Late '50's GE "musaphonic" AM tube radio

[radiotvnut]

Normally, I'm not a fan of most GE tube radios from the '50's and '60's. Most of them were cheap AA5's that were built on cheap PC boards using cheap components.

Today, I bought this late '50's GE "musaphonic" AM tube radio for $10. It is missing the knob on the slider tone control, there is a piece busted out of one coner, and two of the chassis mounts were busted whenever this radio had it's accident. As far as the circuit goes, this is a 6 tube set with a tuned RF stage, dual speakers, and a phono input jack. Surprisingly, this radio works fairly well with it's original components. I was shocked that it has no filter hum and it still has the original orange multi-section cardboard filter cap still installed. I can't think of too many times where I've found one of those caps that was still good. Of course, I will re-cap it and go over the chassis for any other faults. Then, I will have to figure out a way to fix the busted chassis mounts.

I also bought a cheap GE AA5, from the same period. It had two paper caps and the multi-section filter cap that needed to be replaced. It now works; but, the sensitivity and sound quality are no where as good as this bigger GE.

[Reece]

Don't remember seeing a Musaphonic like this one; good find. GE also built a Musaphonic I think a little earlier than this one with a single 8" speaker, a whopper for a plastic table radio. The plastic cabinet is distinctive in that it steps up mightily where the speaker is installed. Those had a phono input but only two controls. The volume control had a center off. Turning it to the left of center gave you phono volume increasing CCW. To the right of center gave you radio volume increasing CW.

[Chad Hauris]

I have a similar AM/FM GE Musaphonic which when I tested it with its original capacitors actually worked with no hum. This was the only one of about 2 or 3 radios using this type of caps I've seen in 25 years where the cardboard cap was still functional. I definitely will replace it and the selenium rectifier and paper caps as of course I don't trust them to continue to work!
Maybe some of these were stored in climates that for some reason were more favorable to preventing degredation of the caps.

[Jeffhs]

One of my great-uncles (now deceased) had the AM-FM version of the Musaphonic in his kitchen for years; not surprising, as he worked for General Electric from the '50s until at least the late '70s or perhaps early '80s, so he had GE appliances in his house as long as I can remember. Don't know what happened to the radio, as he sold his house and moved to a retirement home several years before his death. The set sounded great as I remember, and it had roughly the same type of "stepped" cabinet as the one being discussed here. It also had a rather large speaker (I'd guess about six or eight inches in diameter) and a vertical illuminated slide-rule tuning dial at the left end of the cabinet. I don't remember offhand if it had a phonograph input, although if it had an 8" speaker and a fairly decent audio stage, IMHO it should have.

The GE Musaphonic radio Reece mentioned is rather unique, with the center-off volume control. I never saw such a design before now. This is probably one of the few sets I've ever heard of with the AC power switch in the center of the control's adjustment range; one half of the control's rotation governing the radio volume and the other half controlling the phono input. Must have used a special, custom-built potentiometer that would be next to impossible to find today.

[radiotvnut]

Mine has a pull-on power switch and the volume control does rotate one way for radio and the other way for phono. There is a switch on the back to select radio or phono.

Years ago, I think I had one of those early '50's Musaphonic's with the 8" speaker.