The Pilot Console Project

[Plimpington2]

My dudes,

Per my other thread, I happened upon a Pilot Console the other day - the C-1070. This comes with the SP-210 preamp and the SA-232 6BQ5 based power amp. Includes a tuner and Garrard idler wheel turntable as well.

I got them home this afternoon:

And I am SUPER pleased with condition and build quality. This includes the main unit and an “auxiliary” speaker unit.

Here’s the SP-210 preamp and the Tuner FA-540. The knobs are metal. The condition inside looks damned near brand new

And here’s a wider shot of the table as well.

And around back, the power amp: this thing supplies power to the pre-amp via a special umbilical cord . . . And to the tuner via its auxiliary 120v sockets.

And here’s everything removed and set out:

Even the emblems look great!!

Super excited to begin work on this!!

 

[Plimpington2]

So, after I got everything up to the work-shop I turned my attention to stripping down and refinishing the cabinets. The electronics are a solid 9.5. The cabinets are 7-8’s. I need to replace the grill covers because one has a small hole (I’m ATTEMPTING to re-weave the hole - it’s just about a square inch - because I REALLY like the vintage straw weave pattern they went with). But if I can’t re-weave it, I’ll replace with some vintage cloth.

For the records, the speakers are CRAP!! It’s amazing to me the level of care that went into the electronics and cabinetry, but the speakers are awful. Like a 10 inch woofer with a magnet the size of a spool of sewing thread.

I’m stripping the cabinets down and will re-stain and polyurethane (or maybe just tungoil). They will be used as a console table for my gear.

But HERE is the big question: the pre-amp is arranged so the words are sideways (because that’s the orientation in the consuls). MOST seem to mount it in a box in the conventional way, so words remain sideways when the box is laid flat.

What about the idea of mounting it and the tuner in one box and have them face upwards (with controls facing up). A LOT of home-brew tube amps have controls on the upper surface. That way it will be oriented front to back, and the words on the faceplate will be oriented correctly.

I am building an external PSU for the preamp so I can use it with any power amp.

More on all that when I get to it.

I hope to have gehe cabinets completed by end of tomorrow.

 

[mibag6]

Nice looking gear. Do you have the same speakers in both cabinets? Sometimes Pilot used a Quam woofer in one cabinet and a Jensen in the other. The Jensen is popular with guitar amp builders and is actually worth a little money. As for the small magnet, that's an alnico magnet and they usually aren't very big.

 

[Dswankey]

Super Sweet!!!!, congrats. can we get some pictures of tubes in the SA-232?

 

[Plimpington2]

Nice looking gear. Do you have the same speakers in both cabinets? Sometimes Pilot used a Quam woofer in one cabinet and a Jensen in the other. The Jensen is popular with guitar amp builders and is actually worth a little money. As for the small magnet, that's an alnico magnet and they usually aren't very big.

Yea, the main unit uses the Quam unit and the auxiliary speaker uses the Jensen. The Quam cone literally disintegrated in my hand. The Jensen one is more robust. The Jensen unit looks very nice with a BIG blue and black back cover, but removing it reveals the tiny little alnico.

I guess it’s worth a few clams. I’ll throw it up on the bay before too long, I guess. I have a total of $500 in all of it, which i thought was a pretty good deal. Clawing back a bit sweetens it a bit more.

 

[Plimpington2]

Super Sweet!!!!, congrats. can we get some pictures of tubes in the SA-232?

Yes, I’ll shoot some this afternoon. For what it’s worth, I believe all the tubes in the amp, preamp and tuner are labeled “Pilot”, so they are all original. Not sure who made them. With one exception - the rectifier tube on the amp is an original Mullard.

 

[mibag6]

I won't depress you with what I paid for the one I had but you did fine with yours. The amp and pre are worth more than you have in it. Sell the Jensen and you'll recover almost enough to pay for the rebuild parts on the amp. Mine needed to be completely rewired and most if not all the resistors were replaced, a couple of tube sockets and all the caps. Lots of work. Hopefully, you won't have to do all that.

 

[gadget73]

Hook those speakers up to something before you dismiss them. As mentioned, AlNiCo magnets are not large but they are pretty strong. They're also more spendy than the massive magnets used later, which is a big part of why they stopped being used.

The mismatched driver thing I don't get, but my Hoffman was that way. Same size speakers in both boxes, different layout, different brands. Mine were fairly bad though and got swapped to something else entirely with a sane 3 way crossover.

 

[Plimpington2]

Hook those speakers up to something before you dismiss them. As mentioned, AlNiCo magnets are not large but they are pretty strong. They're also more spendy than the massive magnets used later, which is a big part of why they stopped being used.

The mismatched driver thing I don't get, but my Hoffman was that way. Same size speakers in both boxes, different layout, different brands. Mine were fairly bad though and got swapped to something else entirely with a sane 3 way crossover.

Too late. . . The woofer cone in the main cabinet turned to dust when I looked at it wrong. This is too bad because the cabinets themselves are of astonishing quality as far as I can tell. It’s mostly ply and hardwoods. 3/4 inch stock all around (actually, I believe the baffles may be 1 inch). With fairly extensive bracing. The ports are not “scientific” (ie., they are just holes in the baffle). I could ABSOLUTELY see modifying these to take a Tannoy dual concentric, for instance. Or I can simply replace the bad woofer with another Jensen (plenty available on eBay). Another alternative is to throw in some Dayton Audio. I have half a mind to repair the Garrard . . . But just half.

I’ve stripped and re-stained the cabinets. First coat of poly goes on tomorrow. I would have preferred a basic tungoil followed by some steal wool and elbow grease, but the cabinets would have been too light for the look that goes best in my room. I believe the veneers are red oak - certainly the window frames are solid red oak.

All that being said, I am also contemplating leaving the grills off and converting the baffles to a wood veneer. I could easily cut a thin veneered sheet of ply to sit snugly within the picture frames and then it just looks like a cabinet. The idea of building shelving into them also occurred to me (to store my gear), but that’s a BIG job.

Either way, my equipment is going to look $1,000,000 on these consoles!!!!

 

[gadget73]

Looks like an RC88, they're not awful but not amazing. I have one as my 78 machine with an old mono GE RPX cartridge.

The last and best in that basic design is the A70. Its the last of the side-pusher changers but with a much better arm and some Delrin parts in appropriate places in the trip linkage to reduce friction. I actually do not have one, but I wouldn't mind. I'd certainly be fine with booting one of my Type A's for an A70.

I like record changers, though I realize most do not. They're fun to rebuild and since I'm lazy I can appreciate not having to get up every 20 minutes to change albums. They make for good background listening.

 

[jdsalinger]

Great score. My $0.02...would you want to use that HEAVY tone arm to play your records? Maybe that RC88 is decent...I don't know. But maybe install a more modern Dual or something.
Second thought....I like the idea of replacing the drivers with a single, full ranger, but I don't think plywood takes a stain well. You'd probably want to veneer and stain THAT or simply use grill cloth.
Have fun.

 

[Plimpington2]

Great score. My $0.02...would you want to use that HEAVY tone arm to play your records? Maybe that RC88 is decent...I don't know. But maybe install a more modern Dual or something.
Second thought....I like the idea of replacing the drivers with a single, full ranger, but I don't think plywood takes a stain well. You'd probably want to veneer and stain THAT or simply use grill cloth.
Have fun.

I’ve actually taken everything out of them and refinished them - I don’t intend to re-stuff them at this point. The woofer for the main consolette disintegrated. I suppose I COULD put the Jensen from the other one in it, but I wanted to re-case the pre-amp and amp, and use them separately.

As it happens, I found ANOTHER one. It’s an older one, mono only. Does not have a tuner or separate amp. And the turntable is a bit suspect. But I like it and will rehab it to original spec. SO . . . My plan is to refinish that unit, use the TT from the later one in the older one, and get it up and running.

So I have three of these boxes now. I REALLY like the build quality. Here’s the two I’ve refinished. I put vintage repro grill cloth on them (i couldn’t reweave the old ones like i had wanted to). They look a $MILLION, especially with some gear on top.

I just gotta put the little brass badges back on them and I’ll call them fine.

Btw, aren’t crystal cartridges bad for your records? They still require RIAA, but not as much gain, is that right? I guess if I DO rehab the turntable, I’d like to change to cheap MM.

 

[gadget73]

They self-equalize basically. They work into a few megohm impedance but its pretty much line-level. They can be hard on records if they run at high tracking force, which many did. Some are better than others though. Personally I prefer mag carts, much better selection and less fuss with having the loading just so in order to get some reasonable approximation of the eq curve. Handily since the original input is line level, you can just stick a phono preamp between the original inputs and the mag cart and it just works.