Last Hoffman made TV?
 

Ive been wondering, I've seen quite a few Hoffman Easy view sets, I've seen one Colorcastor dating 1966, and the roundies they made. But when did they stop??

According to this 1977
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Hoffman
But if they actually built them is questionable. By 1977 you HAD
to be 100% solid state so the date makes sense in that respect.
Either engineer sets or by them somewhere for a tiny market share.

In New England Hoffman was unknown, I never saw one in 40 yrs
in the biz. There was one set on this forum a Wards IIRC that was
IDed as a Hoffman. 19"B&W apx mid 60's. It looked quite well built.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

It's surprising that there was quite a few of them in Milwaukee. It was supposed to be a California make, but I had understood they were built in ST Louis or Chicago.
The last one I worked on was 23" console, CTC15 clone, not that much different than a Muntz. :scratch2:

Well, that must be about the same as the one. Just got going. I find the quality pretty good, ctc15 chassis. Hilite tube, good color.

Not the greatest camera, but I got it going fair, next part is going to be fixing the tuner, its quite warm and has a lot of play.... Wish there were tuner repairmen around still

Is it a turret or wafer switch tuner ?

It's a torrent. Plastic strips and all...

It's a Standard Coil, the same as all the firms that cloned the RCA CTC15 design. 6HB7 and 6HQ5 tubes. :scratch2:

I'll be honest, I haven't really had to mess with tuners before but if it's anything like the ctc15s I have a parts set I could take it out of. Other than that it's a great set with good color, I wouldn't say it's muntz quality.. Its pretty good overall, just another duplicate of an rca design with a twist.

First step on any tuner clean the contacts...if IF lead is soldered to tuner check that the wire hasn't ripped off.

The rectangular CTC15 clone sets had to have pin cushion corrector circuit where the original roundie design didn't need it.
The only difference I saw between the Hoffman and Muntz was the tuner cluster, color presets called "Easy-Vision Cinema" with an indicator light when button was pressed and the Hoffman had a 6BQ5 audio output, instead of a 6AQ5 for more output. Hoffman part numbers were their own.
Admiral ended up buying out Hoffman in either the late 60's or early 70's.

Well I knew that it would, haven't seen a rectangular set without one. I like how parts availability is good due to the clone factor, I crossed the FLY and the chassis is very similar. I've cleaned the tuner and did what I could with it, it's just got a lot of play in it and likes to drift on signal, I swaped the tuner tubes, and checked all the obvious. It acts perfect with my subber on it. Didn't muntz make this PO7 sets, wouldn't I love one of those! Haven't seen a rectangular muntz thougj

I guess you think I'm just knocking the set comparing it with a Muntz.
Everyone thinks of the inexpensive B/W sets they were famous for. The color sets were the same as the other clones, using the same parts.
The tuner you are having grief with is the same version Magnavox used. For some reason those tuners always gave trouble. They seemed to use poor quality contact material.
Remove the tuner completely from the assembly, Remove the turret and check the stator contacts for tension, clean all the nasty old lube from the contacts. You can't always rely on tuner spray on a tuner like that.
Dave.

Muntz color sets were quite decent. I have a Wards Airline rectangular CTC15 clone still going strong with nothing but tube swaps since new...they seem to have sourced better parts than RCA did.

One of the best parts of clones especially later ones is that they worked out design flaws, and many makers modified things often with an improvement in servicability and or function/form.

Well having not dealt with any Muntz color I guess I was suspecting the same old crap they played with their B&W sets. Having that said, I would love to see a rectangular color Muntz if you have a picture!! I have always liked the etc 15 chassis for the reasons electronic M mentioned in these off brand sets and because of the rugged FLY design. Having the off brands is my thing after all, having sets ranging from AMC, Setchell Carslon, Heathkit, Penncrest, and a few mainstream sets.