'62 Truetone consolette record player

[radiotvnut]

Last week, someone I know called to say that they were about to tear down his old family home that he grew up in and inside the house was an old hi-fi that his parents bought when he was a small child. He wanted to know if I wanted it and I accepted his offer. Last night, when I went out with the dog for her to do her business, I found the record player in the driveway (I talked to him today and he said he simply left it when he couldn't get me to the door).

It's a Truetone (Western Auto) 3-tube (50C5 x 2, 12AX7) stereo unit with a VM 1223 series record changer. This one is going to need some help and I thought about parting it out; but, I think I'm going to attempt to restore it. Cosmetically, a piece of trim is busted on the front and the grille cloth could stand to be replaced. The piece of broken trim is simply screwed in place and I'll probably try to replace it with a piece of molding. The lid support is broken; but, I just ordered one off ebay ($5 and some change, including shipping).

Electronically, someone has been inside and the back was laying inside the cabinet. One tube is missing and one of the 4" speaker cones is gone. The changer will need the usual service and the tonearm needs to be rewired.

This is a little bit of an oddball setup in that they send the low frequencies to a center speaker, with the higher frequencies going to L and R 4" speakers. There are also external speaker jacks on the rear panel. With 50C5 output tubes, it won't rattle the windows; but, it should sound decent. Years ago, I had a similar Truetone unit with the same amp and I remember it sounding OK.

Had I not taken this unit, it would have wound up getting crushed by the tearing down of the house and been thrown in a construction dumpster; so, I think I should at least try to bring it back to life.

It's amazing that the low end stuff back then often is better than the low end (and, sometimes, the not so low end stuff of today).