It's not a fake listing. The CL lister replied to me right away and I have plans to pick it up at the end of this coming week.

John

I picked up the CTC5 today. The seller asked me what I was going to do with it. He hoped I wouldn't make it into an aquarium or the like. I assured him that would not happen.

I forget whether it was his father's or grandfather's, but it's been in their family until I bought it.

There's some water damage on the top. Other than that, the finish is in good condition. Guess I'll have to learn how to repair photo print finishes. There's actually nice veneer under that photo print.

There's a sticker on the base that says Universal Woodcrafters. Does that mean it's not an original RCA stand?

It seem pretty clean inside. The CRT is a 21AXP22 and it tests strong on all three guns, good balance, and good tracking.

One convergence coil has me a little worried. There's a something that looks like a solder splash where the wire goes to the coil. Sorry for the bad focus, I should have done it manually. There's also about 1/32" of wax between the coil and what appears to be solder. None of the other coils have this much wax on them. It looks easy enough to wind one if necessary.

Anyway, I'm really happy about the CRT. It seems like it hasn't been used much. The life test on the Super Mack doesn't work the same as other testers. It reduces the filament voltage by a certain percentage. If you see the emission drop below good, then you might not have much life left. The emission didn't waver.

He had hoped to have a neighbor help him carry it out of the basement since he knew I wasn't supposed to lift more than 20 pounds after the cataract surgery. The neighbor was out of town so fortunately, this is the day that I was allowed to exercise again. Carrying 175 pounds up a narrow set of stairs was more difficult than I thought.

It has the back and it's in good shape. I was surprised to see an ion trap, but this is the first CTC-5 I've seen up close.

I believe this is the Aldrich, but it says Special on the front.

John

BRAVO!!! :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:
Looks great ! can't believe how good the CRT is ! I Think the "ion trap" is really the blue lateral adjustment. :scratch2:

jr

Hi John;

Glad you finally managed to pick up the set. It looks to be in great shape and having a crt that strong, especially an 21AXP22, is a great big plus.

There've been some disparaging remarks made about "The Super Series" CTC 5 Chassis (your Aldrich is one of them), but I have one myself and I think the color reproduction is quite good. There are some quirkie things about it that make the initial set up a real challenge, but even at that it was quite an interesting experience. I think you'll be challenged and educated at the same time.

My set also came with what I assume is the factory base, but it looks different than what your set is sitting on. I'm sure some of the experts here can tell you what it's all about.

Good luck with your new acquisition.
Bob

Duh, I knew that! :withstpd: I started thinking about what I said and hoped to edit it out before anyone noticed. The only other roundie color set that I've worked on had a different setup for the lateral magnet. I guess I was tired from the trip and carrying the set twice.

John

I'm sure I'll learn alot from it. I'm moving this set to the head of the queue and will work on it after I finish the cabinet for the Sylvania. That could mean this fall the way things are going.

John

John,

The "Special" series was the price leader CTC-5.
It used the "Super" series chassis. Aldrich was the name of the model. The difference between the Special and Super is there is no black in the mask around the pix. tube. Your set has an aftermarket stand. The original RCA Victor stand is as pictured in Bob's post has a grill cloth. My first color set was also the Aldrich model. It produced a beautiful color picture. I wouldn't fuss to much with trying to refinish the cabinet. It has, except for the front panel, fiberboard under that photo finish. RCA also produced the CTC-5 "Deluxe" series with a more complex chassis, but that's another story.

-Steve D.

Wow, nice set.

Phil

Way to Go John!

Glad to see that the 21AX is very good. You're going to have a lot of fun with that set. It will get you hooked on early color. Then you will get the craving for an early 15" color set and you will get the 15G disease like me and John. Good thing you have high vacuum equipment. I can see you using it in the not too distant future. :yes::D:banana:

I barely have room for this set. Being on an open stand is a big plus for where I have it.

Although they say "never say never," I think I'll leave the CTC-100s to the experts. Now if I ran across a Westinghouse H-840CK15 or an Arvin 15-550KB-UHF that I could afford, I might change my mind...

John

John,
I just dug out a slightly damaged approx 90 page RCA booklet on the CTC 5 sets... Yours free if you want it, drop me a PM.

The damage is strange, it looks as if it was burned on on one corner, and the damaged area was cut off... as you can see no info is lost, it just looks sorta ugly :tears:

jr

Thanks for the advice. I might leave the finish alone. But, there doesn't appear to be fiberboard anywhere on this set. I've attached a photo of the damage on the top and to me it looks like birch plywood underneath the finish.

John

I'm glad you got it John. I've seen some amazing restorations of photo finishes on radios so it certainly can be done. I think it mainly takes practice and patience.

Good luck!

Any chance someone here could scan it and make it available to all? Same for any other very early factory service literature. Sure beats relying solely on the Photofacts and Riders information.



.

It's already on its way to me. I'll scan it after I receive it.

John