Philharmonic in a Gothic Grand Cabinet

[Scott Seickel]

I purchased this about a week ago from a fellow collector who had saved it from being parted out.  He had it nearly a year and needed to move it along.  Restoration is not his thing.   Sadly, he was going to part it out, though after seeing the overall condition, that would not have been a bad choice.   It is complete minus the phonograph.  Not sure what phono would have been original to this unit, but if anyone has any suggestions for appropriate phono's, please let me know so I can start the hunt. 

Kent, the serial number is KK-104.  It is dated Dec 6, 1937 and I have no doubts that this set was all original as it came out of an estate in a fairly wealthy area along the Hudson River in NY. 

Cabinet bottom is rough and will need quit a bit of work. 

I have all the escutcheons for it.

Minor disaster on the bottom.  Lucky, I am a rather accomplished woodworker.

Chrome is totally shot on this chassis.  Every cover is shot, and the chassis itself is shot.  The dial on this unit is shot.  It is a parts set... ;-(

The cover was on the bottom so no rodents got inside the chassis and it is indeed in very nice condition underneath.  Looks unmolested other than a couple of replaced capacitors, probably in the 1950's and an added RCA jack.

Speakers in decent shape, though the 15" has a bit of rust on the frame.  Is it possible to safely remove the speaker cone and inners so I can paint the frame?  I would hate to damage the original cone. 

The amp chassis is parts also- the wiring underneath was chewed up by mice.    I have an early Philharmonic amp chassis that I had rechromed and was waiting for a parts donor, so I can now complete this amp.

I am curious about this switch on the back.  Would it have been used for the phonograph?  Is it an item that was added on later?  The only modification I see to the chassis is the addition of an RCA jack right next to the 3rd IF tube.  The RCA jack is wired directly to the plate of the 3rd IF tube- no blocking capacitor!!  I can't imagine what they would be doing tapping into the IF stages of this radio and having 250v on the rca jack to top it off....

Of course, I have a couple of 9 knob Philharmonic sets that need homes (an AM/FM unit and a red dialer that is in the process of rechoming), but no 7 knob sets other than this parts chassis.  So I need to think long and hard about drilling this cabinet out to accept a 9 knob set, and the consequences of doing so.  Maybe I can just use a new walnut chassis face board and save this original board to keep with the set.  I would really like to keep this set intact for historical purposes...wish I had that dial pointer chassis that Willy sold a couple of months ago for $450...a bargain considering it was in very nice shape. 

In the mean time, I have sterilized this chassis and it sits next to my computer.  I am making an "as built" drawing of the set and making corrections to the 7 knob early Philharmonic schematic so it matches the set I have perfectly.  Amazing how many errors were in the EH Scott published schematic.  I hope to get my hands on an unmolested 9 knob AM set so I can do the same.  It should be easy to make the changes once the 7 knob drawing is done and ironed out.  I have been working about 6 hours each night on this....good thing I hate watching TV...  :-)

[Bill Anderson]

Scott Seickel said:

Thanks Bill.  I made it specifically for the Philharmonic and the AW23.  It is not very similar to the factory stands best I can tell.  The factory stands look like you can just flip the chassis into 2 positions- up and down.  This fixture allows 360 degree rotation and locks into any position.  It is made of very light 0.049" thick steel tubing, yet is rock solid.  I wish I had another one right now....

Hi Scott,

if you would be interested in making another, i would more than happy to purchase one from you...i have a nice tig welding setup, in my shop....I could easily copy it if you wanted to rent it out for a week or 2

[David C. Poland]

Bill -
Not that I recall., but I have attached Philly panel image with a FM converter control located to the far right of the right eye. Wonder if that would clear a phono overhead.

[David C. Poland]

Bill - Or would there be room under the top to mount the FM converter on the phono platform to the right of the tone arm towards the back? Rig a small walnut panel to support the converter escutcheon and secure the converter?

[Bill Anderson]

Hello David,

thanks....that photo is the one I was looking at for a reference !...lol. It may possibly clear, will have to wait until the cabinet  arrives,  if not under the lid is a good idea.....

[Scott Seickel]

OK.  So I purchased a dial pointer "parts set" to help out with the restoration of this radio.

The main chassis has much better chrome than the original chassis that I have, but it has been well picked.  I have no top chrome other than the tuning cap box (not shown here), and that is in decent condition.  All tube and coil covers are missing or shot.  Here is what it looks like after I cleaned it up. 

It has a different tag on the back than the dial pointer chassis that came with the Gothic Grand cabinet.  It appears to be earlier as it has many less patents listed.  Serial number F-657.  Kent may not have this one.  Unfortunately, I cannot locate a date on chassis.

Parts set has original Micamold paper capacitors, whereas my other dial pointer has tubular paper capacitors.  I originally thought that this set was a later dial pointer because of the FJ capacitor, and not a "rectangular block", but I think the FJ capacitor was changed in later. 

So, the Micamold capacitors, I assume were only used on the earliest Philharmonic dial pointers? Then later dial pointers, like my Dec 1937 set went to tubular paper capacitors?  Or is it "as the crow flies" with the capacitors that were used...

[Ken Carr]

Regarding the date of production, did you check the underside of the soldered box that contains 7 capacitors?
I found a date stamped there on my radio.

[David C. Poland]

I believe the single alpha letter prefix to the serial number indicates early Philharmonic production in 1937.
Kent's serial number tabulation lists Philharmonic pointer sets with both single and double alpha prefixes. The next model Scott introduced mid 1937 (the Model Sixteen) all have a double letter prefix as do every subsequent model (Super XII, Phantom, Masterpiece, Laureate, Special). My pointer Philly has the "KK" prefix.

[Bill Anderson]

speaking of serial numbers, has anyone been able to break them down to year and date?

The Gothic Grand I just purchased is Serial Number YY-382

[Scott Seickel]

Ken- there is no date there.

David, this must be a very early set.  Did they not introduce the Philly in spring '37?  Do you know if Kent's serial number list is published anywhere?  I would really like to establish a public domain serial number list for the Philharmonic that includes as many details as possible, including possible circuit variations.   This single letter variation is just another one that I have stumbled across.  I have a strong interest in how this set evolved over it's 4+ year run.  Maybe Kent will share his Philly list with me?  I am only interested in the Philharmonics at this point.

Bill-  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the serial numbers.  Sometimes Kent will get a few close serial numbers, (he even has 3 in a row for an AW-23), and he can establish a date based on a close serial number with a known date.  He is the guy to give your serial number to.  There is a long serial number thread here to post it to.  Jeffery Kyle may know what the date is on that set as he did the restoration. 

[David C. Poland]

The Philharmonic was announced in the April 1937 issue of Scott News, ...  same date as per Jim Clark's Scott Collector's Guide.

Kent does not have many documented sale/shipping dates. His original interest, I understand, was to seek some production volumes for each model, and also to shed some light the meaning of the prefixes. June Puett had published serial numbers in the 1970's (with some inaccuracies it turns out), and Kent started from there.

Nor has Kent attempted to collect technical details for a technical data base.  And what info would he have tried to allow for at that time? I surmise when Kent started, few folks had both the where-with-all and the inclination to submit the data. I would say only more recently has begun to emerge a real sense  of  meaningful details of model evolutions.  I doubt Kent (who has demanding profession) has much inclination or time to both develop a well structured data base  and to enter meaningful, accurate data. 

Kent would have to speak as to trying to publish his list,  a work in progress.