Philco for 1929 - early 1930 (introduced Fall 1929 - January 1930)

Overview

Changes were occur­ring rapid­ly with­in the radio indus­try. As new tubes were intro­duced, new cir­cuits were being devel­oped to take advan­tage of the new tubes. Only a few months after the intro­duc­tion of their 1929-30 radio line, Philco intro­duced an impor­tant new model.

Mod­el 95 was the company's best offer­ing up to that time, and would remain so (with minor changes) until Jan­u­ary 1931. Mod­el 95 or Screen Grid Plus used 9 tubes and fea­tured Auto­mat­ic Vol­ume Con­trol, a method of con­trol­ling the ampli­fi­ca­tion of the RF stages. This kept the vol­ume at a fair­ly con­stant lev­el, pre­vent­ing loud "blast­ing" while tun­ing across the band. The 95 came out on or around Octo­ber 1929.

The new year of 1930 brought along two more new Philco sets. Mod­el 40 was Philco's first set designed to oper­ate on DC cur­rent only, which was being used in some parts of the coun­try although 60 cycle AC was well on its way to becom­ing the stan­dard for most of the USA. The Mod­el 40 used six tubes and its design was based on anoth­er new Philco, Mod­el 76, a sev­en tube, screen grid TRF set.

Mod­el 87 was retained in the Philco line­up, although its Neu­tro­dyne-Plus design was by now obsolete.

Model Index

Mod­el 65 most like­ly remained in the Philco line­up until stock was exhausted.

Click on a thumb­nail to see infor­ma­tion and pho­tos for each model:

Table Mod­el

65, 76 & 95

Con­soles

65 or 76 Console Low­boy, Ear­ly Ver­sion (40, 76, 87 & 95) Low­boy, Late Ver­sion (40, 76, 87 & 95) High­boy (40, 76, 87 & 95) Tudor High­boy (76, 87 & 95) High­boy De Luxe (40, 76, 87 & 95)

Models

Table Model


Models 65, 76 & 95

Models 65, 76 & 95

You could now pur­chase a bet­ter table mod­el Philco, espe­cial­ly if you bought the Mod­el 95 ver­sion. The Mod­el F-10 elec­tro-dynam­ic speak­er con­tin­ued to be used with the new table mod­els. How­ev­er, for some rea­son, the table mod­el ver­sions nev­er were very pop­u­lar, as the con­sole ver­sions of these mod­els con­sis­tent­ly out­sold the table models.

Sep­a­rate F-10 speak­er: Price not available

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: $67 (65), Not avail­able (76), $97 (95)

Num­ber made: 17,700 (Note: This fig­ure includes Mod­els 76 and 95 table mod­els, as well as June 1929 Mod­el 65 table mod­el and June 1930 Mod­els 77 and 96 table models.)

Consoles


Model 65 or 76 Console

Model 65 or 76 Console
Model 65 or 76 Console

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: $102 (65), $95 (76)

Num­ber made: 45,000

Lowboy, Early Version (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95)

Lowboy, Early Version (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 lowboy (early version) shown; Models 40, 76 and 87 lowboy cabinets are identical. Image courtesy of Kim Bowers.

The new Philco Low­boy was very pop­u­lar in its time; exam­ples are eas­i­ly found today. All of the ear­ly low­boy mod­els such as the one shown above have a wood grille insert with intri­cate cutouts; sets made after approx. Jan­u­ary 1930 do not have the intri­cate cutouts and use the "tapes­try" gril­le­cloth as used in Philco high­boys and De Luxe high­boys (see below).

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (40, 76), $129.50 (87), $149.50 (95)

Num­ber made: 249,327 (Note: This fig­ure includes June 1929 Mod­els 65 and 87 lowboys)

Lowboy, Late Version (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95)

Lowboy, Late Version (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Image courtesy of Bob Timms.
Lowboy, Late Version (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95)

An exam­ple of a late ver­sion Philco low­boy. This is a Mod­el 76, with "tapes­try" gril­le­cloth. Note how this ver­sion does not have the wood grille insert with the intri­cate cutouts.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Unknown

Num­ber made: Unknown

Highboy (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95)

Highboy (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy shown; Model 40, 76 & 87 Highboy cabinets are identical. Image courtesy of Paul Turney.
Highboy (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy shown; Model 40, 76 & 87 Highboy cabinets are identical. Image courtesy of Paul Turney. Highboy (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 76 Highboy shown; Model 40, 87 & 95 Highboy cabinets are identical. Image courtesy of J. Thomas Lawson. Highboy (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 76 Highboy shown; Model 40, 87 & 95 Highboy cabinets are identical. Image courtesy of J. Thomas Lawson.

This hand­some set fea­tures fleur-de-lis on both sides, and dou­ble doors which open up to reveal the radio dial, con­trols and speaker.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (40, 76), $149.50 (87), $169.50 (95)

Num­ber made: 98,015 (Note: This fig­ure includes June 1929 Mod­els 65 and 87 highboys)

Tudor Highboy (Models 76, 87 & 95)

Tudor Highboy (Models 76, 87 & 95) - Model 87 Tudor Highboy shown; Models 76 & 95 Tudor Highboy cabinets are identical.

An unusu­al cab­i­net, this mod­el fea­tured oak veneer and dif­fer­ent legs from oth­er con­tem­po­rary Philco models.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (76), $155 (87), $175 (95)

Num­ber made: 5,006 (Note: This fig­ure includes June 1929 Mod­els 65 and 87 Tudor Highboys)

Highboy De Luxe (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95)

Highboy De Luxe (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy Deluxe, doors open. Image used with permission.
Highboy De Luxe (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy Deluxe, doors closed. Highboy De Luxe (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy Deluxe, doors open. Note: Grillecloth is incorrect - should be tapestry style. Highboy De Luxe (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy Deluxe shipping crate. Image used with permission. Highboy De Luxe (Models 40, 76, 87 & 95) - Model 95 Highboy Deluxe chassis patent label. Image used with permission.

This large cab­i­net fea­tures doors which slide open and out of sight. It also has the fleur-de-lis on left and right sides, like the Highboy.

Orig­i­nal sell­ing price: Not avail­able (40, 76), $205 (87), $225 (95)

Num­ber made: 16,550 (Note: This fig­ure includes June 1929 Mod­els 65 and 87 versions)

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