McMurdo Masterpiece "1" the first of the series.

[Bill Busetti]

Is there much info available on this set, and what were the cabinets offered? Thanks.

[Y2K Bruce]

2 versions, a brass plated then a chromed one. Very few MP '1' sets are known to have survived. Cabinets were made by Rockford Peerless and were same as offered by EH Scott the same year but with different names.

[Bill Busetti]

What year would that be, so that I may look up cabinet styles.

[Y2K Bruce]

The Masterpiece (1) was intro'ed in 1932 as a 1933 model. I will try and take photos of the MS cabinets from the Blue Book he used as his advertising piece with ink drawings and descriptions of his cabinets. There were 4 or 5 offered

[Bill Busetti]

That would be very much appreciated. This is all about a set I had bought years ago in Pueblo, CO. I am overwhelmed with a quantity of old sets, many of not much consequence, and a few others I wish to 'spruce up.'

[Y2K Bruce]

Only 10 - 15 original brass or chromed Masterpiece (1) sets are known to have turned up. If you have 1 of these please share info and photos of it. Jerry Steffens is the MS guru similar to how Kent is for Scott radios

[Bill Busetti]

I do have a chrome set. I have taken pictures years ago. Will search thru files. I'm not sure but I may have sent them to him years ago. How may I contact him, or he may contact me here, or at my email?

[palegreenthumb]

You can contact Gerry through his member page here.

http://ehscott.ning.com/profile/GeraldSteffens?xg_source=profiles_m...

[Gerald Steffens]

There were 6 publicized Masterpiece consoles.  (By the way, there is no Masterpiece 1, it is officially known only as the Masterpiece.)  These were indeed consoles offered by Scott, but they are different in internal layout.  For instance the Jacobean Silver console is different from the Scott equivalent because Scott's console had the speaker at the top, above the tuner (Scott didn't use a auditorium style speaker with the attached base).  Silver used the Jensen M-10, the first of the 13.5 inch speaker line that now goes for big bucks like the Silver-Jensen 18 inch unit.  There is inadequate room for this speaker at the top in the Scott configuration.  I believe this holds for all of the six Scott units but I am not 100% certain.

I currently have 4 Masterpiece units, two brass and two chrome.  These radios are rare but I am aware of about 9 or 10 more and I suspect there are at least several others.

To my experience, all chrome units are alike, at least physically.  Don't know if there were incremental changes in circuitry.  However, there are two slightly different versions of the brass units.  The difference is in the S-meter.  The later and more common tuner (including all chrome units) has a rectangular S-meter which is the same as that in Silver radios through the Masterpiece IV late version.  The first and earlier version had a round S-meter (a rare picture of this version appears in the Silver article "New Fifteen Tube All-wave Design" in the February 1933 issue of Radio News).  This is the same round S-meter as used in the Silver Marshall (can't think of the designation at the moment - there was a base model and also a suffix A version) radio, S-M's last radio which was also brass.

To this time, there is only one known, official schematic diagram of the Masterpiece.  A second, different presentation of the same diagram appears on the web incorrectly labelled Masterpiece -1.

Gerry

[William Busetti]

My Masterpiece has a schematic glued to the inside of the bottom panel. It has one small glitch where a small piece of paper is torn out.

Gerald Steffens said:

There were 6 publicized Masterpiece consoles.  (By the way, there is no Masterpiece 1, it is officially known only as the Masterpiece.)  These were indeed consoles offered by Scott, but they are different in internal layout.  For instance the Jacobean Silver console is different from the Scott equivalent because Scott's console had the speaker at the top, above the tuner (Scott didn't use a auditorium style speaker with the attached base).  Silver used the Jensen M-10, the first of the 13.5 inch speaker line that now goes for big bucks like the Silver-Jensen 18 inch unit.  There is inadequate room for this speaker at the top in the Scott configuration.  I believe this holds for all of the six Scott units but I am not 100% certain.

I currently have 4 Masterpiece units, two brass and two chrome.  These radios are rare but I am aware of about 9 or 10 more and I suspect there are at least several others.

To my experience, all chrome units are alike, at least physically.  Don't know if there were incremental changes in circuitry.  However, there are two slightly different versions of the brass units.  The difference is in the S-meter.  The later and more common tuner (including all chrome units) has a rectangular S-meter which is the same as that in Silver radios through the Masterpiece IV late version.  The first and earlier version had a round S-meter (a rare picture of this version appears in the Silver article "New Fifteen Tube All-wave Design" in the February 1933 issue of Radio News).  This is the same round S-meter as used in the Silver Marshall (can't think of the designation at the moment - there was a base model and also a suffix A version) radio, S-M's last radio which was also brass.

To this time, there is only one known, official schematic diagram of the Masterpiece.  A second, different presentation of the same diagram appears on the web incorrectly labelled Masterpiece -1.

Gerry

[Gerald Steffens]

The following documentation exists for the Masterpiece:

The "Blue Book", titled Custom Built by McMurdo Silver, is a 16 page documentation of the Masterpiece, including renderings of the 6 available consoles.  This is an early publication when the Masterpiece was still a brass radio with a round S-meter.

Instructions for Installation and Operation of the Masterpiece All Wave Super Heterodyne is a 10 page plus cover document which includes 4 pages of performance curves.  These manuals included performance curves customized for each radio.  I have an unknown version and one specifically for one of my brass radios.

A schematic diagram titled Circuit Diagram - Masterpiece Super and number 100 exists.  This is the same diagram frequently glued to the inside of the tuner bottom plate for most radios.  Another presentation of this diagram with less specificity exists on the web somewhere.

A "Confidential Price List", complete with Order Blank and preprinted envelope, is shown as Effective November 1, 1932.

A Special July 1933 Price Concession/Order Blank celebrates the Masterpiece's "6-month birthday".  I know the numbers don't quite add up but Silver was also known to be an "absent minded professor type".

A pretty much complete set of the report and public documents involved in the E.H. Scott/McMurdo Silver feud exists.  I think I have all of them.  This war of words and specs broke out during the time of the Masterpiece.  Silver sponsored the Clough - Brengle Engineering Report comparing the Silver Masterpiece, the Scott Allwave Deluxe and the Lincoln SW-33.

A number of reviews and other articles about the Masterpiece exist.  Following are a couple of examples:

Radio News - February 1933 - New Fifteen Tube All-wave Design by McMurdo Silver

Radio News - April 1933 - Operating Tests on a Fifteen Tube All-wave "Super" by S. Gordon Taylor and John M. Borst

Another "kind of" source is the outside rear cover of Radio News.  Silver posted full page ads there for many years.

Gerry

 

[Gerald Steffens]

Here are the Silver Masterpiece consoles.

Gerry

[William Busetti]

I don't know how to load my file of my schematic. So if I did it wrong, maybe I can email it directly to you. Sorry I am so long in answering, but I've much going on here and do this as I can.

Thanks for the pict's of the consoles. I've never seen any of them as I can recall.

Gerald Steffens said:

Here are the Silver Masterpiece consoles.

Gerry