Unknown Stromberg model

[cork]

Try this on. It's a Stromberg Carlson model no. unknown, serial no. 721857. Stromberg model nos. are like 521 and 621, but this doesn't seem to be a 721 (first 3 dig's of s/n). It uses a single 5U4, 4 video Ifs, and one vidio amplifier, a 12BY7. Production is
around 1954...or so.

[Eric H]

Hi Cork,

I deleted the attachment because of the size and it was corrupted also.

If you need help resizing the picture you can E-mail it to me and I will shrink it down.

Eric

[cork]

With a little luck these should be the pictures of the Stromberg
chasis and tube layout. This is the thing I can't find a model number for, maybe something like a 721. What characterizes this
set is a single 5U4 and a single 12BY7 video amplifier, and 4 IFs.
Any idea as to model no. would be much appreciated.

[Tubejunke]

I dont know the model but man that is one pretty chassis. Can we see the front?

[cork]

High Tubejunkie,

This should be the front of the Stromberg's cabinet. Both the case and the safety glass are as convex as they look.

[cork]

Just for jollys, this is the tube layout for the mystery Stromberg.

[Tubejunke]

Thanks for the pic Cork. Looks like a very well kept set. Seems like I ran into a set when I was a kid with that odd shaped front. The CRT was oddly shaped as well. The faceplate was kind of turned out at the corners if that makes sense. Does your set work? Sure looks like it has some life in it!

Tube

[cork]

Hi Tubejunkie,

This thing doesn't even come close to working...big time capacitor problems. The filters act like they don't exist. All it will do is Christmas tree. The horizontal doesn't know what to do with 100% ripple. The CRT tests very good. That's one reason it's worth restoring, and that's why it needs to be identified so that a Sams for it can be pulled. It is more or less in the class that Donald Fink calls "delux tv", with 4 IFs, horiz. AFC, and a POWER
TRANSFORMER. All an exhaustive serch of my meager Sams collection comes up with is Strombergs with 2 5U4s, two video
amplifiers, whereas this thing has only a single 5U4, and a single video amplifier, 12BY7.

[Tim]

Cork:

Based on the "22T" printed on the tube layout diagram. I looked up that chassis # and found your set is covered in Sams 258-13.

Your set is model 21TM, 21TQ or 22TM.

Good luck with it.

[cork]

Tim,

That's pretty good detective work. I got all hung up on the idea that it was the sequel to the model 421 and 521, 21 for 21 inch and 4 and 5 being the sequnce numbers. For this set, the serial number first three dig's begin with 721, it had to be a model 721. By the tube types used, it was pretty obvious that it was just after the 421 and 521. I went through all my Sams for the period, and as luck would have it, this was the one Sams for the period that was missing.

[Jeffhs]

Cork,


The "convex" styling of television cabinets made sort of a comeback, if short-lived, in the late '70s-early '80s when Zenith introduced its convex-shaped color consoles that would easily fit in a corner. These sets had electronic varactor tuning and Space Command (hmmm, wonder if Doug Harland has this model in his collection?) with, IIRC, a 25" CRT.

Your convex-cabinet Stromberg sounds like it is quite rare. Before Zenith introduced its rounded-corner console, I never saw a set, B&W or color, in such an unusual cabinet design, including all the old sets I had at my former home, in the basement, in the '60s-'70s.

I found a lot of old sets in my neighbors' trash, some of them in very nice table and console cabinets, but never one in a convex cabinet. GE came close to it, however, when they introduced a small 21" or 23" console in the early '60s (the one with the monster oval speaker--I swear, the magnet in that thing must have weighed five pounds or more!).

[maxm]

Originally posted by Jeffhs
Cork,


The "convex" styling of television cabinets made sort of a comeback, if short-lived, in the late '70s-early '80s when Zenith introduced its convex-shaped color consoles that would easily fit in a corner. These sets had electronic varactor tuning and Space Command (hmmm, wonder if Doug Harland has this model in his collection?) with, IIRC, a 25" CRT.

It reminds me of the earlier Sony Trinitron Color TVs, with that distinctive curved picture tube, and curved cabinet to go with it.

PS. I really like the cabinet of that Stromberg Carlson, too bad they don't look like that anymore.

[Sandy G]

I still think people would buy consoles if they weren't so gawdawfully cheap 'n' nasty now. They don't even really use a decent grade of plastic on the ones i've seen. And the ones that ARE made of wood-puh-leez!! It's that cheap shite not even fit for cigar boxes. I remember the old consoles. & some of 'em were quite attractive- you only have to look at some of OUR tvs here at AK to see that ! well, maybe oneday they will come back in style, & these ugly black plastic modified bowling ball carriers will go away...-Sandy G.

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Sandy G
And the ones that ARE made of wood-puh-leez!! It's that cheap shite not even fit for cigar boxes. I remember the old consoles. & some of 'em were quite attractive- you only have to look at some of OUR tvs here at AK to see that ! well, maybe oneday they will come back in style, & these ugly black plastic modified bowling ball carriers will go away...-Sandy G.

Sandy, I never looked at it that way, but you're probably right. Even Zenith's current production high-end 25" and 27" console TVs are in cabinets made of cheap wood with printed wood veneer over it (the trade name for the printed stuff is Mac-Tac); so I read in an earlier post to another thread some time back. (Personally, I don't like Mac-Tac because it peels too darned easily, but that's another story.)

You are so right as well about the early console TV cabinets looking much nicer than today's black plastic cubes coming from Korea, China and elsewhere offshore. I've mentioned this before: some of the sets in the black cabinets don't look half bad it you put them in or on a nice wooden entertainment center cabinet or stand (for example, my avatar shows what I did with my TV, VCR and cable box and a modified solid oak utility cart about two years ago; I couldn't be more proud of that installation if it were a big console--the cart's American Oak finish matches the rest of the furniture in my apartment almost perfectly, which is another reason I like it so well).

However, I do agree that the sets in plain black or even silver (RCA and, I believe, Zenith call the silver finish on the cabinets of their new table models "diamond mist" for no reason that makes sense to me) cabinets can look rather ugly when sitting on a shelf, etc. in a living or family room. But that's the style these days, like it or not (a lot of modern furniture doesn't strike me as being particularly attractive, either). The old TVs were made to conform to the styles and decors of living rooms of the '50s and early '60s, when consoles were in style, but things have changed (boy, have they ever) since then.

One other thing which can be done (I recommend, however, that this be done only with a television set which is definitely beyond repair) is to take the chassis and CRT out of the old cabinet and build your new set into it, or, if you don't feel like going to all that trouble, just put a shelf or two in the cabinet, mount a power strip on the back (if you plan to use accessory equipment such as a VCR, DVD player, cable box, etc. with your TV) ... and there you are. I saw such an installation here on AK not long ago; I believe it was Carmine who actually built his Zenith System 3 black-cabinet set into an old console cabinet which once housed a Zenith Great Circle (aka "porthole") TV. This was no simple matter of just putting a shelf in the cabinet and setting the TV on it, maybe also making a frame around the opening where the old set had been to cover up the gaps, then being done with it; no, Carmine's project was actually to build the TV into the cabinet, making the set an integral part of the latter. The finished product looked great, as did his 1967 Magnavox stereo console next to it. That post may still be on AK in one of the vintage TV forums; if you do a search you'll probably find it.

I had relatives who replaced the old worn-out TVs in their entertainment centers with then-new color sets some years (at least a couple decades by now) ago. The TVs were mounted in the cabinets (after removing the old guts, of course) on shelves, and a wood frame was built around the front of the set to hide the gaps. The results in both cases were very good and pleasing.

This, I think, is an excellent way to recycle a well-made cabinet after the TV itself has gone to the junkpile. Many people have done this in the past and have liked the results.

Please note, however, that the folks who ordinarily do this are not television experts; as such they have no idea what to do with the set after it blows a flyback, power transformer, CRT or other large, expensive component, and the repair person tells them it will cost "X" number of dollars to repair the TV. Many times these old consoles (and smaller, older sets as well) are simply put out with the week's trash and replaced with modern portables or table models (on any given week in most residential neighborhoods one can find one or more old console or portable sets sitting out by curbs; I've seen a few of them in the nearly five years I've lived in my small town, and I saw it more times than I can remember when I lived in my hometown in a Cleveland suburb).

But every once in a while you can find an old console set with a bad chassis and a good, restorable cabinet in which you can put your own modern entertainment gear. Even consoles with badly scuffed, scratched, faded, etc. cabinets can be refinished, in many cases, to look as good as or in some cases better than they did when they were new. The possibilities are almost endless. Just don't turn one of those nice old cabinets into a fish tank. (!!!)

[andy]

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