Old Muntz TV for sale Locally to me, Should I pick it up?

[Kevin Kuehn]

Whomever made it they sure adhered to a minimal circuit approach. Or maybe the tubes are all scrunched up towards the front of the chassis? In any event it's an interesting find. Looking forward to more detailed pictures.

[vortalexfan]

I took a closer look at the TV set yesterday and just like DieselJeep said it is a Meck TV.
I'm guessing the Philharmonic Designation on the front of the TV was the model name of the TV.
All of the tubes that were present in the TV still were all badged Meck and actually this TV has way more tubes in it than it looks like it has, they are just mostly in the front of the cabinet and inside the High Voltage Cage.

This TV actually has an interesting Story behind it, the person I bought it from found the TV in a really old farm house that the roof had collapsed on it 20 years ago and the TV some how managed to survive all that time in really good shape (the cabinet didn't rot or anything and the chassis and the tubes aren't horribly rusted away or anything).

I think that what saved this TV from degrading too badly was that the cabinet on this TV was actually Solid Wood and not just veneered plywood like what they did with the old radios from that period.

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by vortalexfan

I took a closer look at the TV set yesterday and just like DieselJeep said it is a Meck TV.
I'm guessing the Philharmonic Designation on the front of the TV was the model name of the TV.
All of the tubes that were present in the TV still were all badged Meck and actually this TV has way more tubes in it than it looks like it has, they are just mostly in the front of the cabinet and inside the High Voltage Cage.

This TV actually has an interesting Story behind it, the person I bought it from found the TV in a really old farm house that the roof had collapsed on it 20 years ago and the TV some how managed to survive all that time in really good shape (the cabinet didn't rot or anything and the chassis and the tubes aren't horribly rusted away or anything).

I think that what saved this TV from degrading too badly was that the cabinet on this TV was actually Solid Wood and not just veneered plywood like what they did with the old radios from that period.

Whether Meck, Muntz, or Philharmonic, they were all budget TV's. These secondary companies sales edge was making them seem like bargain through bare-bones electronics. The funny thing is these sets often perform just fine. Today, as a collectible, these more unusual sets appeal to collectors more than the popular named sets. I have a friend who owns a 7" combo console Philharmonic. It looks pre-war. It'll be one of the last TV sets he parts with!

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by decojoe67

Whether Meck, Muntz, or Philharmonic, they were all budget TV's. These secondary companies sales edge was making them seem like bargain through bare-bones electronics. The funny thing is these sets often perform just fine. Today, as a collectible, these more unusual sets appeal to collectors more than the popular named sets. I have a friend who owns a 7" combo console Philharmonic. It looks pre-war. It'll be one of the last TV sets he parts with!

Meck made TV's with other private labels too. Spiegel's Aircastles and even those so-called custom sets badged Radio-Craftsman.
Meck bought the E.H. Scott radio name in the late 40's or early 50's.

[vortalexfan]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Meck made TV's with other private labels too. Spiegel's Aircastles and even those so-called custom sets badged Radio-Craftsman.
Meck bought the E.H. Scott radio name in the late 40's or early 50's.

Ok that makes sense as to why it would be a Meck and have the E. H. Scott Philharmonic name plate on it.

[vortalexfan]

OK so I was finally able to get the chassis out of my Meck/Philharmonic TV and repopulated the chassis with known good tubes from my tube stash and plugged it in to test it out and when I turned the TV on all of the tubes including the Picture tube started glowing but then a few seconds later the 5U4G Rectifier tube for the power supply starting sparking and arcing inside so I quickly turned it off and unplugged it.

Any ideas as to what could be causing the arcing 5U4G Rectifier tube? thats the only tube in the whole TV that was arcing the rest of the tubes were working fine.

I did notice that the Power supply filter caps (which are in a cardboard can) was snapped off from its phenolic wafer that held it to the chassis (the phenolic mounting wafer that the capacitor can was mounted to itself was snapped off from the chassis not the capacitor can itself).

[vortalexfan]

Here are some pictures of the chassis of this TV showing the Tubes.