its all different now no more hand made stuff, now it comes from over seas from computer guided machines that make this crap today. amazing really how long it does last and how much smaller components have gotton and how powerful they can be made in small packages.

And also consider that in the days of old, many a US manufacturer of consumer electronics and even jukeboxes had less than superb soldering. And when new. Usually done by people with little or no electronics expertise.

I can see that on some of the pre WWII radios that I am working on, even a capacitor or resistor leeds were wrapped around the tube socket solder lug, not even snipped , almost touching the next lug. Wire wrapped around the terminals very loose and then soldered, making it look like a big blob.
But really thinking about that, they all did really well, all the people just called back into work from a lengthy depression era, took on jobs that had to be done and they did it. They built North America again.:thmbsp:
So when I see that, its like a work of art to me, it tells me something.

I think half the battle with any old radio i take on if figuring out what was repaired wrong. what idiot shoved this tube in there and why. Peeling off yards of friction pto see a lousy splice. The cold solder seams that are just two wire barely touching and gapped but stuck together with a tiny splash of solder.

Most of the techs back in those days, only had mechanic's tools, plus a big bulky soldering iron. I saw Zenith 4V31 farm radio that was converted to AC. A real hack job.