Heathkit SG-8 Signal Generator

[Notimetolooz]

It is great that HP equipment is more affordable now. I have some myself and I don't usually spend a whole lot on things. That being said, you have to keep in mind that a piece of HP test equipment built in the 1950's will require re-capping just as a radio or TV from that era. HP used very high quality parts so they hold up better than others, but there are limits on how well anything lasts. Solid state test equipment made more recently are less likely to need restoration before they can be used. Repair shops in the 40's through the 70's seldom had HP equipment.
There are brands that fall between HP and say Heathkit in precision. Heathkit items are very easy to work on since they were intended for assembly from scratch. There are service grade brands with better performance that are factory built but are simpler than HP. B&K, RCA, EICO, Sencor, Leader and Tektronix, etc.
Here is my modified SG-8. My B&K 2005A RF generator and HP 5382A frequency counter. Also my Leader LAG-27 audio generator, a home-built 455KHz generator and my RF coupling loop. I think I found the SG-8 locally on Craig's list. The others were very carefully selected form ebay. The B&K RF generator had some broken front panel pieces (poor packing) that I was able to glue back together. Except for the SG-8 the equipment shown is solid state, but I think I replaced the electrolytics in all of them.