Masthead

Philco 37-611

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This beauty sat in a consignment shop for months while I sweated over whether to buy it or not. Finally I got it as a birthday gift (and the price had been reduced to push it out the door). I still can't believe it went unclaimed for so long, as the price wasn't that bad.

no imageThe cabinet has been stripped but looks nice. If I just put a clear coat of lacquer on it, the blonde wood would look unusual on a radio of this era, but it would still be attractive. From a restorer's point of view, it helps tremendously that the knobs are all there and all the important hardware is in place, especially the dial. Someone robbed it of its tubes but tubes are the easiest to replace. The tube compliment on this radio is 6A8, 6K7, 6Q7, 25A6 and 25Z6. I had everything in pantry stock except the two A types, which I'll have to order. Fortunately (even though I love them) it doesn't have a magic eye.

This is another one of those deals where they made one main chassis and put it in a wide variety of different cabinets. In this case, the letter on the end tells you the cabinet type: my B is a tombstone with shoulders; another is almost identical but is straight-sided. The T- cabinet is the one people seem to like the most, it's a horizontal tabletop with one rounded side (where the speaker mounts) and one straight side—sometimes called a bullet design. There are also a couple of console models as well. They got their money out of this chassis.

This is the 1937 update of their previous 610 chassis, which was almost identical except that the former used a transformer, while this one is transformerless (the tubes are wired in series), making it an early form of a All-American 5.

Tube Compliment

6A8 - Converter
6K7 - IF
6Q7 - 2nd Detector / AVC
25A6 - Audio out
25Z6 - Rectifier

Current status: on the shelf; needs cabinet refinishing, electro-mechanical evaluation.