The Fine Things are Always Hand Made
My 800B, a slow work in progress...
I'm starting this thread to document the progress on my 800B, amassing the components, and then the eventual restoration, testing, sorting out of problems, more testing, and eventual final results. In this post I will show you what I have amassed so far....
First I bought the tuner section. It is a little shabby, but it should clean up OK, it is basically complete, and should restore to good working condition...
Next I found a power supply / amplifier unit for it...
Then I bought a nice woofer and a pair of tweeters for it. No, they are NOT originals, and I will have to use either a choke or resistors, or both to substitute for the field coil, and I will have to make a custom speaker board to go inside my cabinet, but that is entirely doable.
Next I was very fortunate that an internet acquaintance of mine from both here and the Philco Phorum, Mike Baldwin, wanted to part with a beautiful cabinet for an 800B, and so I bought it at a very fair price. It was really great meeting him in person.
Today I bought the final big piece of this puzzle, a suitable turntable. It is a Garrard model 670V022HO from 1962. I found it on eBay at a very fair price and shipping. It has a nice Euphonics U9 ceramic cartridge which has 2 needles, one for 78, and one for the other speeds; and comes with the rare 45 spindle adapter.
Now, all I have to do is finish up the other projects I've been working on, and finally get to work on this huge ( physically as well ) undertaking.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kent King on
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I am looking forward to seeing the progress! You've got a solid set there, I'm sure you will really enjoy it when it is done!
Kent
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Permalink Reply by Michael Lawton on
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Thanks, Kent.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Baldwin on
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Well done Michael!
Classic turntable to use there for sure.
Can you for curiosity post a photo of the serial number of your tuner?
It may even have the build date rubber stamped on the back of the metal plate behind the dial.
Thanks for the kind words on the cabinet, glad it will live on.If there are any other 800B bits you find you need let me know. I got a few hanger queen units in the basement that you missed on the tour of the stash....lol. These Scott's are addictive.
Mike
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Permalink Reply by David C. Poland on
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Be sure to search out on this forum the Norman Braithwaite bass circuit modification.
The speaker Jones socket and plug includes a jumper for house AC 120 volt on the way to the AC power switch on the receiver. This is to prevent powering up the radio unless amp, receiver and speaker were correctly connected.
Serial numbers above 2000 had modifications vs the early production serial number below 2000. Riders has good but extensive info and also in this site's set folder archive.
Factory had 3 low number presets wired for FM stations. But any button can be changed to FM (or AM) with a simple wiring change. The preset buttons also power the AM/FM relay. There is a circuit that controls the tweeter being switched OFF for AM and SW. The standard Jensen speaker's tweeter was a single tweeter center mounted inside the 15 inch cone, co-axial style. The instructions explain that certain control positions are necessary to allow switch between FM and AM.
I mention all this as a heads up to explain why the radio sometimes may not work as expected.
I restored one 800B many years ago - a lot of work, but when done, sounded really good.
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Not clear if you have the 800B speaker yet.
Here is the Jensen co-axial on eBay: 363493784066
Is the later PM version with power resistor substituting for the earlier field coil, which makes it backwards compatible for the 800B models.
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Thanks for all the useful information, David. I appreciate it. I have A speaker but not THE speaker. In fact, I have a modern 15 inch woofer and 2 modern pezio tweeters. I will have to make a custom speaker board for them and mount it inside the cabinet. They are decent new speakers, and all together cost less than half what they want for that original. I'll need to make a custom crossover too, but neither task is very hard. I bought the speakers I have back before I got the wonderful cabinet from Mike. I figured I would just make a cabinet to house the tuner, power supply, and speakers and forego the turntable. It would take less room horizontally that way. BUT, I now have a really pretty example of a correct cabinet, so I will house it all in that. I have read the notes, and will use power resistors to substitute for the field coil in the original type speaker. I'll mount them on the new speaker board too. I have several of the original connectors with the tuner and PS / AMP, but I will end up finding out which ones I don't have, and need, when I get around to assembling it all once I have restored the tuner and PS / AMP electronically, gone through the turntable mechanically and electrically, and dealt with the speaker mounting issues. Lots to do yet. I will get to it eventually. Right now I am in the middle of restoring a nice RCA C9-4 from 1936.
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Mike, here is a picture of the plate with the serial number, 1405...
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Thanks Michael, kind of an early serial number I would think.
Mine are in the 4000 and 6000 ranges.
Mike
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These are the speakers I plan on using with this system, a 15" woofer made by 5 Core which has a wide frequency response for such a large speaker, just as the old ones had. This is due to it having a VERY heavy magnet. It is well made, as you can see, with a strong frame. To provide the high frequencies I bought a pair of pezio horn tweeters. After studying the schematic of the original speaker system, I believe these will work just fine with minimal changes if any at all, using resistors to substitute for the field coil as was done with the late versions of the 800B.
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I was wondering about getting the proper Jones plug for my speakers to connect to the amp, but, much to my happy relief, I found they are still commonly available from eBay ! I ordered one.
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