A 1939 Dewald rescue

[decojoe67]

This 1939 Dewald model 649 was in storage in a garage in a house near the ocean. A friend gave it to me. It was covered in mold, missing parts, and well worn. My friend changed a couple of caps and it played perfectly on most of original paper ones! I redid the cabinet and cosmetics and easily found the items it needed. It was not a strip-down, but a refresh. The "black japan" trim is just dark walnut gel stain. I installed a new dial window and added station call letters. The brass had to be brought all the way down to a high shine due to heavy tarnishing, but I didn't coat it, so it should mellow down over time. The set is no slouch! 6-tubes, 3-bands, green tuning eye and pushbuttons. It's a fairly large tabletop with a nice large Rola speaker. It has a rich full sound. Just as reference I must have 15 full hours into just the refreshing. Restorations are a lot of work.