the extensive rebuild and no doubt research you are putting into the restoration, inspiration as well!

 

[jdsalinger]

RCA flies under the radar. Having owned one, the cabinetry and quality FAR exceeds Magnavox (no disrespect, Maggies sound great). I think the RCA drivers may be a fair bit higher quality too.

 

[NikiNick]

What's the end game for this unit? crank some Mighty Diamonds and or Culture once she's back in tip top shape.

Yeah! that's what I am talking about

 

[NikiNick]

These are not going back in.....well maybe the control face plate to keep things tidy

 

[orthophonic]

What is the bottom left tube on the tuner chassis, 12AU7?

 

[orthophonic]

I am an idiot, I see you posted the tube chart earlier.

 

[gadget73]

I appreciate tuners from a technical perspective. Mostly its a leftover from my interest in antique radios, but from a pure utility standpoint I'm a bit indifferent. I listen to the radio all day at work just to have background noise but thats really it. Same if I'm in the garage, the tuner is there just to drown out my chronic ear-ringing. The tuner in my console works well, and I'm adding a stereo decoder to it so it can sit there mostly un-used. Were this mine I'd have to make the tuner work because it came with it, but once it worked it would probably not really get used.

 

[OutlawSun]

I'm kind of sad to see that just get gutted out. That's a nice little tuner setup plus I think consoles like that one are way cooler when they're in complete working order particularly tube equipment. Once you chuck it there's not replacing it.

 

[NikiNick]

Don't be sad my friends...this is more like a lobotomy - the console lives - the AM/FM sections had some disorder. Most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex (Preamp and amp) were already severed. It would have taken much to revive those parts.
Now the console is happily working again!
Note the complicated AM/FM plastic surgery ...pun intended

 

[50nstillhifi]

Don't be sad my friends...this is more like a lobotomy - the console lives - the AM/FM sections had some disorder. Most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex (Preamp and amp) were already severed. It would have taken much to revive those parts.
Now the console is happily working again!
Note the complicated AM/FM plastic surgery ...pun intended

View attachment 1794747

Wow... thank you for the pic! Reminds me of the console my dad had as the centerpiece of our living room. And now I do remember the turntable had that lever that held multiple records in place.. to let them drop in series after playing. Hmmm... makes you wonder why component TTs did not follow with that ability.

Nahhhhhhh... It didn't always work properly.. but yours looks great! Good job

 

[Criley00]

Hi....i have the exact same model and I'm looking for more information on it. The one I have works perfectly with zero issues, I'm looking for a way to get an exact year ans model and possible worth thanks.

 

[gadget73]

can you get us the numbers off the speaker or transformer? One of the strings of numbers will include year and week made.
Exact model number, if anywhere, is usually on a tag on the back. Maybe its on the label inside the console under the speaker too.

 

[Dswankey]

Hi....i have the exact same model and I'm looking for more information on it. The one I have works perfectly with zero issues, I'm looking for a way to get an exact year ans model and possible worth thanks.

Welcome aboard and I'm glad to hear that the unit is working. Seeing as you're new here this is just a friendly reminder, asking for worth and or value is considered a no-no here at AK in any all of the sub forums except "Dollars and Sense"

https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?forums/dollars-and-sense.128/

See item # 9

https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/audiokarma-rules.301366/

As to "more information" what in particular are you looking for? as to "exact year and model" try looking on the back or inside the back and see if there are any numerical identifiers that should be able to help pinpoint a model # and potentially year. It's a stereo unit and tubed so it will probably fall in the early 1960's range

 

[Dswankey]

^ I could've swore that I sent an RCA catalog to be uploaded to the database, I'll check and I think I still have the catalog floating around somewhere. If I find it I'll see what I can share.

 

[NikiNick]

@gadget73 Here are some pic with numbers!
Interesting to see what these numbers will tell about mine!

 

[50nstillhifi]

Good info being put out.. have two of these consoles, now one finished and upgraded to bluetooth.

Looking forward to sharing info and moving on to my tube model!

 

[NikiNick]

Good info being put out.. have two of these consoles, now one finished and upgraded to bluetooth.

Looking forward to sharing info and moving on to my tube model!

Looking forward for your pics @50nstillhifi

 

[gadget73]

looks like the lower string on the speaker reads 2746304

If so, 274 means it was made by RCA
6304 means week 4, 1963

transformer has 606-3-19
606 is Woodward-Shumaker
week 19, 1963

so you're looking at a mid-1963 unit.

http://www.triodeel.com/eiacode.htm

if you'd like to look up who made the other bits and bobs. A lot of it will have mfg and date codes.

 

[NikiNick]

looks like the lower string on the speaker reads 2746304

Kudos to you @gadget73 I learnt something new today!

 

[Dswankey]

Atta boy! @gadget73