11-18-2014, 05:56 PM
Here is a radio I saw today at a resale shop. It looks like a Philco. I don't recognize it from any of the usual databases. Is it a hybrid (i.e., custom cabinet)? The guy wants $150 for it.
Please identify this radio
11-18-2014, 05:56 PM
Here is a radio I saw today at a resale shop. It looks like a Philco. I don't recognize it from any of the usual databases. Is it a hybrid (i.e., custom cabinet)? The guy wants $150 for it.
11-18-2014, 06:00 PM
I would get it for 150. Likely a custom build. A Philco, yes. From, Methinks, 1936, like a 620 or 660 or such.
11-18-2014, 06:35 PM
I don't know if that is a Philco cabinet. Like morzh said, looks like a custom job. I do like the look of it and would most likely buy it.
11-18-2014, 07:22 PM
Where is it?
11-18-2014, 08:43 PM
Philco chassis - yes. Philco cabinet - definitely not. Custom cabinet - most likely.
Nevertheless, if you like it, then why not? ![]() -- Ron Ramirez Ferdinand IN
11-18-2014, 10:12 PM
I'd probably buy it, but I'm out of state right now. The logistics to bring home such a radio would be quite an undertaking. The radio is in Delray Beach, FL. I wanted to run this radio past you guys to make sure it wasn't something rare and valuable.
11-18-2014, 10:14 PM
To me the price is fair.
11-19-2014, 12:12 AM
That cabinet looks familiar for some reason, I think it's a factory cabinet, but it's not a Philco cabinet, it is not a 620 though, the escutcheon displays a shadowmeter. To me it looks a lot like a Sparton or an early 1930s Bosch. It would be interesting to have a look at the set from the rear, if there were an shims or extra holes drilled to hold the Philco chassis in there then it probably a frankenradio. There was a company in New York that used to put mismatched chassis and cabinets together, particularly during the war years when you could not buy a new radio, some are rather well done like the McMurdo-Silver chassis in an American Bosch cabinet that Bruce has.
Regards Arran
11-19-2014, 02:57 AM
I knew that cabinet looked familiar, it is most definitely NOT a custom it's a frankenradio, a Philco 630, 640, 650 chassis, in a brand Z cabinet, a 15-U-273, no doubt that one of their infamously puny power transformers took a dump.
http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...emId=58872 Also from the rear http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...emId=58874 Regards Arran
11-19-2014, 07:06 AM
Ah, good catch, Arran. Too bad...I hate to say it, but that radio would have been more valuable if it still had the Brand Z 15-U-273 chassis inside. You know the masses demand their Big Black Dial...
![]() -- Ron Ramirez Ferdinand IN
11-19-2014, 12:51 PM
Ron;
That may be more true in this case with the number of dollars involved but it pretty much applies to any radio with a mismatched chassis and cabinet, regardless of make or model. I think that it may have been done by one of the Radio Row stores in New York, Bruce has an example of one of those in the form of a McMurdo chassis inside an American Bosch cabinet, I once saw a radio with Pierce Aero (DeWald) chassis in an earlier highboy cabinet with doors. I would assume that the 15 in 15-U-273 would stand for 15 tubes would it not? The brand Z model numbers never made much sense to me, this was what I always found nauseating on the alternative forum, someone would as a question about their set and just ramble off the model number. Most companies like Philco had some sort of date code in the model number, with brand Z I can't tell one apart from the other, one can be a 1937 model and another can be 1942 and both can start with a 8,9,10,11, or 12. Believe it or not I know of someone who has one of those, either that or it was a 15-U-272, I saw it about 12 years ago whilst visiting a fellow collector in Edmonton. I thought that it was rather garish myself, unless you happened to have resided in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg or the place at Versailles, I think that the small oval dial actually cleans it up somewhat. Regards Arran
11-19-2014, 02:16 PM
Actually there is a model year encoded into the Zenith model number. Starting in 1936, the first of the 3 digits after the number of tubes gave the year. 1936 models had only two digits, the missing first digit implied zero years after 1936. So a typical 1936 model number would be 6-S-52. A 1937 model of the same radio would be 6-S-152, 1938 would be 6-S-252 and so on.
So the 15-U-273 would be a 1938 model. This numbering worked up into the 40's where a 12-S-471 would be 1940 and 6-G-601 would be '42.
12-23-2014, 02:30 AM
A Zenith 15-U-273 cabinet. A good buy for $150. I have a couple 15 tube Zenith shutterdial sets and they perform well. There is a very large Zenith chassis in those 15 tube sets but there is a lot of open space underneath. That is one beautiful cabinet
![]()
12-23-2014, 07:53 PM
I like both!
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s) |
![]() |
![]() |