The 35L6 is an oddball created for applications that needed more than 5 tubes, typically AM / FM radios that needed two more RF tubes. Since the tubes were all wired in series across the line voltage, the extra voltage had to come from somewhere, so they stole it from the output tube.
All these, 6W6, 12L6, 12W6, 25L6, 25W6, and 50L6 have 7.5 watt heaters which are capable of some serious emission, and therefore power output. Other than heater voltage, they are identical.
The 35L6 has a 5.25 watt heater stuffed inside (typically) the same guts as the the other tubes. They will not saturate as low, or conduct the same peak plate current as their cousins, so they don't make the same power. I decided that these were "useless" but that was when I was quite young and lived by the motto, "If you can't be good (guitar player), be loud."
All these, 6W6, 12L6, 12W6, 25L6, 25W6, and 50L6 have 7.5 watt heaters which are capable of some serious emission, and therefore power output. Other than heater voltage, they are identical.
The 35L6 has a 5.25 watt heater stuffed inside (typically) the same guts as the the other tubes. They will not saturate as low, or conduct the same peak plate current as their cousins, so they don't make the same power. I decided that these were "useless" but that was when I was quite young and lived by the motto, "If you can't be good (guitar player), be loud."
This amp still on the dining room table. At least I got my plumbing moved over so I can put up my shelving so I can clean up my workbench and do so electronic work. I picked up another console record player/radio last night. 6V6 P-P, 5U4G, measured about 340V on the cap. Big output transformer. Could not find a schematic for a change which is odd. A Canadian Westinghouse 8HFC5, not that it matters. Bass reflex speaker with a pair of tweeters. I got lucky seeing it at work and being the first person to call, $25.
That looks amazingly clean and shiny. No visible rust, no cobwebs, no mouse-droppings, no insect carcasses, no mysterious sticky brown goo. Amazing!
-Gnobuddy
It did have a protective layer of dust on it that I had to dust off. Yeah pretty clean compared to all I have got. Thought about you when I picked it up and that you said not much comes available on the sunny side of the street you live on. There had been some SE radio/record players in the $40-50 range that will give up a 2-3W OT and a PT if you are lucky.
Then some 30's radios that predate octals from $100 to $300.
Which are not exactly flying out the door. Some $500 and up, people thinking there are a lot of people looking for this stuff. Of course the pictures will disappear at some time, sorry folks that come across this in the future. The one I just got was a senior's living room entertainment center, who needs this FM stuff? Now if it did have FM and not some cheesy Venetian style I might feel a little guilty about taking it apart. It is built better than most with an actual sealed enclosure for the speaker and with the 6V6's and beefy transformers probably rocked. I think this OT will go into a project with 6V6's into 8 ohms and with a extension cabinet throw in a pair of 6L6's. I have few PT's to chose from for it, or maybe this one depending how it measures up.
Then some 30's radios that predate octals from $100 to $300.
Which are not exactly flying out the door. Some $500 and up, people thinking there are a lot of people looking for this stuff. Of course the pictures will disappear at some time, sorry folks that come across this in the future. The one I just got was a senior's living room entertainment center, who needs this FM stuff? Now if it did have FM and not some cheesy Venetian style I might feel a little guilty about taking it apart. It is built better than most with an actual sealed enclosure for the speaker and with the 6V6's and beefy transformers probably rocked. I think this OT will go into a project with 6V6's into 8 ohms and with a extension cabinet throw in a pair of 6L6's. I have few PT's to chose from for it, or maybe this one depending how it measures up.
The beautiful solid wood in some of those cabinets might be the most precious part of the entire contraption. Good wood is becoming so expensive and so rare, so fast, that it almost boggles the mind.
Just look at the incredible difficulties guitar manufacturers have had trying to source good fretboard wood. In just the last ten years I've seen about a dozen different species of fretboard wood quickly appear in the guitar catalogs, only to disappear within a year or two, to be replaced by yet another short-lived wood that also turns out to be on the edge of extinction.
Recently I started finding ads for guitars with bamboo fretboards. The ads don't mention that bamboo is a grass, and doesn't come in wide enough, flat enough sections for a guitar fretboard. So the "bamboo" fretboard is actually a composite, bamboo fibres or shards glued together with some sort of synthetic adhesive. Basically the same stuff you find in dollar-store kitchen cutting-boards. The stuff that disintegrates and turns back into bamboo fragments if you wash it too often. The stuff that turns black with mould and falls apart if it stays damp a little too long. 😱
-Gnobuddy
The wood in these radios does get a second home in my amps or guitars and it is a quality plywood that you don't see at your average lumberyard today. They are mainly laminated wood, I think my brother has a tombstone radio that was solid wood but otherwise they laminated a veneer on the outside. Put to good use in the art deco era, they are asking $500 for this one.
Impressively tight curves for a veneer. And it looks like it's not cross-grain, either. How did they do that!
-Gnobuddy
Hello, I just acquired a Westinghouse console radio with this chassis (8HFC5). I have not been unable to locate a schematic for it either. I was wondering if you have had any luck in that department.
Thanks, Stephen.
Thanks, Stephen.
$25, mouse droppings no charge. P-P El84's and a EF
https://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/6...utomatic_7_am-fm_radio_receiver_sch.pdf_2.png
A pair of EL84's and a EF86 and the OT. And funky speakers if you are into that. Looks like ultralinear OT.
https://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/6...utomatic_7_am-fm_radio_receiver_sch.pdf_2.png
A pair of EL84's and a EF86 and the OT. And funky speakers if you are into that. Looks like ultralinear OT.
Last edited:
So the rest of the haul. Skipping the PT, I have enough and it is a crappy style. The two are 8" side firing speakers and the little one is the tweeter.
Those are made-in-North-America NOS vintage mouse droppings from the golden era of tube electronics. They have got to be worth a lot by now!
There's even a famous precedent, by Italian artist Piero Manzoni: How Piero Manzoni Turned Cans Of Poop Into $300,000 Pieces Of Art
A thought: perhaps ask a moderator to re-name this thread to something like "Bargain vintage electronics finds!"? You might get more interest and appropriate responses from other people with the name change. I'm sure there are plenty of other pack-ra...ahem, enthusiasts out there scrounging for, and finding, vintage electronics too! 😀
-Gnobuddy
The finds have seemed to take a life of their own. If I knew I would be finding a bunch I would have started a new thread. I still want to get on the 12BK5 amp, it has been sitting on my living room table since.
My time has been diverted on other things, one getting these radios and taking them apart. The other is my grow endeavors. Because of pain issues I tried CBD and found it helped. The price has come down some but at the time I thought I could do just as well myself and got my medical grow certificate. I have been building a little grow area and am putting together some LED lighting for it. That and searching the net to find out what I am doing wrong with my plants has been taking up a lot of my time. Seems the strain of high CBD low THC plant I have is finicky. In another three months I should know what I end up with.
My time has been diverted on other things, one getting these radios and taking them apart. The other is my grow endeavors. Because of pain issues I tried CBD and found it helped. The price has come down some but at the time I thought I could do just as well myself and got my medical grow certificate. I have been building a little grow area and am putting together some LED lighting for it. That and searching the net to find out what I am doing wrong with my plants has been taking up a lot of my time. Seems the strain of high CBD low THC plant I have is finicky. In another three months I should know what I end up with.
Sorry to hear about the pain issues. 🙁
Unfortunately I am quite useless when it comes to any sort of gardening. I didn't inherit my mom's green thumbs, and any plant in my care perishes after a short and miserable life...with the sole exception of one cactus that was so hardy it survived in spite of my incompetence.
-Gnobuddy
Unfortunately I am quite useless when it comes to any sort of gardening. I didn't inherit my mom's green thumbs, and any plant in my care perishes after a short and miserable life...with the sole exception of one cactus that was so hardy it survived in spite of my incompetence.
-Gnobuddy
I am good with weeds growing out in the yard, picked a bunch tonight. Made a gate to keep undesirables out of the yard (damn meter readers).
I promise, no more old radios. Well one more, just had to get it as a companion for the one I have.
What can I say? I could not help myself. I originally thought the console radio/record player would be a copy of the one I picked up which had a 6K6 output tube and a 10" speaker. The speaker and the OT was decent so I took a chance again, Did not even look at it and threw it in the trunk and drove home. The speaker and transformer is a little lower in quality but still should make a reasonable champ.
6SK7 6SA7 6SK7 6SQ7 6K6GT 6X5GT
The second one is a portable radio/record player.
12SA7 12SK7 12SQ7 50L6GT 35Z5
$10 each and delivered across from my place of work so I just had to drive in today. I'll take my bike tomorrow.
6SK7 6SA7 6SK7 6SQ7 6K6GT 6X5GT
The second one is a portable radio/record player.
12SA7 12SK7 12SQ7 50L6GT 35Z5
$10 each and delivered across from my place of work so I just had to drive in today. I'll take my bike tomorrow.