Show us your vintage color sets!

[Steve D.]

Hey Steve,
The collector's dream. The NIB set. Do I read you right? you've never seen an image on the screen? I remember the Packard Bell factory very well. Postwar modern building on Olympic as we drove to the beach. Ya, the good old days. And don't ever remove those stickers!!!

[Steve Hoffman]

I remember that building too. Driving to Pacific Ocean Park (POP) with my folks as a kid!

Steve, come on over and I'll fire it up for ya!

[Charlie]

steve,

that is way too cool to have. i can just imagine the itch you get to plug it in! it takes alot of discipline not turn that baby on! must be kinda weird to own a 40 year old set that has never been watched!

do you think the day will ever come?

[Eric H]

I couldn't stand the suspense, I would have to try and power it up.

If it didn't work though I wouldn't touch it, just leave it in it's Museum quality state.

The stickers are cool, they look as pristine as the set!
It's just unimaginable how something like that survived to this day. Color was so expensive back then you would think someone would have taken this home and used it.

Eric

[Steve Hoffman]

The set actually looks a lot groovier than that crappy picture I took. Really nice.

It was weird taking off the back and gazing at all those new tubes back there. Just like time travel!

Will I ever fire it up? Sure. One of these days. I have three other 21" sets to keep me happy for the moment though. I just gaze at this one and wonder how NO ONE took this set home at actually watched it. I mean, it's almost 40 years untouched. That's pretty amazing....

[rca2000]

I just found this site I am enjoying it very much. it is nice to know there are other people who do think that old t.v.s, both b.w., and color, are worth saving.

i recently(in early january)acquired a zenith 29jc20 color set. it is somewhat similar to the others i have seen on the site, but is several years older, with two 3dg4 rectifier tubes in the power supply. it dates to 1961 or 1962, and does not have an option for v.h.f. The set is working fairly well, with decent picture and color, but has a vertical problem(probably a cathode bypass cap) and the red gun is a little weak on the 21fbp22. but, it has no cataracts, (it thas a safety plate in front of it.).when i get a little more time, i will restore the chassis fully. i love to see advertisements for internet items on that old, round screen(it seems a little uncanny to me), and i run the set a few hours a week, to keep it from getting stale. this is only the second one of these chassis i have seen in over 20 years of looking,(the last 29jc20 i found was lying behind an old repair garage, and the cabinet was beyond saving. i did save the chassis, though, and it did have a raster, and sound, when i hooked it to a tube 17 years ago. so, i do have a good flyback, power trans, and other parts, if i need them in the future.

i drove over 500 miles to get the set. it was in s.c. i got it for $75.00 i thought it was a good deal, but some people thought i was crazy to take a whole day "just to go get an old t.v. "

anyway, i am glad to join you guys on the site.

[Rob]

Jack S,

Welcome to AK! It is great whenever another vintage color TV collector discovers this family here and joins us! It sounds like you have a quite rare Zenith there...and spares too. Got pictures? Don't worry about driving for a day to fetch an old TV. Many here do the same thing without thinking about it. It is part of the disease.

Rob

[Charlie]

Jack,

You are my new best friend! It sounds like you have the set I've been looking for!

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthr...&threadid=1275

Sounds like an excuse for a road trip!

[rca2000]

well, i checked the picture of the set you had. mine looks a little different, it only has one 5x7" speaker, and the cabinet top does not have a lip on it. otherwise the front ,and controls look the same.

i do not think i want to sell the set. i went to a lot of trouble to get the old girl, and i want to hold on to her. this was zeniths first regular production 21" set, from 1961-62, and i'm sure not very many were made. Most of them probably met their fate when they were dropped into a hopper in a garbage truck, and the compaction plate descended on them, ushering in their burial at a landfill. I am happy to have been able to save this, and some other old color and b.w sets, from such a fate. it brings tears to my eyes to think of how many ctc2's 4.s 5.s 7.s and even 621ts's and so on, ended their lives at some landfill, and not in someones collection.

last year about this time, i found a mcintosh mr-71 tuner in the garbage , just a few houses from mine. i took it home, cleaned a few switches, and tube sockets, and sold it on ebay last july, for $600.00!!, some guy in paris(ugh) bought it, and it probably now resides on a shelf with other vintage equipment.

my screen name, rca 2000, is from the name of a VERY RARE rca color set that i finally got last year, after over 20 years of looking. it has electronic tuning, motorless remote, is fully solid state, from 1969!1 only 2000 of them were made, and probably less than 200 of them are left.

i have some old tube and solid state audio equipment (such as an eico st40, w/tuner and multiplex unit, an eico hf -14 or similar, and a fender vibrato champ CHASSIS ONLY, along with other tube and early solid state audio equipment, like a sansui 9090, and so on. ) i was going to put this stuff on e-bay, but now, maybe i'll give you guys a crack at some of it, first., if anyone is interested.

i don't have a digital camera right now, (money is tight right now) but as soon as i can i'll get some pictures of my old zenith 29jc20 color set ,inside and out, and in operation, on this site.

[Charlie]

Ahh...

So yours has a different cabinet... the one I was lookin for is the dual speaker model. Oh well. Another will come around sometime i guess. And yes, we'd love to see a picture of it once you get a camera!

[Big Dave]

Zenith 25MC30

[Big Dave]

Silvertone combo. The TV needs a recap, but plays decently anyway The radio works fine, but the turntable is toast, due to a hack that tried to fix it.

[Charlie]

Dave,

I had a Zenith set just like that one that I kicked to the curb last year. The CRT had gone to air, and the cabinet top was in piss-poor condition beyond repair. Humidity had taken it's toll on it, inside and out. I did save the chassis and tuner, however, in case I needed any parts.

Hopefully yours will be a better candidate for restoration.

[Steve Hoffman]

Charlie,

I enjoyed your website!

[Charlie]

Thank you, Steve! I appreciate that! Hopefully later I will be able to make it look a little fancier than it does now.