[TA Forbes]

Airline and Truetone also used similar knobs.

[jerryhawthorne]

Aaran, always so positive. Flash chrome yes, generally lasted pretty well for 60 years. Not too bad. Car chrome from that far back, although handling some bad weather didn't do much better. Even back then, people cleaned an polished their chrome once in a while. Most people won't see the chassis after installation. Even this one will look pretty nice with a little cleaning. I have two Scotts and generally no one wants to look at the chrome. Both play well. My Metro is in a home built cabinet that does show the amp chassis and people love to look at it and tubes. I would put it up against most any other radios of the time. It rocks, even with some bad chrome. Even my 800B will blow your socks off. Yes, not the best of chrome but then again, not many chromed all the parts.
Jerry

[TA Forbes]

But in Arran's defense, he can back it up with a fair amount of electronic knowledge.

And at my age I know I can be a real poop sometimes. We all have our quirks and opinions.

[jerryhawthorne]

Your right TA, Aaron has a lot more electronic experience than me. Certainly no offence to him but he can be a bit negative. Just saying for the age and the quality, Ron is going to have one heck of a radio if he finds all the parts. I'm a Scott fan, next Philco, their easier to afford and I like them. Heck, look at all the rusty chassis many of us buy and clean them up. I did have a bit of chroming done on my Metro. Really expensive, wish I owned a chrome shop.
Jerry

[TA Forbes]

Agree Ron will have a swell radio. I have never been into Scotts, in fact Ron now has the only Scott I ever aquired. Not because I don't like them, but that one never came up that I was able to get.

Some sets are worth the expense, Ron's Scott certainly falls into that category.

[jerryhawthorne]

TA, an 800B just sold off of ARF for $250, Complete with a really nice looking cabinet. The post war Scotts were great, they had FM. Restored 3 of those so far. A bit of work but with certain mods to the tone circuit, they come to life well. I'm certain Ron will like his when it comes to life. Don't give up on Scotts find a nice Metro (16A) somewhat rare or and 800B all over the place. Of course, you need some space.
regards, Jerry

[Arran]

I think I should clarify what my beef is with the plating on Scott radios. Scott, as everyone knows, was a high end brand with prices to match, in fact they touted themselves to be the best. There is an old adage something to the effect that to that much who is given that much more is to be expected, so why is it unreasonable to expect that a high priced radio should be made to a higher standard.
Flash chrome plating is a quick and cheap method of chrome plating, it means that they polished the bare steel and chrome plated right over it, it's the sort of thing that was done with cheap bicycle parts. Auto parts, even those dating back to the 1920s and 30s, used a different method often called triple chrome plating. Triple plating means that a object is first plated with copper, one or more times, polished, then plated with nickel one or more times, polished again, and then finally plated with chromium.
Even the cheapest cars of those days had triple plated bumpers, the reason being is that chrome is porous and that it would rust through and bubble off in no time if they did not. I do not have any car parts from the 1920s or 30s but I have some of the 1940s, the chrome may be dull, may have rust spots, but it is still mostly intact, and these were from vehicles that were left in back yards and fields.
The people that purchased Scotts expected, and rightly so, that they would receive the sort of high end product that they thought they paid for. The chassis were indeed meant to be displayed, I haven't seen a stock Scott cabinet yet that did not have a hinged top to show off the workings, so I think this was part of what closed the sale. Most of these Scotts cost more then the average Ford, Plymouth, or Chevrolet from that era yet the quality of the plating was inferior to that used on the cars or to that used by their arch rival, McMurdo Silver. So why did a company boasting about how much better their products were use a standard of plating quality akin to that of cheap bicycle parts made in Hong Kong? If they had had these chassis cadmium or copper plated they would have fared better.
In any event this is why I warn people who are interested in these sets that unless they find a real bargain it's best to get one with the chrome in the best condition possible for the money, if you can get a chassis and cabinet like this for under $500 (for example) then you have plenty of head room for spending money on rechroming, if you see something in this condition for $1200 or more RUN AWAY and find something better!
Regards
Arran