probably a good thing to pass on to another collector or look for a similar one to restore knowing you have duplicates of some of the parts. You can keep your eyes open for ones people have converted to liqueur cabinets but then they probably lost the escutcheon or fretwork. You might be able to use it in a chassis of similar age. Its obviously heavy. gravity wasn’t as strong back then 😉
occasionally you may find a nice cabinet with a problem chassis like a blown transformer or a warped tuning capacitor and you could think of trying to make it fit, perhaps with minor mods.
It does have the power supply and probably the amp on a separate chassis, the westinghouse columairs were a bit similar often sporting two heavy chassis.
Ive got a couple of columairs that need restoration and a console of the same era and the console shares the same chassis but I think its already proven to be a GE by the pics above. I don’t know if there was a tie in between the two or if they may have shared some parts. both are probably about 1929. that must have been a big year for consoles as many seem to be that year.
most radios of the age used the 80 rectifier and 45’s for the push pull amp.
Its probably not a bad one to restore, easy to get to everything. You might find one with a rusty chassis if you play the waiting game.
the columairs shared the idea of the backlit tuning dial and there was a n opaque screen where the image of the light shining through the film was displayed. I think there might bea similarity in the big push down binding posts for antenna and ground and the great big coils you see above the chassis.
Ive seen other TRF radios of about that era where there was lead used to hold the tuning cap fins and then it rubbed when the lead distorted over time. It can sort of swell up and distort the fins as the lead takes on water which isn’t easy to fix. the transformer or speaker winding could go in another set and perhaps be of use in such a case. pots for the volume etc might be of higher values than you see in anything modern and easy to swap from one maker to another of the same era.
It might not be worth a lot but we should all have a few of these so that parts are available even though they really aren’t easy to get excited about. It would be fine for someone who is getting interested in radios to restore as it can be made to play and one might enjoy seeing the components.. They are in such contrast to new electronics.
If part of the CVRS agenda is to preserve radio history.. these people of the future will need some parts too so if you have space to hold them and pass them along further in time you may be doing your part even if it is not one you choose to restore.
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