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Was there a maroon WE 500?

Started by Greg G., April 13, 2012, 12:31:39 AM

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Greg G.

Colors on Paul F's site suggest maybe rust (124) or burgundy (143).
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

paul-f

As I recall, rust was reported in late production sets.

I would suspect that any color code over -64 would only be found on modular sets, not a hardwired set, as pictured.

A maroon hardwired 500 would be an interesting find.  I'd check inside the housing and handset to see if it might be a color-faded -54 brown set in soft plastic.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

Dan/Panther

On my monitor the phone pictured appears metallic bronze.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Greg G.

It was a little hard to tell on my monitor also, but it is described as "maroon", which is what it appears to be in the picture.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

Dan/Panther

With a little photo shop manipulation of contrast and brightness I could get a maroon color, but i could not get rid of the metallic appearance.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

jsowers

Greg, that phone is Mahogany Brown and rare. No doubt in my mind at all. It would look good on your side of the bed!  :)  Good luck getting it.
Jonathan

Dan/Panther

#6
Greg;
Jonathan is probably right as the Maroon phone is most likely confused with the red phones that many post, the photo shows it as red, when in reality is a dark red color like below. Both the same phones but one is color corrected.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dan/Panther

The dial also appears to be later model as new as 70's. So I would say if it is brown, most likely a later version.  Maybe S/C or ITT. If it's an S/C pass on it. The ITT's are much higher quality, and almost identical to WE internally.
JMHO
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dan/Panther

#8
Here is my 1970 hardwired ITT mahogany brown 500. The closest I'll probably get to a WE original. Internally about the same part for part as a same year  WE 500.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dan/Panther

I would like to add that the ITT hard wired 500 clones, are also better across the scale for the Orange and Lime green models. Much better quality then the S/C's.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Greg G.

#10
Quote from: Dan/Panther on April 13, 2012, 04:19:07 PM
The dial also appears to be later model as new as 70's. So I would say if it is brown, most likely a later version.  Maybe S/C or ITT. If it's an S/C pass on it. The ITT's are much higher quality, and almost identical to WE internally.
JMHO
D/P

I contacted the seller, they confirmed that it is a Western Electric, said that's what's physically marked on the phone.  That's good to know regarding the quality difference between ITT and S/C, I never knew that.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

Adam

#11
Quote from: Dan/Panther on April 13, 2012, 04:19:07 PM
If it's an S/C pass on it. The ITT's are much higher quality, and almost identical to WE internally.

If that's your experience, Dan, I respect that.

I feel I must point out, however, that that is not my experience.  I installed and maintained business telephone systems in the 70's and 80's, I closely worked with sets of both manufacturers, and I never saw any major difference between 500/2500 series sets made by ITT and Stromberg/Carlson, either in visual quality of manufacture or component reliability.  Both ITT and Stromberg sets from that period were part by part compatible and comparable to Western Electric.

Of course, there's no comparability of reliability between the other two and Western Electric, which wins that race hands down.  But between ITT and Stromberg, I never experienced an appreciable difference.
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

Dan/Panther

Somewhere in the forum I did a side by side photo comparison of both models from 1973, both Orange. If I can find the post I will link it here.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dan/Panther

#13
Here is the link.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1142.0

Notice how cheaply made the SC is to The ITT. Components are obviously not equal. Notice the Network, the ringer adjustment lever. Just seems very cheap compared to ITT. I can take WE parts and use then in my ITT, no way will that work with the SC. Even the word LOUD is hardly readable on the SC.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Adam

#14
As was pointed out in the thread, the difference in the ringer adjustment lever was that the S/C phone's ringer was a frequency ringer.  Their straight line ringers were exactly the same as ITT.

And, as for the network, ITT went to that network style too at some point in that era.  Both ITT and S/C started off as exact clones of WE, and over the years, they both slowly started cheapening out their parts, I'd say starting possibly in the late 70's.  Common ITT rotary dials from that period feel noticeably rougher when dialing them as compared to WE dials.  ITT touchtone pads NEVER felt as nice as WE dials when pushing the buttons.

But like I said, in my experience, ITT and S/C were different but mostly equivalent.

The BIG difference, of course, was between ITT and S/C as the class of clones, and the original, Western Electric.  I own a few ITT and S/C sets in my collection, but to me they are curiosities.  Only my Western Electric sets are the ones that have real "value" to me.
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820