Early 1950s Capehart AM/FM/Phono Console For Sale locally

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Capehart tended to be a good brand.

Value wise that ain't the worst, but if your a bargain hunter you can find similar stuff cheaper (at least in my region of the country).

What matters is whether you want to dedicate the money and space.

Also, most radio-phonos this old the caps need changing, the phono carts are usually shot (and you often have to improvise a replacement because NOS is usually bad too, and or stupid expensive), idlers vary...Some idlers you can wipe them down with GoofOff then GC automotive belt conditioner, and they will be fine, others have deep diviots, are too hard or too melty to save...Once you've done enough vintage electronic resto work it all starts to become 'same shit different set'...

I was thinking of trading the guy a couple of working mid-grade stereo receivers, a Kenwood and a Technics for this unit. Like I said the main reason I would get this thing is because I would like to have a piece of local history (being that Capehart was made about an hour and twenty minutes SE of where I live.)

[vortalexfan]

OK So I need a service manual for this radio, but can't find anything.

I've looked over at Nostalgia Air and they didn't have the Rider's Manual for the Capehart Model 1002 listed in their archives, they had the 1003-1010 model listed but they didn't have the 1002 listed (as far I know the 1003-1010 were basically the same radio as the 1002 but with different chassis and dial and record changer drawer configurations and different speaker configurations as well).

I also checked over at the the radio museum website as well and they also didn't have the Riders for this particular model in their archives (in fact I think they actually have the wrong rider's listed for the Capehart 1002 listed in the description of the Capehart 1002 radio on their website because when I checked Rider's Volume 19 Folders 19-33 which they had listed there in their website it said that that particular folder was for a Westinghouse radio instead and not for a Capehart radio.)


I also checked the Sam's Archive they had at RadioMuseum and they didn't even have the Sam's Folder for the Capehart Model 1002 listed in their archive which was Set 135 Folder 4.

It is annoying that they don't have either of the Rider's or the Sam's Photofact's for the Capehart 1002 Radio listed in their archive for download because they show them in the writeup about the Capehart model 1002 on their website but then when you actually go to look for them on their archive they're not actually there.

[vortalexfan]

OK so I picked up the radio this past friday, and the unit is in pretty good shape yet.

The only issues I could find with the unit was that the previous owner replaced the original cord recently with a modern mid 2000s power cord (where its has the one piece sheathing with the black and white conductors running inside of it) on the radio.
I think they also at the same time removed the original record changer (which had a flipover Astatic crystal cartridge) and scrapped it out and installed in its place a late model (between 1957-1959) V-M 900 series ceramic cartridged 4 speed record changer that really wasn't much better than the original as the replacement record player also didn't have the standard 1/2" cartridge mount holes on it and the cartridge on it was just glued into the tone arm at the factory.
But then the cartridge broke off the tone arm so now the changer is no good unless I glue the cartridge back into place (the cartridge is a Sonotone 2T ceramic cartridge that still works actually just broken loose of the tone arm.)

Another interesting observation I made about this unit is that it plays hum free with the original Mallory Power Supply Capacitor can intact yet and almost every single backlight bulb for the tuner dial was burned out except for one and the pilot bulbs were type #44 bayonet bulbs which look just like type #47 bulbs but I'm not really sure what the difference is between a type #44 and a type #47 bulb is but there must of been some sort of difference otherwise this radio would of had type #47s in it rather than type #44s in it.

The other thing I noticed is that the tuning dial pointer on this radio is backlit as well and has 2 light sockets in it one on top and one on the bottom and they have two glass windows cut into the pointer that is painted black and the top one lights up the pointer for the FM Band and the bottom one lights up for the AM band and it lights up the respective pointer light for whichever band the radio is set to on the band/mode switch, but for some reason or another someone at some point in time cut the wire lead that powered the AM tuning dial pointer light socket so only the FM dial pointer light socket worked and not the AM one, which seems kind of bizarre that someone would do that.