Philco 48-1000
 

Hi All,

I happened across a Philco 48-1000 today, like this one:

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1948-Philco-48-1000-10in.JPG

Pretty neat set. From the top the chassis looks unmolested. I'd say the cabinet is 8/10, all the knobs are there, the little door that covers the controls is there. Out of curiosity, what is a set like that worth? Taking a brief look it seems that there are usable 10BP4 CRT's out there, is that true? How tough are these sets to work on?

What do y'all think the set is worth? He didn't take the $50 I offered.

Thanks!

Jonathan

I'd love to have one and wouldn't blink about paying three or four times your offer for an "8/10" set. Note that I have yet to acquire one....

When I did mine years ago, it was a straight recap with tube replacements. Pretty good picture. But I have heard that the transformer is problematic. Eather way a great set. Does yours have the back.

That is Philcos first post war tv and easily worth more than $50. 10BP4 fairly easy to get. Since it's an early set, it's more complicated and finicky than later designs. I'd jump on it. Never seen one for sale around here

I have the only known complete one with a factory double D mask... almost all were square. I paid 550$ at auction and it didn't bother me a bit.... granted I've wanted one as long as I have been collecting and it was the first one I had the chance to buy. That was at the 2017 ETF...in a week or two when I'm done with the top secret project m I may get to work on mine.

10BP4s are easy to get. If you can't get one cheap enough just grab a crummy examples of one of the hundreds of more common models that used it and steal the CRT.

Very nice & collectable sets.
10bp4 is readily available. Transformer not usually a problem.

With a nice cabinet and all knobs, easily worth $400-600, IMO.


I have one, along with several other 48-49 Philcos

Thanks for all the info. I had no idea of the value, I am not a collector like most of you. I may up my offer but space is at a premium. He won't ship but maybe I could help someone who would appreciate this set get hold of it.

And no, it doesn't have the back. My evaluation of the cabinet might be a little optimistic but it can't be less than a 7/10.

I think I paid about $400 for mine, plus freight.

They are interesting looking sets with a unique design which contributes to their desirability. I think I paid $300 for mine quite a while ago. The set I have does have the gold colored medallion on the cabinet that signifies that it is one of the first 1000 produced. I was just looking at it the other day and wondering how many of the first 1000 have survived.

The back is relatively simple perf metal. One could make a convincing sub with a pic of mine and some similar modern perf metal.

I would say a complete decent example of Philco's first publicly available production TV should be valued around $350-$400. They're one of the most unique early televisions and not easy to find in good condition. I must say though, if you want an early working set to enjoy, pass on these early Philco's. As much as I loved the looks of my 1000, I parted with it because the audio was very finicky, if I could get any at all, and I like my sets working well.
Also, recapping the chassis is quite a chore. My repairman told me he needed a drink after he was done! Unless you can do it yourself, repairs will be fairly costly.

I just recapped mine over the course of two days.

I have a hunch your repairman did not try to understand the audio circuit on these. The thing to know on these is that the there is no fine-tuning because the ratio detector in the audio circuit doubles as an AFC/AFT circuit (*!)...Basically, there is a feedback loop that adjusts the tuning at the tuner's local oscillator to tune for best sound based on the DC offset at the ratio detector in the audio stage. If the audio IF and or ratio detector is out of alignment the circuit will stumble all over it's self to compensate and the results will be lousy intermittent unstable distorted sound...And the AFC will make aligning it by ear more difficult. Mine after the recap had weak intermittent distorted sound with lots of video noise...To fix it I had to disable the AFC by grounding the AFC line, (check the local OSC adjustment), then tune the IF cans for max volume/minimum video noise and adjust the ratio detector for minimum distortion, then unground the AFC line. The sound was nice and stable after that.

There is still a bit of video noise, but not much compared to some sets. Volume is a tad less strong than I would like, but then again broadcast TV audio carrier levels dropped substantially within a few years after they made this set so many of the early sets of all makes have diminished max volume levels baked into their design.

*It is very interesting to me that Philco put an AFC/AFT circuit into this set. It was around two decades ahead of its time (I have not seen many sets pre-1968 with AFT). It is also interesting that they were confident enough in it to not provide the user a fine tuning knob.:scratch2:

Very good work! My repairman told me, years after he restored the chassis on my now sold-off 48-1000, that he could've done something with audio. Someone doing a repair job will rarely put the amount of hours into it as the owner of the set.
I've owned many vintage TV's over the years, but a good working early post-war Philco has always alluded me. I had 2 and sold them. You just can't beat Admirals, RCA's, GE's, and Motorola's if you like to use the sets.
Enjoy your Philco!