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I found out some of my inheritance today

Started by Kenny C, June 23, 2010, 09:04:50 PM

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Kenny C

and here it is works absoultly great
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

McHeath

Wow cool!  When I showed it to my better and prettier half she said, and I quote, "Oh my God that's the one my folks had!"


Kenny C

it was made in 6-70 but it has no needle
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

AET

Very nice!  I love old console stereos!
- Tom

Dan

You can get the needles on line with a little searching. I recently replaced my turntable needle when I got a bundle of records @ a yard sale for 25 cents each.
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

jsowers

I can think of just one word to describe that one. Mediterranean.

Here's a place I see mentioned a lot on the antique radio-phono newsgroup I've been reading for years. I have no experience dealing with them. You will need to look on the cartridge to find the manufacturer name and then look it up from there. Or maybe take a picture of the needle and send it to them.

http://www.garage-a-records.com/

Here is my inheritance, or actually a picture of one just like it. It was a wedding present to my Uncle Don and Aunt Jane. A Grundig-Majestic, made about 1958. In lovely Danish Modern. If anything ever looked like the 1950s, this is it. Lots of blonde oak. In this one, the radio side has faded darker over the years, from being open. You can see the original lighter color on the phono side.

I love the Multi-Sonic tone controls, which consist of five thumbwheels in between all the pushbuttons that select AM, FM, SW and PU (phonograph in German). The wheels make these little notes go up and down on a lighted scale and all the notes are connected with a little plastic string. I was fascinated with it when I was a kid.

I got this old console before Uncle Don died, after they moved and no longer had a place to put it. I was very pleased when on a visit to my house he said I had it looking and working like when it was new. I reattached the lid to the phono side. Amazingly the little metal pin that came out of the hinge was still inside under the turntable!

This old radio-phono isn't much using the record player, but if you can get Elvis on FM, it will rock the room. The woofer faces down and bounces off the black linoleum along the bottom. There's a midrange that faces down too, and little electrostatic tweeters on each side. It also has an old-fashioned green tuning eye and lights that tell which tone button you pushed. The white glass area above the turntable is a light that goes on when you lift the lid.
Jonathan

AET

Jonathan, that has to be one of the most beautiful consoles, if not the most beautiful one that I have ever seen in all my days.  Very impressive!
- Tom

Kenny C

I am with tom that is a great looking machine
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

McHeath

That is a fab console!  One of the best looking, to my tastes, I've ever seen.  It's got the full blown Googie era thing going on.  Our Magnavox is from 63' and is somewhat like that, but not nearly as full featured or sweetly styled. 

Dennis Markham

Jonathan, that is a beautiful piece that you have there.  It's even more special that it has been in the family all these years.  Thanks for posting the photo and telling about it.

jsowers

Thanks for all the compliments, guys. I didn't mean to upstage Kenny and his stereo. Sorry! Just let it serve as an example that there is a lot out there in old console-land. Uncle Don also had a pedestal Philco Predicta TV, but it was long gone by the time I was interested in old radios and TVs. He was a bargain hunter and the store had them reduced in 1961 when he was TV shopping.

It's funny, they never lived in a 1950s Atomic-era house. Just old bungalows from the 1920s and 30s in a small Southern community. Uncle Don worked for Southern Bell, so there is actually a telephone connection there too. His sister was a missionary overseas and that's who gave him the Grundig. I think it was shipped from West Germany. The instructions are still with it, and they're in German and English. Many overseas veterans bought Grundigs too, so they're not as rare in the US as you might think.

Kenny, do investigate the manufacturer of your cartridge and try to get a needle. It helps a lot to use turntables, so they don't get gummed up.
Jonathan