Scott Philharmonic Pointer Dial Front Panel

[Don Jackson]

Hi, I am a new member here and recently had the good fortune to acquire a 5 knob Allwave 23 with a Tasman cabinet and a Pointer Dial Philharmonic chassis, amplifier and speaker. The Allwave 23 project is almost complete now, and I would like to make a wood front for the pointer dial Philharmonic similar to the one shown in the Collectors Guide. The layout for the front panel is shown in the archive, does anyone know what the actual dimensions of the wood front panel should be? I could probably make something close to the proper size, but would be nice to have exact measurements.

Also, this Philharmonic has a nice set of knobs but I think they are from a later model. Were the knobs shown in the photos ever used on the pointer dial sets?

[Scott Seickel]

I would not worry about the overall dimensions of the panel.  Just do what looks good to your eye.  The hard (and costly) part is getting the escutcheons for the panel.  I am not sure when the wood knobs were introduced, but I don't recall early dial pointers having wood knobs in any Scott literature. 

Do you have a serial number for this set?

[Don Jackson]

Hi Scott

Thanks for your reply. This one is D-683, it has 5Z3 rectifier tubes, the early schematic shows 83V tubes. It should not be be hard to scale the dimensions and make a mock up to decide what looks best. Agreed, the wood panel is the easy part! 

[Scott Seickel]

That is a known serial number.  The single letter prefix are the earliest Philharmonics.  Around mid-Summer 1937 they started using the double letter prefix.  The serial number tag on these is not as large as on the later sets. 

[Don Jackson]

Thanks, that's good to know. I was not sure if this was an early or late one.

[Scott Seickel]

The power supplies for these using the 83V tubes are pretty uncommon, which leads me to believe they were only produced for a very short period of time.  Unfortunately, over the years these Scott sets have become like "erector sets" and it is hard to be sure if the PS/amp chassis is original to the set. 

The metal "flapper" knobs you have were used in early sets like this, while later sets used a "pinch" style knob.  The good part is that the plastic knobs that would have been found on these early sets are not too hard to find.  In later years you find both plastic or wood knobs on the Scott's.  Seems they used what they either had on hand or could source readily. 

This is a set that I pulled out of a basement just north of NYC and I have no reason to believe that it is not all original. 

[Don Jackson]

I agree, who knows if the PS / amp is original, a lot can happen in 87 years. There is much written about Philharmonic knobs in other discussions here. Thanks for sending the photo, it appears my "flappers" are correct and someone found a set of "S" knobs and liked them better. I found some plastic knobs in my knob collection that appear to be the same, 2 of the plastic pinch knobs and 3 round ones. If I use my "flappers" and put the pinch knobs in the position shown in your photo will have a full set. A couple more round ones will probably show up sometime. The round one is about 1 1/16" diameter at the back of the knob, closer to 1" at the front. The pinch knob is about 1" diameter at the back of the knob. Not sure if the round knob in that style came in a slightly smaller size. Hard to tell from photos but they look the same.

 

[David C. Poland]

FYI - the wood control panels Scott used were 3/8 inch plywood. Book matched Walnut veneer is most common. but the cabinet panel would match what ever veneer the cabinet used. This thickness works well for the shaft lengths.

The two metal "bat wing" knobs you have for the volume and band switch shafts are correct and were provided for awhile for the pointer dial Philharmonic. The pinch style is also ok. Since you have the metal, be nice to use them, like Scott Seickel's photo. And the round brown bakelite/plastic for the other shafts for the pointer dial Philharmonics of 1937 -38.

The "S" style walnut knobs began to appear on the Philharmonic by sometime 1941 for the BOL 8 shaft Philharmonics. The Walnut S knobs first appear earlier for the lower tube count Phantom and Masterpiece models.

Note: the escutcheons are bright brass/gold color for the pointer dial Philharmonic - like Scott's photo. You have the "Chicago dial" - the additional top graphics with Chicago station call letters. Another dial variation showed west coast station call letters or also a Northeast  NYC dial. Other customers got the standard dial with no call letters.

After your radio was built, the Broadcast band was expanded from 1500KC to about 1700KC, and existing stations above about 800 KC were shifted higher by 20 KC. So, WLW Cincinnati is still at 700KC. but, of example, WCFL was moved from 980KC  to 1000KC and, so, your top dial lamp no longer correctly illuminats the call letter correctly.

As for why WLW Cincinnati is showing on the Chicago dial? Various stations operated at a variety of powers from, say,  250 watts, 500 watts, 5000 watts and up.  Some frequencies were shared by multiple stations sprinkled around the country, spaced so as to not interfere with each other. Reception was better at night, so some stations were required to go off the air at sunset to avoid interfering with others. Some frequencies were for clear channel station - not sharing that frequency with any other US station (or perhaps 2 stations sharing but separated by vast distances like between Los Angeles and New York). Clear channel stations like WCFL (Chicago Federation of Labor) and WGN (Worlds Greatest Newspaper) broadcast at the maximum allowed of 50,000 watts and covered a big portion of the US at night. But WLW Cincinnati was granted an experimental license to broadcast at 500,000 watts which it did portions of the day, at which times it came in like a local station in much of the country. Stories of folks receiving the station on their tooth fillings. Later, this transmitting power house became the Voice of America transmitter during World War 2. But in 1937, WLW came in like a local station in the Chicago and the midwest.

[Don Jackson]

Hi David

Thanks for your response and information. I will use the 2 "bat wing" knobs and the round bakelite / plastic knobs for the others. Very interesting that you pointed out the Chicago dial, I had no idea that dials were made for different regions. The photo that Scott posted is one without the station call letters. Interesting history about WLW as well, also the changes to the broadcast band after this set was built.

[Don Jackson]

I have finished the front panel for my pointer dial Philharmonic so thought I would post a few photos. To mount the panel, I had a friend who is a machinist make some threaded extensions for the controls. This worked well, but I also had to add a couple of brackets at the top of the panel which I attached to 2 screws at the top of the tuning assembly. This keeps the panel close to the tuning eyes, the front is very secure. I don't know if Scott ever delivered any sets with a panel like this, they were likely staged for marketing photos. If they did I am not sure how they mounted them. This set has a home on a sturdy shelf for now, if I ever find a cabinet the panel is easy to remove. Meanwhile, it looks good and offers protection for the delicate dial. If anyone knows where I might find a bare Warrington cabinet, please let me know.

[Alex R. Whitaker]

I've seen a pointer dial Philharmonic with a factory front panel.  The brackets to attach it were on the top, and were chrome.  I can't remember where the brackets attached to the chassis, but they attached to the front panel close to each top corner, and then sloped down to the chassis.  

[Don Jackson]

Thanks Alex, good to hear that one actually exists with a factory panel! Maybe someone has a photo of the brackets they used. I fastened 2 small brackets I made to the screws at the top of the tuner assembly and attached them to a stiffener which is glued to the back of the panel above the tuning eyes. This is a work in progress so could easily be modified if I find a more appropriate way to restrain the top of the panel. 

[Russ Webb]

Has anybody ever asked - or answered the question: Why did they put the controls so close together? They had space to separate them.