The Perils of the Bargain Hunting Mama

[catelin]

I am sitting here listening to a Shostakovich LP on my absolutely beautiful vintage console hi-fi stereo that I found today for thirty dollars!! I'm in heaven, but now in a mild panic about how I'm going to find the parts to keep this baby running. Anyone know anything about these old things? It's a General Electric. I opened up the back of it and it has tubes, but it's only a turntable...no radio. There was no model name on it, just the brand name. I'm not even sure how old it is. If I had to guess I'd say it's from the late fifties/early sixties, but that's just judging from the outside and not the innards. It's in great shape and works perfectly, but I figure it's only a matter of time before I need a replacement needle for the turntable or (worse!) tubes. Any advice or friendly pointing in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Comments

[theion.livejournal.com]

How nice. I have some 40s radios I've kept running.

Finding parts might be easy, but might not. It depends if they used common parts of not. Needles are matched to the brand of the cartridge. If you can indentify the cartridge that will help. If not, the best you can do is go by sight. If you locate some needles, and plan to keep the unit for years, buy a few, store them in an envelope and tape them inside the case for later use.

Tubes or valves, have ID numbers on the side of the glass. The old standard tubes are still being made. If the preamp uses the small 12AX7 tube, or the bigger output tubes are 6L6, you're in luck. They are readily available. For others, check around, or in a tube subsitution book.

The folks at your local radio shack might be able to help you identify the parts. I've found that HAM radio flea markets are great for locating old parts -- usually in the piles they keep in the garage.

[catelin.livejournal.com]

Radio Shack seems to be the best place for me to start looking. Thanks for educating me about the tubes and needles. : )