CTC-4 (21-CT-662U), on ebay

[ohohyodafarted]

This is definately the set that was on craigslist several months back. I do not know if the Director was offered in Blonde. It does appear that at least the front of the set has been refinished with a coat of varnish which has yellowed quite badly. Chanel knob is in deplorable condition and the door to the pencil box is not there. In addition the brass trim around the safety glass is in poor condition with many small kinks which detracts from the esthetics. The deflection yoke cover is badly disintegrated which is not uncommon.

It was common during the 60's and 70's to refinish mahogany furniture to a french provential white. Mahogany had fallen out of favor, and more "modern" light finishes had come into vogue. A popular technique was to take old mahagony furniture and spray paint it flat white, then streak it with a faux wood grain and then varnish over the top to seal the surface.

If in fact this set was originally Blonde, the knobs inside the pencile box would most likely have been the typical greyish tan color, and this set has chocolate brown knobs indicating to me that the set was originally mahogany. IN addition, if you look at the photo of the inside showing the chassis you will see that the heads of the phillips wood screws at the top of the photo are painted white and so is the small metal bracket with the oval hole in the center (this bracket is used to secure the top on the cabinet using a special screw that has a conical point which engages the bracket with the oval hole and has always been unpainted with a zinc finish on every CTC4 I have seen) These painted items, causes me to suspect that this set was dismantled and spray painted, but that some hardware items were left on the cabinet when it was painted. I have never seen painted hardware on a factory original cabinet finish. In addition, the insides of RCA cabinets that I have seen are painted FLAT BLACK. The inside of this cabinet is painted white. I suspect this is not an original Blonde set but one that was dismantled and custom re-finished into a antique white French provential finsih. Upon closer examination of the photo with the chassis shown, I can see brush strokes in the white paint. This set has definately been repainted to this faux white finish.

The chassis and other components look pretty good and if the set has a good crt, I should think this would be a nice candidate for full restoration, if the cabinet was stripped and refinished back to mahogany as it probably was originally. Set needs a lot of TLC to become a nice example again. Not a project for someone who is less than dedicated to a MAJOR restoration. I would not be interested in this set if it was to go over $400 and only then if the crt tests very good. There are far better examples to be had.