[Jayce]

I was over at my late friend's place last week and was shocked to see his dad hauling out two large speakers and getting read to through them onto the burn pile. I recognized them as the only matching pair of Silvertone speakers that Tim had for the three Silvertone stereo tuner/amp units that he owned. He was going to burn the whole lot as he was cleaning up the workshop and outbuildings, so I claimed them all. I scavenged up enough 12AX7 and 6BQ5 tubes to get one unit working again once I repaired a speaker cord. In the picture the top one is a parts unit, the center unit and speakers I owned for a short while until the AM section died, and the bottom unit is the fully working unit that Tim used to play with. Even the eye tube works on it. I have yet to try the middle unit and the top unit looks like the transformer might be cooked. Might have enough to make one more good tuner/amp unit and maybe try to find another pair of working speakers. I can't recall the model numbers right now, but these things are pretty beefy on sound.

   

On a side note: Things are not going so well up at my friend's old place. His dad was good about the stuff in the house, but is starting to take on a scorched earth sort to tactic for the radios and items in the outbuildings. I just rescued another 1950's Silvertone console from the fire this week. Don't even get me started on the blunder a couple other helpers made.

[KCMike]

Glad you could save the speakers. Jayce if you had any space at all to store some of the radios from the sheds maybe you could sell them on ebay or just take them apart and sell the parts. Better than ending up in the fire. Mike

[Jayce]

I'm going to save what I can next week if possible. Pondering renting a small storage space until next spring to store the extra stuff in.

[Phlogiston]

Weren't you going to start "sliming down".

http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=10696

I want to be part of your support group. Don't rent a storage facility, you will just (have to) fill it up.

You know what I do. When I find something I have to own, I sell something else, even if I don't want to. Have you seen some of the radios I have sold on my site (no Ron, not a shameless sales pitch ) There is a GE on there now. I have the next larger and the next smaller model. Can't keep all three, so one has to go, even though I really, Really, REALLY like it. -----Of course, if I ask enough money for it I'll get to keep it anyway .

Just trying to help buddy.

[Jayce]

I still want to slim down, but I also don't want a part of my late friend's collection ending up being burnt to ashes. The others helping are showing no interest in the stuff and his dad has reached a stage where he just wants it all gone ASAP, even if that means into the fire or landfill. Like I said, that's how I ended up with these Silvertone stereos.

[Phlogiston]

I understand.

[Jayce]

Getting back to the Silvertone stereos, I managed to find two more 12AX7 tubes and swapped the 6BQ5's into the middle unit to test it. After swapping out a couple flakey tubes in the AM section, it now fully works as well. Even seems to sound better than the bottom unit in the picture. I have another tube tester on the way that can test these newer tubes, so that will help as the one I have right now doesn't list the later tubes from the 50's and 60's. Might do a case swap between the middle unit and the top 'parts' unit later on.
These are model 7407 tuners and the speakers are model 7438 with Jensen speakers inside the cases. Anyone know what other speakers I can match up with the second working unit once I find more 6BQ5's?