Serenader Radio/Phonograph Restoration Project

Found an old mid to late 40's tube am radio & phonograph console at a local flea market this past spring. It was in sad shape. Decades of dust and furniture polish dulled the wood finish. The amp receiver chassis was filthy. The tubes/valves were covered in dust and old tape, the individual tube numbers written on them. One of the 4 wooden knobs had split in half.

After replacing most of the old paper in oil "oozing wax" capacitors and bad resistors and verifying everything else was wired right, I followed with some sanding, staining, Danish oil, steel wool for the chassis, scraped off the tape, replaced the cracked power cord with a new one, added a dual RCA jack for a proper antennae connection, installed new grill cloth, repaired the broken knob and refinished the lot, polished the brass knocker door handle, cleaned and serviced the phonograph, and added new rubber feet pads.

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Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on January 2, 2017 at 5:50am

Thanks Gordon for the info. I've made an antennae but need to get a couple new tubes for the I.F. section of the circuit (existing tubes are shot).

The record player sounds good though.

Comment by Gordon Cooper on January 1, 2017 at 5:08pm

You might buy an outboard AM loop antenna that can be tuned. Tecsun sells them for about thirty dollars. They have an output jack, or can be passively coupled to the existing loop antenna. I use one to null out a pest station and pull in a lot more distant stations. Worth the investment. 

Comment by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 19, 2016 at 1:05am

Haven't fired it up yet Hal. I'm working on an antenna for it. The radio section is AM only, and we don't get very many stations up here in Nova Scotia, except in the evening, and are rather faint.

Making the antenna from 4-strand telephone wire, design taken from a number of DIY sites that show how to make one.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 18, 2016 at 5:53pm
Notice the speaker enclosure: the space above the amp, and the platform for the amp also acts as a bass baffle. You'll get nice warm response from an 8" speaker. Kewl design.
Comment by Hal Robertson on December 18, 2016 at 2:46pm

Very cool! How does it sound?

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