JC Penny Penncrest
 

Last weekend, I went to an estate sale. They had this console with a price tag of $415 on it. This was the second day of a 3 day sale. Usually the last day is 50% off. Still too much. So I asked the lady running the show, what would happen to it if it went unsold. She said, they take bids on items and if unsold by the last hour, it would go to the highest bidder. I wrote down my bid of $50 and left it with her. The next day, I got a call from her saying my bid was accepted. I went back, paid for it and brought it home. It does work, but needs adjustments. The crt has a brightener on it. The cabinet is in beautiful condition.
I had it in the garage and while I was at work, my husband waxed the cabinet and shined it up. When I got home, he told me to bring it inside the house.

Probably one of the last built by Wells-Gardner. Stereo is probably solid-state. Better line VM changer. Penney's quit using the Penncrest name a few years after that set was built. Everything after that was branded JCPenney.

It's actually all tubes. TV and stereo

Its pretty damn bright with the brightener. It may look
better without it. Good catch.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I did check it out without the brightner on it. When it was up to full brightness, it was on the dark side.

I wouldn't run it with the brightener. They accelarate the degradation of the cathode extremely quickly. If you have a newer CRT tester with a computerized rejuvenate, try it on the lowest setting. Wish I coukd find something that nice at an estate sale. Went to 6 of them today and found nothing.

had a penncrest unit with a full floor cabinet.hybrid made by wells gardner.rauland crt.the stereo blew away my fisher system.it would rock the house with crystal clear sound.the television had a sharp,bright picture very similiar to the zenoths of the day.very heavy but a first class piece.i let it go to a friend and she still has it.television still works as does the tuner and turntable.crt has a green halo but is still bright and clear.she doesnt use it much anymore but wont part with it.i offered her 300.00 and she declined.this is a really finely made piece.love to get it back or find another

Our experience was the exact opposite.
Back in the day when CRT 'restorers' like the Beltron first came on the market, a big deal was made of how "restoring" was fundamentally different than the older "rejuvenating" process. Rejuving or "shooting the tube" was brute force stripping of the cathode, while restoring was a more benign "boiling" of the cathode surface to bring up more of the underlying emissive material. The restore process had to be scrupulously time limited to prevent destroying the cathode.
I often wondered how much of a real difference existed between rejuving and restoring.

One thing we learned early on was to never rejuv or restore a CRT in the customer's home, because the tube would almost always be flat again in a week or two. Learned this the hard way when a competing shop came in and hung a brightener on the tube, which brought it back up again. And the customer called up raising hell. Afterward, we always gave the customer the choice of a brightener or CRT replacement, but never a rejuvination or restoration.

A brightener will almost always give the jug a few more months of useful life.

Ah... the difference between providing service to customers, and fixing something for yourself. Example, I would never sell a customer just brake pads. Because their rusty old rotors would just start squeaking in a couple weeks, and I'd have to deal with a disappointed customer and lose repeat business. Customers get pads and rotors or nothing. But if it's my car, I'll throw some pads on it and live with a minor squeak, because I know it's gonna work just fine. Well... provided the rotors are still somewhat ok.

You get the point. This old set probably won't see all that much more service anyway.

When I worked at A TV store we had a B&K Rejuvenator and had very good luck with it. Most times you could get another year or more of daily use from the tube if it wasn't to far gone.

been a mechanic for approx 50 plus years and i agree on the rotors.at least have them turned if possible.too many times the customer wants the cheap way out.then its back for noise.like the shop days in television repair.hit the crt once and if it doesnt hold,you get the blame."it had a fine picture when i brought it in"i only used my tester as that,a tester.would show the customer the readings and that is it.like the scanners these days on vehicles.dont clear the codes,unless repair has been done.the legal ramifications can be a nightmare

It must be a little older, than I thought!
All tubes is great with me! What does it use for output tubes?
I always had a high regard for W-G products. :thmbsp:

Its probably early 1960s, probably one of the very first Stereo Multiplex units from around 1961-62, I actually have an old Sears Silvertone AM/FM/FM Stereo all tube Tabletop receiver from about 1962 that I got from someone on AudioKarma this website's sister site and that thing I think was made by whoever had the EIA code of 528 and it has a nice Single-Ended 6BQ5 amplifier in it which sounds really nice with my Bose Speakers I have hooked up to it. :-)
So this is probably from around 1960-1963 as most companies by 1963-64 became Solid State on their stereos including Zenith, Motorola, and Magnavox.

The radio, you're referring is Warwick built, the 528 is a Sears sourced supplier code and not EIA.
The Pencrest set is newer than early 60's, as it has a rectangular CRT. Probably a 1967 or newer issue.

Yeah, but like I said though by that time period everyone had made their stereo systems Solid State and the OP said his is all tube, which would make it no later than 1964 as the 1963-64 season was when most of your manufacturers started going solid state with their stereo equipment, Wells-Gardner more than likely was also one of those companies as it wouldn't of benefitted them to keep making all tube powered stereo equipment as late as the late 1960s when everyone else had transitioned to all solid state on their stereo equipment by 1964, including the Japanese companies like Pioneer, Kenwood-Trio, and Yamaha, just to name a few.