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My new Heathkit Mono pre-amp, & tuners

HiFiCanada

HiFiCanada

Caregiver
I just won a good original set of Heathkit Mono tube pre-amp and tuners, the model numbers for the heathkits are,
Heathkit FM mono tuner is FM-3A
Heathkit AM tuner is BC-1A,
Heathkit pre-amp is WA-P2

I could see that the original owners have taken good care of the units, there are no scratches on them , and just a bit of cleaning on the cabinets made the look very good. All the tube's light up and even the front dial bulbs all work. They will need a bit of cleaning on the inside , removing the dust build up, but that's all I am going to do for now.
I want to preserve them in original condition for future generations.

The tuners work, but have not been able to check the pre-amp, but they look all original, with some of the original plug and patch cords also came with the units.

HeathkitFM-3AAMisBC-1APreisWA-P2.jpg


HeathkitFM-3AAMisBC-1APreisWA-P24.jpg


HeathkitFM-3AAMisBC-1APreisWA-P26.jpg
 
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They look beautiful! I've never seen the AM tuner before, would love to find one of those. Those preamps are a bit tricky to open up, IIRC. Not bad, just that the way inside isn't so obvious. I don't remember the details.
 
I have re-capped both the pre-amp and the FM tuner, both work great in my mono system. The signal strays a bit on the tuner but the biggest problem I had was that I burned the tuner string with my soldering iron....be careful around that, it took me more time to figure that out than most anything else.
Good Luck!
 

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tuner string

kirkleclaire said:
I have re-capped both the pre-amp and the FM tuner, both work great in my mono system. The signal strays a bit on the tuner but the biggest problem I had was that I burned the tuner string with my soldering iron....be careful around that, it took me more time to figure that out than most anything else.
Good Luck!
Click to expand...

How did you get that fixed? The tuner string is pretty tough and probally would be hard to find.
 
I love those! Dad had a set of those many moons ago. Wish they were still around. I love that industrial look.

mike
 
HiFiCanada said:
How did you get that fixed? The tuner string is pretty tough and probally would be hard to find.
Click to expand...

I bought some tuner string from a local electronics store and made my own....then sat befuddled for hours until I finally drew a picture of it....I used the old string as a guide for the length...sadly in all the fiddling around the station bar scraped off some of the paint on the glass face plate...be warned.
 
Thanks for the warning Kirk, I would have thought that the paint was pretty hard to scrap off, so I will be carefull with that.
The FM tuner has a dark green dial, so dark, that it is hard to see that the lights are really on, wonder why Heathkit made the dial so dark?
 
HiFiCanada said:
Thanks for the warning Kirk, I would have thought that the paint was pretty hard to scrap off, so I will be carefull with that.
The FM tuner has a dark green dial, so dark, that it is hard to see that the lights are really on, wonder why Heathkit made the dial so dark?
Click to expand...

I agree, you can only see it light up in a darkened room.
 
Heathkit FM-3A, AM is BC-1A, WA-P2 pictures

I finally got around to taking picture of all three Heathkit mono kits , I love the units all in very good shape and the original owner even taped the plastic coil tuning tool on to the side of the FM tuner. The Amperex tube, I have never seen one with that photo of a man[tube] holding a trumpet.
I am keeping all three units in original condition with the tubes in them.

TubeAmperex.jpg


HeathkitTunerFM-3A5.jpg


To see more pictures, visit the link below

http://s1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/ultracontrast/Heathkit Mono/
 
Vintage collection

Dmannnnn said:
These are some very cool pieces of gear. I hope they sound as good as they look.
Click to expand...

I have not tried hooking any of those up yet, I may just put them in my vintage Heathkit collection and just leave as a static display for now. All the tubes light up, but that is about as far as I am going for now.
 
I too have been collecting the gold tone Heathkit audio gear. I haven't picked up the two tuners but after seeing the units you have I think a set here is warranted. Now if someone would just offer up a pair of W6s.
 
Just one owner

DanO55 said:
I too have been collecting the gold tone Heathkit audio gear. I haven't picked up the two tuners but after seeing the units you have I think a set here is warranted. Now if someone would just offer up a pair of W6s.
Click to expand...

I got lucky for once, and they look like they can from just one original owner's estate sale, and were well taken care of. The FM tuner gets hot fast, maybe to fast for my liking, and without testing anything yet, I just unplugged. I But once I have my work bench all set up and the proper lighting , I can start working on some projects and leave them there, but for now these units are just stored.
I got them from ebay, yet I noticed more of those sold seperate for the cost of all my three gold tone gear put together, I paid $110 bucks for all three.. Maybe no one noticed them, so I got lucky that way also.
 
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