Philharmonic Laureate Grand oddity

[Alex R. Whitaker]

All,

I just purchased a Philharmonic in a Laureate Grand from Stanton Auctions, last week.  I noticed something odd about it, right off the bat.  It has a 7 knob Philharmonic chassis, which should have a pointer dial.  However, it has the next year's "Red Dial," with no pointer.  The "Red Dial" Philharmonics are 9 knobs (at least all the ones I've ever seen are).   It has a serial number of KK-243 (Kent, for your database), which seems to point to early 1938 (?)  Has anyone else seen another one of these?  Or, did the original dial get broken and someone put a "new" dial on it, either in 1938, or a collector did that later.  I will probably put a pointer dial Philharmonic in it, to duplicate the picture with E.H. Scott on the cover of "Scott News."  That has always been my dream set.  Pictures of the chassis and serial number are enclosed.  

[David C. Poland]

The logging scale addition to the BOL Philly dial was introduced late 1939. The logging scale is mentioned in Vol 11 No 4 Scott News of  aprox Oct 1939 - on page 3 of the extensive 5 page description of the new 1940 model Philharmonic, thus:  " ... a precision Vernier logging scale ..."

A clear photo of the new dial with logging scale appears on page 3 of 1940 Scott News Vol 12 number 1.  And the  page 2 photo of the 20 tube Phantom Deluxe shows it also sports the logging scale addition to the rectangular dial.

Earlier, in the November 1938 Scott News, Vol 11 number 5, is where I find the first reference to the Philharmonic's new BOL Stradivarius dial - with a photo on page 8. The subsequent page cabinet photos all show the pointer dial models installed.  The Christmas 1938 price list brochure shows the new BOL dial. So, appears the Philly's new BOL dial lacking a logging scale was produced for 12 months at most. Such an omission seems would be a sore point for those who were keen on short wave programs having purchased a radio designed for superlative short wave reception. I could well believe a few owners of the first BOL dial would want the improved dial as an upgrade to their near new BOL Philharmonic.

Speculation is unending for such matters, Scott being a custom set builder.

[David C. Poland]

Also the early BOL dial photos mentioned all show the keyhole style control escutcheons for the six control shafts, and scratch suppressor button below the dial. So appears the 1939 Philly was the same chassis as the 1937-8 pointer dial model, just with the new Strad BOL dial.

The intro of late 1939 for the new 1940 model appears to be  when other changes also took place as well: separation of the treble control from the fidelity control, reposition of the scratch suppressor to complete for the 8 control look, the round control escutcheons, putting the power switch on the volume control, and some circuitry changes  as reflected in the parts changes listed in Riders info. 

Scott has a reputation of evolution of a model, so maybe there are later 1939 models that incorporate some but not all the changes announced for the 1940 model Philharmonic.

Some of the changes for both the Philharmonic and Phantom Scotts for 1940 may also have been preparation for the FM  models being developed and soon to be announced Spring 1940.