I found a Sylvania round color set!

[RetroHacker]

I posted an ad on CraigsList on a whim, looking for any old tube based electronics. A guy responded and said he had some stuff to get rid of. He said on the phone that he had a "real old color set" in the basement I could have.

I went over, and lo and behold, it was a roundie! An _old_ roundie. He used to do TV repair, and this was his first color set. He had replaced the picture tube with a brand new 21FBP22 in 1970, and the set saw occasional use until ten years ago, when something went wrong with the AGC. He said that it would work and produce a raster, but when there was any kind of signal, it got overloaded and wouldn't produce a watchable picture. He never got around to fixing it.

The set has been in his basement for a long time, and the moisture hasn't done the cabinet any favors. It's in rough shape, but I'll see how it looks after I have a chance to scrub with some Murphey's oil soap. The chassis is in pretty good shape, not much rust, but the caps are in sad shape. Some even have mildew growing on them. It uses some big scary selenium rectifiers.

The cabinet is really pretty cool. The top lifts off to provide better access to service it, and it looks like it would have been a really nice looking set when it was new. The chassis mounts sideways, the tuner is part of the main chassis - a nice feature, I think.

While the cabinet says Sylvania, the chassis is really an RCA CTC-4. And the back says RCA as well. Makes sense, RCA did have the market on color TV at the time.

I can't wait to start working on this one. I can't believe I finally found a repairable round color set!

I've also never seen, in person, a round color set this old before either - I didn't even know they made a CTC-4. And now I have one!

-Ian

[Eric H]

Wow, an RCA 4 would be a rare find, a Sylvania version is extraordinary!
That would make it a 1955 model if i'm not mistaken?

[edison64]

WOW!!!!!! thats a once in a lifetime cant wait to see the outcome

[MRX37]

I hope you can bring that old beast back to life!

[yagosaga]

Wow, a really great find. Thank you for the photos. Every additional photo and every detailed information is welcome!

[kbmuri]

Outstanding find!

[Dan Starnes]

Wow!
Dan

[Steve D.]

Ian,

Great find!

Here's some additional info. on the RCA CTC-4 "clones" from Steve McVoy's ETF site. An example of your rare Sylvania is included.

ETF - RCA CTC-4 Clones
http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_ctc_clone.html
-Steve D.

[Sandy G]

GREAT find ! Can't wait to see it goin' again...

[stromberg6]

Congratulations! Looks like from the photos only two capacitors have been replaced, one big 'lytic, and an Orange Drop near the horizontal hold coil.
These are interesting to work on, and creativity comes in to play when replacing the big cans, if you don't re-stuff them (I didn't). Hope the CRT is high emission. Is it original type 21AX?
Kevin

[rcaman]

all i can say is you could have not done any better. great set. steve

[Adam]

Cool set. I don't think I've seen an early Sylvania roundie before.

[RetroHacker]

I'm definitely excited about this project... I can't wait to get started. Tonight or tomorrow I'm going to clean up the cabinet, and hopefully I'll be able to stop by the library to get the PhotoFact. I'm going to need to order more caps! I'll post progress and more pictures as I get to it.

I wonder how many of these Sylvania CTC4's are out there?

-Ian

[vintagecollect]

...

[Sandy G]

Better get rid of th' damthing...Hit'll BLOW UP on ya, 'n' pull all the nails outta yer studs in the walls of yer house....