The PHILCO Phorum
Newbie Wanting to Resurrect Grandma’s Stereo - Printable Version

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Newbie Wanting to Resurrect Grandma’s Stereo - azbob213 - 02-03-2023

We rescued my grandmother’s P1714-124 console stereo from my brother-in-law’s basement in Illinois and brought it out here to its new home in Arizona. I cleaned up the cabinet, carefully took some canned air to the electronics, and vacuumed the rest. I figured I would then start doing some research on the resistors/capacitors etc to find out if I should, as a matter of course, replace them/test them after having sat for so long (the best we can figure, it was last played 1973). 
A couple days later I went into the shop to discover my son had plugger it in and I could hear Johnny Mathis singing. Everything was working, no popping or sizzling or electric smells. I encouraged him to shut it down and unplug it which he did…after telling me he verified the radio works as well. 
I went out to mess with it the other day and noticed that the tone arm is now wonky; the “stylus” has become disconnected from the tone arm somehow. 
So…..I suppose my questions are as follows:
Even though I operated for maybe 10 minutes without frying in any way, do I need to do anything?
What is my source for getting replacement parts for this?

Thank you

RE: Newbie Wanting to Resurrect Grandma’s Stereo - Radioroslyn - 02-03-2023

Hi Bob and welcome to the Phorum,

I took a quick look around for some free info on your set and came up empty. Was built in '66 and I'm thinking that it's all solid state but I could be wrong. I would replace the electrolytic caps in the power supply and output stages.

GL

RE: Newbie Wanting to Resurrect Grandma’s Stereo - David - 02-04-2023

Hope this helps as a source of info. Good Luck David  http://www.antiqueradioschematics.org/philco.htm

RE: Newbie Wanting to Resurrect Grandma’s Stereo - morzh - 02-04-2023

Solid state is not as dangerous to plug in without overhauling as tubes are, but still should be gone over.

And, take off your belt and take it to the sonnie's caboose: he should not plug things unknown without the dad's permission.

RE: Newbie Wanting to Resurrect Grandma’s Stereo - MrFixr55 - 02-04-2023

+1 on Terry's (RadioRoslyn's) advice. Regarding the stylus, it is very likely that this phono has a ceramic cartridge. The stylus on many of these are rather flexible. The stylus has a pivot point at the base of the stylus, which clips into the cartridge. The shaft of the stylus should rest on the "bridge" (for lack of a better term) of the cartridge, where the mechanical vibration is changed into an electronic signal by the piezoelectric activity of the ceramic elements.

At this time, it is likely that Philco used either Voice of Music (V-M) or Garrard turntables. There is a V-M website where you can get hooked up with parts. Garrard turntables are extremely popular. the only MOD that you would need to consider is replacing the ceramic cartridge with a good magnetic cartridge such as a Pickering or Shure.

There are very many sources for the electrolytic caps that you may need. Antique Elecronic Supply, e Bay or any supplier recommended by an expert on this website. Unlike tube radios, almost all capacitors in solid state electronics are, in fact, electrolytics, so that is a slew of "caps" to replace. The good news is that most modern electrolytics last at least 50 years. The bad news is that your set is at least 50 years old.

Good luck with this heirloom. It should sound fairly nice.