Ge T290a

[Yamaha B-2]

Picked up a GE T290A at the SA store for $2. Works on AM and FM (with lots of hum - probably a bad cap). Anyone know anything about this model?

[Markw]

everything eccept the wood case and cloth grille cover looks exactly what I had as a teenager. Controls, layout and everything look like it.

Mine used tubes. It was my first "tuner". I tapped the volume pot and fed it to a Lafayette LA-224A amp and viola! A poor man's mono tuner.

[Celt]

Gee, Mark. And here I thought I was the only one who did that!

[wa2ise]

Markw, back in the late 60's early 70's I had my father's old Pilotuner and a 6L6 single ended audio amp he built. He upgraded to an Eico HFt90 tuner and homebuilt amps using a pair of 6BQ5s and Dynaco output transformers. For AM I tapped off a GE solid state AM/FM radio. Also had a reel to reel tape machine, a Sonora luggable (stereo playback, 4 channel mono record).

Yamaha B-2, be sure to replace the filter caps in that radio. Also if there are any wax caps. If it's solid state, those tiny electroytics dry out and go way down in capacitence. Which can make the sound quite tinny. Looks like a late 60's early 70's set. The small electroltics back then were not that good.

[Yamaha B-2]

Sounds like a winter project. I'm recapping the power supply for my TT, so will do this at the same time.

MarkW - Now I have to go pull the back off after your comments. Well, I'll be dipped in shiite! Its tubes! I haven't owned tubes for many, many a year. This is going to be fun. You guys are going to give me a hand when I start on this in the winter, I hope. Really looking forward to same. Will be great fun. Much better find than I had imagined.

[Chad Hauris]

I believe this is an all tube model. There are some which use transistors in the FM tuner module but the rest was tube. The electrolytics used in those GE sets are pretty cheap and are almost always bad...If I remember correctly this one is a pain to work on due to the way the circuit board is mounted in the cabinet, it is very hard to get to the under side of the board to replace stuff. Do not hook anything external to it unless using isolation tranformer in its power line...one side of the power line is connected to the GE radio's chassis ground.

[Markw]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

Do not hook anything external to it unless using isolation tranformer in its power line...one side of the power line is connected to the GE radio's chassis ground.

Where were you forty some odd years ago when I needed this advise?