Sears Silvertone Color

[southernguy]

The Origonal Tube would of been a 21FJP22, The Tube thats in the set now list H19VABP22 and has a bonded Faceplate, tinted like a 25XP22. Is that a "Black Matrix" Replacement? I thought a black matrix tube was like a late 70's tube with no faceplate, please explain what a black matrix tube is and looks like.

[bgadow]

I have also read several places that Wells-Gardner never sold anything to Sears but I have never seen anything I would call conclusive. I have lists that tell you who the first 3 digits of the cat. # cross to but they don't list W-G. Would be good to know, once & for all, the truth. Warwick was apparently partially or fully owned by Sears from what I've read. As for W-G, they built Western Auto Truetones, Wards Airlines, Coronado for the Gamble's hardware chain, I think also Catalina for White's Stores...and others. Keep in mind they weren't exclusive suppliers for any of these companies. Apparently there were a few Wells-Gardner branded sets but very few. They were still cranking them out for a few companies well into the 80s before switching completely to what they do now, which is make video gaming terminals & related stuff.

[jstout66]

Black Matrix has to do with the phosphar screen. The screen will have a black phosphar plate instead of a white one, for much improved contrast and color. ALL Zenith Chromacolor tubes are "black matrix". The tube will look the same as far as the face-plate, and you will be unable to tell the differance with the naked eye until they are turned on. (or by looking at the tube number... a "V" in the tube number is a good giveaway, but not always.)

[frenchy]

I thought this was a 21" tube, why does that replacement # start with 19----- (?)
That face doesn't look all that black so in this case just because it's got a 'V" in it doesn't mean it's a Chromacolor or what? (It looks even lighter than the one next to it)

[blue_lateral]

Sometime in the 70's a federal law came into being about picture tube size. Suddenly they were measured by "viewable area". This is how a 25" set from the 60's (25xp22 or similar) is the same shape as a 70's 23" set with a tube number starting out "23v" for "23 viewable". Later 25" sets had squarer corners on the tubes (not the same as the old 25" or 23" viewable sets).

A not so obvoius part of this confusion is that new roundie tubes made after that law became "19v" for 19 viewable. Reman tubes carried their original number. So in the 70's there were 21" and 19" roundie tubes that were exactly the same size.

I have seen one, and after looking it up in the RCA tube manual from about 1975 or so, It was not listed as a black matrix tube (though some rectangular tubes were). So if some RCA 19v roundies were black matrix, apparently not all of them were. The tube I saw was listed as having equal-brightness phosphors, though. A theoretical increase in usable brightness, even if it wasnt black matrix.

Your mileage may vary....

John

[frenchy]

I'd like to see a nice screen shot of a roundie with one of those black matrix tubes, sounds like about as good a picture as you'd be able to wring out of one... and even the older ones look pretty darn good : )

[southernguy]

Originally Posted by frenchy

I thought this was a 21" tube, why does that replacement # start with 19----- (?)
That face doesn't look all that black so in this case just because it's got a 'V" in it doesn't mean it's a Chromacolor or what? (It looks even lighter than the one next to it)

The face of tube looking bright is due to the Flash on my Camera. To me it seems a little darker than the RCA to the left (which has green look to it). This is a 21 inch tube but the #s start with 19. The face of the Tube seems to kinda have a dark blue look to it but when the set is on the picture is much brighter than the 2 RCA sets that have 25XP22s in them. The set to the left is a RCA CTC 16 and has a nice bright picuture when running, I have not looked yet to see what its tube number is yet.

[kc8adu]

you have the newest most advanced roundie tube made.
you dont see them often.iirc they are all black matrix.
that means a black filler around the dots.
look at a v series tube that has no laminated faceplate close up with a good light and you will see it.

[Telecolor 3007]

Which one of the sets got F.M. radio?

[old_tv_nut]

The black matrix material reduces the faceplate reflection so blacks are blacker - however, the net faceplate reflection also depends on how dark the faceplate glass is - darker glass reduces the brightness (light passing through once), but also increases contrast by reducing the reflection even more (light from outside passes through filter once on the way in and again on the way out).

[TVtommy]

Wow, the 19v roundie! I always thought the existance of these to be the stuff of urban legends. Now, would someone please show me a picture of the 22" Westinghouse 70 deg. rectangular tube, pretty please?

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by TVtommy

Wow, the 19v roundie! I always thought the existance of these to be the stuff of urban legends. Now, would someone please show me a picture of the 22" Westinghouse 70 deg. rectangular tube, pretty please?

TVtommy,

Here's the 22" CBS H-265. The first rectangular color picture tube. This tube, developed by CBS-Hytron, was used in the Westinghouse 1957 color sets.
Picture courtesy of the Early Television Museum site.

CBS_H265.jpg
Address:http://www.earlytelevision.org/images/CBS_H265.jpg


-Steve D.

[andy]

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[TVtommy]

Thanks for the link, somehow i had missed that on the ETF site, it reminds me of the 19vp colortron (I did have one once ) Now, to find the actual set.......!

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

Although some of the Sears models started out good, the inherent quality differences between such makers as rca and zenith showed its ugly face after a few years of service, just as the previous reply stated, the pc boards were suseptible to cracks, burn thrus, and so on.

About 35 years ago I picked up a 1964-vintage Silvertone roundie in a metal cabinet (one of my neighbors in my hometown had it in his garage and wanted to get rid of it). Did a couple haywire fixes on it (on-off switch on volume control was bad, so I jumpered it; circuit breaker was shot, so I jumpered it too--no fire hazard, as I kept an eye on the set when it was on and unplugged it when not in use) and it worked, after a fashion. I never did get the color convergence right, though, and the video-output tube (6AW8) socket cracked out of the video PCB in 1973 when I tried to change the tube (it almost made me sick to see that happen), so I agree with your comments as to the PC boards being prone to cracking and such in these sets. Two other problems I had with that set near the end were a hum bar in the picture and extremely critical color sync. I had to turn the tint (hue) control back and forth several times to get the picture to look right, but that hum bar still spoiled the looks of what might have been a half-decent picture, again if I could have gotten the convergence right (I made the mistake of trying to eyeball the convergence using just the horizontal line produced with the service switch in the service position, rather than using a generator; believe me, if I ever get another old set, I'll never do that again ). The black-and-white picture was reasonably good, though, considering the convergence problems and that hum bar. When I got the set I lived in a semi-fringe area for Cleveland TV and had fair-to-middling reception on the attic antenna in my house at that time; two years later I moved a lot closer to town, and the reception on rabbit ears was much better.

I was not aware that Silvertone TVs made during a certain time period were actually manufactured by Wells-Gardner; however, I did know that some Sears TVs were made for them (Sears) by Warwick Electronics. Did Warwick and W/G have some kind of marketing arrangement with RCA, allowing these companies to make near-exact copies of RCA's CTC-12 through CTC-15 chassis for sale by companies such as Sears & Roebuck? I realize almost all early color TVs, 1950s vintage until at least the early sixties (except Zenith), used RCA chassis designs, but how long did this last? My set was made in 1964. Was the chassis manufactured by W-G or Warwick? I suspect my set may have been a clone of an RCA CTC12 or just a tad later, say CTC15, as it was in a metal cabinet with a plastic nameplate bearing the wording Silvertone|COLOR above the channel selector. I suspect that nameplate covered a hole which may have been used in other models for an illuminated channel indicator drum (my set had a plain plastic VHF channel selector knob). Also, there was a hole in the tuner bracket which I strongly believe may have been for an optional UHF tuner (my set was VHF only, although I did try to feed the output of a junked UHF tuner into the IF input of the VHF tuner--it worked, but the power transformer kept cutting out because it was a doorbell transformer with a thermal cutout breaker. If there would have been a next time, I'd have wised up and used a standard transformer).

I think Zenith color sets were very good until the company sold out to GoldStar, though some may say even Zenith's sets of '70s vintage were going downhill when the company went from hand wiring to circuit modules about that time. Zenith was once my favorite brand of TV, audio and stereo, and as far as their older radios go, it still is. However, I would not buy a GoldStar TV today, even if it had the Zenith lightning bolt on the CRT mask below the tube.

IMHO, these new GS sets bear more of a resemblance to a flounder than to any of Zenith's better designs of the late '60s or later. I read somewhere, I think it was here someplace, that Zenith only licensed their Z bolt to GoldStar so the symbol would have little or no chance of going into public domain, even though the Zenith Radio Corporation no longer exists. This symbol is still used on Zenith-branded VCRs, VCR/DVD combo units; I believe the mark is even used on GS-manufactured widescreens and HDTVs as well, but it means absolutely nothing anymore.

"Z" is right. The original ZRC went to zzzzzzzzzzzzzz and died in its sleep after GoldStar bought them out, so that letter of the alphabet describes their demise rather well, IMO.