Quote:
Originally Posted by WISCOJIM
I agree Dave, that was a very dim evaluation of a high quality set that may need relatively easy work as the cabinet appears as though it may be in good condition which is often the hardest thing to fix. Done several 16's myself, with a little patience and good work habits, they are not that difficult to do. And seeing how the owner already has the set, there is no reason not to use this set with the Bakelite blocks as a great learning experience.
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I didn't say he couldn't I was just saying if it were me (and since I don't have much experience with pre-war radios mostly post war radios) I would of passed on it because from what I saw in the picture the speaker was trashed to the point that there was nothing left of it say for 2 pieces hanging on by a thread so to speak (and repairing that speaker or sourcing a "new" one can be quite difficult especially trying to source another speaker like it had in there originally.
I know for a fact that my 1932 vintage Cathedral radio I have had a damaged speaker that thankfully was still fully intact enough for a simple unbleached coffee filter paper repair but if I wouldn't of been able to of been repaired, I looked to see if another speaker like it could of been sourced just in case, and sure enough it couldn't, because of it being a 1930s Utah speaker and those are rarer than hen's teeth.
The Grille Cloth is also missing which if you don't know what it had in there orginally then it can be hard to get the right grille cloth for the unit.
The cabinet from what I could see while no veneer is peeling off, the original finish appears to be shot which trying to refinish these old Cathedral radio cabinets can be tricky especially the fancier ones because you have to try and get the finish to go on evenly within all of those little crevices in the moulding without it dripping and even stripping those cabinets can be a pain because of those various crevices in the fancy moulding.
Anyways I was just saying that if it were me I would of passed on something that were in that kind of condition because with my expertise level (which is pretty much non-existent when it comes to working on pre-war radios) I wouldn't of bothered with it unless it was known to be an extremely easy radio to service.
That's all I was saying, I wasn't implying that it was a bad radio or that the radio wasn't a high end radio or whatever, I was just saying that in my position if I saw a radio like that that had a severely damaged speaker and no grille cloth and unknown condition guts, I wouldn't personally bother with it.
Referring back to my experience with seeing a late 1920s RCA Table Radio (Tombstone style) at an antique mall for an extremely good price but then it was because the cabinet was trashed (severe water damage and severe veneer peeling issues with the cabinet alone).
Then it looked like the guts had mice living in it several times in its life as the chassis was severely corroded by mice pee and wires were chewed clear through in critical areas including in the IF Cans, and the original cloth cord was pretty much gone and the dial string was broken and the tuning capacitor was seized up (you couldn't turn the tuning capacitor with your hands) which is why I had to pass up on the radio even though it may very well have been an extremely valuable unit once fixed up.
But to even restore that unit one would of had to sink more money into the unit than it might of been worth.
And the OP was asking for people's opinions on the unit, and so I gave my opinion on it.