Gilfillan Prototype Set

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by MRX37

Holy crap talk about rare!

[QUOTE=dieseljeep;3139673]

Originally Posted by miniman82

It's got next to no emission, even at 8 volts. I just got 3 electron gun assemblies in the mail though and I'm heading to the ETF next week tube in hand...
Regarding my opinion of the tuners: the S/T tuners always seemed to be used in the lower end TV's of most of the big manufacturers. The tuners of that era of the Gilfillin color set, the tube sockets would crumble and the tube couldn't be reinserted. The later S/T tuners had the coil sticks, where the plastic retainer would crumble and the sticks would fall loose and the customer would try to turn the selector and break up the individual strips. Most of the time, the tuner was damaged beyond repair. The problem was generally related to the excessive use of tuner spray.

I always considered Sarkes-Tarzian stick tuners (60s/70s) to be the best, and those crummy Shogyo or Oak wafer-switch or turret (some RCAs) tuners to be the worst. PTS used to charge more for an Oak rebuild of your unit - they always seemed to have a fairly good inventory of rebuilt Sarkes tuners, making me think the S-T tuners were more reliable and were low-demand for rebuilds.

As to the S-T stick retainers breaking, it was early Delrin, coupled with the orientation of the tuner - tubes not completely vertical (GE) or a cover over the tuner area (Maggie consoles and entertainment units) that blocked the heat from escaping, baking/browning the Delrin plastic. GE owned up to it with a Service note in the 1970 TV service guide. They showed how to order the turret with newer (bluish) Delrin retainer and replacement instructions. Pull the tuner, dismount it from the cluster, remove sticks that ain't broken, pull F/tuning shafts and wishbone/gearing, slide off the UHF switch, pull the spring, slide out the turret, compare to the new, and reinstall, reversing the steps. At 16 years old, I thought I'd do one myself, got into trouble with the spring, and had to get bailed out by Dad. Oh, if I had only had the instructions...