My Zenith lives!

[Hemingray]

Bought this beautiful Zenith AM/FM tabletop for about $20, two tubes and alot of caps later, she sounds beautiful! Even the original dial backlight works, although it is now socketed for easy replacement. Pics included, including of the Armstrong system label on the back, This ol girl sounds beautiful on the FM band! (In the first pic, the radios in the background are a Silvertone AM Bakelite radio, and my AITC Tranny radio.)

[Celt]

I like! It's hard to beat those old Zenith's. (Hey, a fellow Arkie! Welcome to AK!)

[Snade]

Wow, that is a beautiful radio.

Well done.

Snade

[radiotvnut]

That's a nice set! Zenith made very good FM radios back then.

[Sandy G]

Wow-How many ZILLIONS of these guys did Zenith make, in as many different varieties? Never seen one like THIS before-Great set !

[Fisherdude]

Sweet! It's a beauty! Do you know what model that is?

[Hemingray]

Not sure, but it has a chassis number 7G04. Replaced two tubes (35B5 - open filament, and 19T8 - cracked glass). Recapped entirely save for two remaining caps, and added a candelabra socket from an old light set to allow the S-6 dial lamp to be replaceable (A nearby Ace hardware sells them in packs of two).


Celt: Heya, I see you're in Paragould, that's not all too far from me, closer to Jonesboro

[Jeffhs]

I had a Zenith radio like yours about 25 years ago, a thrift store find. All it needed was a fusible resistor to get it singing again, and it worked very well all the time I had it. Should have kept it. I didn't realize, however, that the dial lamp was originally hard-wired (didn't have to replace the one in mine). It seemed strange that this radio would be designed with a hard-wired dial light; seems to me to have been out of character for Zenith, especially during the late 1940s-early fifties when this set was made (I believe yours, and the one I had as well, were made in 1949). I don't think it would have added that much to the price to have designed this radio with a socketed dial light from the start.

You have an excellent radio. All Zeniths from that time frame (1940s through at least the sixties) were excellent performers, and were built on solid metal chassis with no design shortcuts to minimize problems. I have four Zenith tube-powered radios from 1951 to the early 1960s and all work well, even with the original caps (haven't had to replace a filter cap in any of them--yet, though my MJ-1035 could stand a new one, as it has a slight hum that's been there since I got the radio some four months ago).

Your set should last years, now that you have new caps in it. The capacitors in older radios are almost always either already bad or going bad, especially the 3-section electrolytic in the power supply. I wouldn't be too concerned about replacing the tubes, however, if the radio still works. Many of these older sets go for years or decades with most of their original tubes; my four Zenith tube radios have their original tubes for the most part, and the sets still work great. The only time I would replace a tube in one of these sets would be if the sensitivity were dropping (to the point where the radio won't even get local stations) or I was starting to notice problems with the audio; otherwise, I'd leave the tubes strictly alone. "Retubing" old radios, that is, replacing old but usable tubes with new ones (especially "shotgunning" the entire set, i.e. replacing every tube even though only one may be defective), is generally unnecessary unless you want to restore absolute peak performance.

[Hemingray]

I wasn't too sure of the hardwired bulb myself, but I have installed a proper socket to facilitate replacement if ever needed.

All the other tubes are in great shape, just the two I replaced had needed it.

(PS: As I type this, I am enjoying my favorite station on the Zenith )

[truetone36]

Nice radio. You really can't beat a Zenith. BTW, welcome to AK!

[Hemingray]

Originally Posted by truetone36

Nice radio. You really can't beat a Zenith. BTW, welcome to AK!

Thanks for the awesome welcome all! The antique radio bug bit me around graduation day in 2002. On the day of my graduation, I went and got two nice old wooden radios, a 1935 Montgomery Wards-Airline (Needs a recap, knobs, new cord and a 6F6 tube), and a 1942 RCA model 34X (needs knobs and new caps). The RCA features a phono input on the back which sounds rather great with any source connected (isolated by an audio tranny though).

Moved from Florida to Arkansas at the end of 02, and found lots of people near me selling old radios, so it just took off from there. But I can't say I ain't happy about it, cause I am!