Philharmonic in Georgian(?) cabinet with complete second chassis set

[Mark Evans]

Hello all, I hope it is OK to post a message like this,

   I am in the process of moving and am paring down my collection, parting with project sets which I know I'll never finish.  I bought a Scott Philharmonic pointer dial set years ago, it has what I think is the Georgian cabinet, with a turntable on the right side.  The radio has been recapped and works, but it still needs help.  It has tracking problems on some of the bands, I think it needs some of the silver micas replaced, I have already purchased the replacements.  I suppose it could be an alignment problem, but in any case I'm just not in a position to try to complete the project.  The chrome is very good on the tube shields and coil covers, but is a little rough on the chassis.  While it is recapped, the power/amp chassis has never been cleaned up, the chrome is not as good as it is on the RF chassis.   The radio has the original 14" Scott speaker.  The cone was damaged and I repaired it.  It works just fine, I suppose it should be re-coned to do it right. The radio had the turntable replaced, but what I believe to be the original turntable, a Garrard RC80, was found in the record storage compartment.  There is some cabinet damage where the drop door for the radio hinges.  The door must have been dragging on the cabinet when opening and closing and it has broken off a portion of the wood bead from the cabinet body along the right half of the bottom of the door.  I looked all over the place for the missing piece of wood when I bought the radio but could not find it.  Otherwise the cabinet has a few few dings and scrapes from 40 years in the enormous attic of the music store where I found it, but nothing else of any real consequence.

     I am hoping for a best offer over $1,500.00, since I paid $1,500.00 for the original chassis set and the cabinet.  I hope that is a realistic dollar amount.  There is a second chassis set, rf and pwr/amp, electrically complete, but missing one of the coil covers.  I have never tried to power up the second chassis set.  Chrome is not very good on the spare chassis set.  Please take a look at the attached document which has photos and a few annotations and let me know your thoughts on the set, or if anyone has any interest in pursuing the radio.  You are welcome to call me at 850-509-1800 if you have any questions.

       I'm taking the attached document with me to the FAWG swapmeet in Orlando this weekend to see if anyone down there has any interest.

Thank you,

Mark Evans

850-509-1800

[e-mail]

[Kent King]

Mark - No problem posting items for sale here. Good luck with it!  - Kent

[Mark Evans]

Hello all, I made deal to sell the radio, it is no longer available. Thanks for the opportunity to put out the word on this Web site.

[Joe Miller]

Hi everyone,

I bought the chasses from Mark and will soon start work on them.  The playing chassis has what I think is a preamp for the phono attached to the back of the tuner chassis.  Do some of the Garrard phonographs need a preamp?  Did Scott make one and if so is there a schematic for it?  Or is it possibly a homemade one?  Will send photos when I get a chance.

Thanks,

Joe Miller

PS:  Kent, I will send you the serial numbers for both sets also.

[Kent King]

Joe -

Great, I look forward to the serial numbers.

Scott did make a pre-amp, but it didn't attach to a chassis. Photos would help. If I have any info, I'll be happy to share.

Kent

[Joe Miller]

Serials are GG-252 for the better set and BB-397 for the one yet to be restored.

The box on the back of the GG-252 has a phono plug input and output (at least it looks that way) and 4 conductors that tie in to the circuit.  I haven't yet traced it out.

Any guesses before I dig into it?

Joe

[David C. Poland]

Hi Joe -

The 9 knob AM/SW Philharmonic with Strad dial and the upper logging scale suggests a later model , say, 1940 or so. With regard to the preamp and phono, the radio phono input was designed for the higher output  crystal pickups Scott was offering around 1939-41. The photo of the preamp looks  post war to me and I'll guess the original 78 player was replaced by a Garrard  3 speed changer from the 1950's having a low level magnetic pickup or, if you are lucky, the G.E. variable reluctance pickup. 

If you are really interested in playing records, replace that preamp with an early 1950's preamp having all the equalization curves for 78's and 33's. 

[J.N. Shetler]

Hi Joe,

That box looks familiar. I believe it to be a version of the GE circuit designed for their RPX and later VR2 carts. Some versions used B+ and filament voltage from the main chassis, others had a little transformer that supplied this. They all shared a small square chassis like yours. They used a 6SC7 tube in most cases. Later the circuit was revised and used a 12AX7. Here's a basic schematic. Since you have the one that draws power from the main chassis, disregard the lower section on the print. See if your unit corresponds, many companies made these, but they are all nearly identical.

Justin

[Joe Miller]

Justin,

Thanks for the information, much appreciated.  Mine does use a 6SC7.  I will check out the wiring to verify this weekend.  I don't believe I have a switch for tape input.  Couple of questions:

1.  It appears to have a low impedance input (5600 ohm).  Will that support IPAD input?

2.  What kind of cartridges are RPX and VR2?

Joe

[J.N. Shetler]

Hi Joe,

You can disregard the tape/phono switch. It wasn't included in all of the versions. Just check the basic values around the 6SC7 sections. I'll bet you find it similar. The input impedance depended upon the cartridge. It was designed for low output magnetic types that delivered +/- 10mV. Usually impedance was 47K, but often found with 10K or less. You can tailor the load resistor to your needs. I found some info on an earlier version that may be more applicable to your unit. See the following link:

http://viktor-a-shapkin.narod.ru/index/0-10

Most of these little preamps incorporate RIAA equalization, so they will enhance the bass and retard the treble as you'd want to do with most any phono cartridge. If you want to use an IPOD/IPAD, you may need to experiment with it's internal EQ settings to match the curve of the preamp. I think the IPOD is good for something like 60mW output, much more than you'd need (even into a higher impedance load than it was designed for). 

Justin