Bradford by any other name
 

Here's one you don't see every day, a Bradford Color TV. I guess that was W.T. Grant's house brand. Who was the manufacturer? I don't recognize the control layout. I see a slight cataract starting to show at the edge of the crt. Is it worth $75? Bob

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...d/Bradford.jpg

YES! Boy, WT Grant, now that brings back memories. In Milwaukee we only had on Grants store. It was on the south side in the Southgate shopping center. My father had a beauty salon in Southgate. Southgate was the first Shopping center in the country.

Grants had a nice low end furniture department. I think you could say it was sort of a Wall Mart of that era. When I got married in 1971 we went over to Grants and ended up purchasing two small end tables. Excellent quality, all solid woods. I still have them today and we use them up at our lake cottage. Grants was a wonderful store. I even remember the soda fountain.

I think you have found a very nice piece of rare TV Bob. Contrats!

Go For It !

we had a wt grants in downtown columbus.they did sell the bradford line.there was another knockoff store in the great southern shopping center.i cant recall the name at this moment and they also sold bradford electronics.during my shop days,i never saw one of these sets!either they were very,very good or none were sold!

It's probably either a Warwick (Sears Silvertone) or RCA CTC-16 clone. I had a Bradford combo with the 23" rectangular tube, and it was an RCA clone (CTC-17). All was RCA except the tuner.

Charles

I've seen several 70s Bradfords that were GE and that control panel does have a strong GE look. I'm thinking late in the roundie era, after the clones were done. I think I'd have to grab it.

Yes, worth the $75. I'd buy it!

sorry,i must correct.the store in downtown columbus was h.l.greens.it was w.t. grants in the shopping center.i saw plenty of rutherford sets but not one bradford.were they any good?the rutherfords were not so good.

What are you waiting for?? If that set was near me, it would already be in my workshop! The $75 price is an excellent deal. :)

Didn't your mother ever tell you that good things come to he who waits? I've been in contact with the seller and made arrangements to pick up the set one day this coming week for $50. An even better deal than $75.

Will post additional information and pictures when I pick it up. Bob

This is one of those you see in the sams set but never in real life. Id be all over that.

congrats on this find!post lots of pics while in the process

Nice find!
I had a 19" Bradford B&W portable back in the 70's (TV was probably early 60's era) it was good working set and way better than the RCA Portable it replaced.

When my shop was running, I saw a few Bradfords.

Back story: When Grants closed, I was at the store here in Asheville one day, and they had a pet department... fish, etc. I wanted to buy some tropical fish for my aquarium, and the lady handed me the net and told me to get what I wanted, as they were closing. She told me she had worked for Grants for nearly 30 years, and was crying.

Before it was over and done, I wound up with all of the tropical fish the store had, and got fire-sale prices on several big aquariums and stands that were going to be trashed. I've got decendants of the guppies and zebra fish that I got in 1973 today.

I've been sitting here trying to remember who built the Bradford sets I worked on, and am drawing a big blank.

The Grant store here had a fairly large entertainment center department with lots of TV's and console stereos, etc. I liked going there.

Their TV sets were sourced from Wells-Gardner, Westinghouse, GE and Panasonic. Their radios and stereos were made by many different suppliers. Most of their products were better than Sears products.

The Sears Toshiba built stuff was utter crap. I had my Grandmothers portable color set from the late sixties. All tube. It never had good focus or great color like our 72 maggie did. Even our Zenith roundie that mas much older was far better. Our neighbor had a Sears console from the same era also a Toshiba. The sears service guy was there every couple of months. they were glad to finally get rid of it. Of course they went to Sears to buy the new one.

That console model was probably a Warwick built set. Toshiba only built portable and table models at that time. After 1975, Sanyo bought out Warwick and even the consoles had Sanyo chassis. Those smaller sets had low voltage focus on the CRT's and as they aged, they weren't very clear.

Bradford comes Home
 

Took a run up to Butler, NJ and picked up the Bradford color TV. It's in amazing condition. It belonged to an elderly lady who apparently was a horder of the first order. It looked at though she couldn't part with any of her possessions through the years. She passed away last April at the age of 79 and left her daughter a late 1950's vintage house jam packed full of all kinds of stuff. This TV was neatly stashed under a blanket in one of the rooms and is in near perfect overall physical condition. Looking into the back of the set I did notice that the crt is an RCA Colorama 21GVP22, and it reads like a new tube. I see the very early stages of a cataract beginning to appear at the extreme edges.

I haven't fired up the thing up yet on the variac, need some time to look it over first.

Here are a few pictures........................Bob

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...ofDSC_0026.jpg

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...ofDSC_0027.jpg

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...ofDSC_0028.jpg

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...ofDSC_0030.jpg

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...ofDSC_0031.jpg

http://i642.photobucket.com/albums/u...ofDSC_0032.jpg

That is in amazing condition! Looks like a 15 clone?

WGEC, Wells Gardner Electronics Corp?

That set is like new! and almost nothing but Orange Drops, it looks very high quality.
I bet you it works.

One thing though, is there supposed to be a cover over the flyback?

Yes, it certainly does look new. When I look at the front, the cabinet design, it sure looks 60s. I grew up in the 60s and still find that design to be "in style". Glad that you rescued this set.

Too bad a "hack" technician worked on it. I love the job they did on the flyback. It must have a loose ferrite core on it. They wedged that screw under it to make it stop whistling.:nono:

That's definitely a Wells Gardner made set - great acquisition!

When you get a "hoarder" who keeps everything neat and clean that's one thing. This woman might have done many collectors a big favor. That is a really nice looking set for a "dime store" piece. I liked Bradford products, although I've never owned any.

These more recent pictures make it look a lot less......Cartoonish than the sellers picture.:scratch2:

This is a really nice TV - good score!

Right you are Eric! I brought up the set today on the variac and it immediately sprang to life. I was surprised..no shocked at the quality of the picture. I'm thinking maybe it's the 21GVP22 crt. It looks very bright, clear, and sharp as a razor's edge. The black and white tracking looked about perfect and the only problem I see is I don't have color sync. But..once I get the Sams on it, I can check it out a little more thoroughly. If that's the worst problem that it has...I'll consider myself very lucky.

And yes....the HV cage cover is missing. Unfortunately the tube placement/function chart must have been on the cage cover.
Bob

Excellent looking set! That parts list on the label is unique also. Is that chassis screw lodged under the flyback plate to eliminate squeal?

That control cluster is about the most practical ever. I wonder who built that for Grant's stores. The bronze plated chassis is super sharp.
I used to curse my '68 Magnetbox T933 as I had to reach over the top to adjust the thumbwheel controls on the rear. I kept it as a daily only cause it was a remote control set

Your guess is as good as mine. But I'd assume that's probably the reason it's wedged in there.

Too bad the original schematic is gone. Wells Gardner used to staple a complete schematic and parts list to the inside of the cabinets. The layout is identical to a CTC15. I see all the parts are dated mid-1965. The CRT must have been replaced at one time. I don't think the newer 21GVP22 was out that early.

Here's the final score. Turns out that except for the crt being replaced, all of the tubes in the set, including all of the power tubes, are still the original Wells Gardner tubes. That's pretty amazing. And I discovered while running it that the loss of color sync. was the result of a bad ground lug on the pcb.

It now has a great picture and beautiful color.

I'll try to take a few pictures and post them.

Bob

Great news, Bob!
It is amazing that she has the original chassis tubes. From a time where the sets were intended to outlast more than one CRT. Wish it was still like that ! Nice tv.

Very, very nice...my kind of find!

What an excellant find! It's really nice.
Fortunately, there's lots of clone chassis's around so maybe somebody will have a high voltage door and its hinge pin for you.

I have clones of that chassis from three different brands, and all of them have the tube chart glued (and often disintegrating off) the HV cage door.

I see that the color circuit and audio tubes are Japanese made.

It appears that all of the Wells Gardner brand tubes are made in Japan.

I used to knock Japanese made tubes. I know Magnavox and Motorola used Japanese tubes before a lot of the others. The audiofools are fond of them too.

Later Raytheon tubes are mostly Japanese too.

Absolutely!