Sterling Concertone Console
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City: Dover, OH
Found this radio on CL in Wooster, OH today and snagged it fairly cheap. It seems to be an obscure Ohio built radio brand from Cleveland and I guess this 8 tube unit is as big as they got. A guy I know has a cathedral, but that is about all I know of this brand. It's complete with a nice cabinet and amazingly it has all Sylvania globe type (or pear shape) tubes in it. The leather surround for the speaker is history though, so that will have to be addressed and I am hoping all the transformers and coils are ok.
No matter where you go, there you are.
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City: Sandwick, BC, CA
I guess that the pattern cut into the grille is supposed to be a stylized letter "S" even though it's on it's side. What sort of tube types does it use? It looks like it uses screen grid tubes like type #24s, probably a pair of #27s as well, and either #71AS or #45s for power outputs. Give the tubes it likely uses the chassis layout is a bit of a throwback, the power supply is in a separate stand alone box like you would find in a 1926 to early 1929 AC set. Most sets that used screen grid tubes had the power supply built into the same chassis like the Philcos did.
Regarding the leather hinge/surround on the speaker, Stromberg Carlson used that on some of their speakers until 1938. Though I haven't needed to do so I read that you can cut up a car washing chamois to replace it, it's the same sort of thing and light weight leather material.
Regards
Arran
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The tube layout is an 80, four 24's, two 45's, and a 27. What info I can find places this set at either 1929 or 1930 so far.
No matter where you go, there you are.
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The "S" isn't on it's side at all. Look closer, you'll see that it goes all the way over the top and under the bottom to about the 1:30 and 7:30 positions.
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It's probably 1930-31, or possibly as late as 1932, since it's an obscure off brand, the #24s and #45s debut in 1929 but were pretty well standard by 1930-31. The reason I say that is it appears to have the power switch mounted on the volume control since I can't see any wires directed to a bat switch on the side of the cabinet. If you look at most other makes in 1929-30 the power switch was independent of the other controls, either as an extra switch or knob on the front panel or a switch on the side. I wonder if the power supply box has electrolytics or large non polarized paper caps and chokes inside?
It's an interesting cabinet design, it has sort of a Eastlake look to it, Eastlake was a simplified style of late Victorian furniture. I have a few antique chairs that are what one would call Eastlake style, it was very popular, even up until WW1, and is therefore quite common to find even now. In any event it was a nice find, regional makes always interest me in that they would do unique things that one of the big national makes would not do. Brenda Ann was right about the stylized "S", I didn't see the little bumps around the edge of the circular opening, perhaps Sterling had ambitions of becoming the next G.E?
Regards
Arran
(This post was last modified: 04-17-2013, 10:45 PM by Arran.)
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Interesting radio. Looks like it has a basement or crawl space under it.
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This radio does have a separate off-on switch on the side. The wiring runs rather close to the cabinet inside. I hope to begin some tests on it this evening if we don't get storms.
No matter where you go, there you are.
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City: Roslyn Pa
If you need some leather I can help you out.
Terry
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Thanks. Leather might not be a problem, but getting it attached to the frame and the speaker cone might be a challenge. It appears to be a riveted together speaker frame. In other news, I tried to bring the unit up slowly and had no response. There is a fuse inside the power supply and it is blown, which might be a blessing in disquise if it saved anything major from getting smoked.
No matter where you go, there you are.
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I'd pull the 80 tube out and replace the fuse. Apply power and see if you've got filament power. If measure the AC voltage across the plate pins of the 80 tube. This will tell you if the power transformer is kaput!!
GL
Terry
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Nostalgia Air has schematics for 30 or so Sterling models, including one called "8 Tube Receiver." I only looked at a few and didn't find one that matched your tube set, but it might be there.
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/396/T0000396.htm
John Honeycutt
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