[RitchieMars]

If the "getter flash" is what I think it is, it's shiny. All of the visible parts of the beam gun look almost like chrome, aside from these 3 transparent cylinder things.

The light I could see coming from the neck of the tube when it was in operation was fairly decent, brighter than any of the other tubes. At night in a dark room, I could adjust the ion trap to get a full raster, bright enough to cast a glow a few feet from the tv. Turn on the lights, and it's practically nothing. I was able to get something of picture, at one point ( in the dark, of course ) although the images flipped and scrolled, and went slanted into chaos. Aside from this, I've also never gotten any sound other than a very small crackle from the speakers and I only heard this once or twice as the tv warmed up.

With the dim picture, I'd assumed that the CRT was bad all along but I didn't know about the crack until now. But, I also knew it needed caps and probably a couple tubes so it hasn't been turned on for months. Right now it's been taken apart ( there was no spark when I discharged the CRT ) and it's got a nice, clean chassis after I went through it last night and this morning.

I've already located a company that sells new 17LP4's, but it would cost $185. It would be oh, so very nice if I found one a bit more affordably than that. For now, I'll get my schematics, recap it, and test it with what I've got. I'll just pay attention to my CRT when it's running and see if it smells like ozone near the back...