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Radio rebuild?


Guest gunjeep444

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I went through this last year. My radio was dead. I contacted the recommended radio "gurus" but it was anywhere from 7 to 12 months at $350 to $1000 depending on what was needed. Problem was no one could tell me what was needed as all of them were out of state and in essence I had to give them a blank check.

The first thing that goes bad is the vibrator. Not always, but true. I was able to buy a new 3 prong vibrator on EBay for cheap. Then I did a search on my local Craigslist looking for vacuum tube amplifiers. This guy's ad popped up, he was collecting tube amplifiers. I called him and asked him if he could take a look at my 56 Sonomatic and he said he was willing to give it a try, as he was interested himself in seeing the radio. He happened to have all the capacitors in stock, down to the original part numbers... Put in the new vibrator, all new capacitors, it started right up... Awesome radio, for me, it was 4 hrs labor at $20/hr plus the cost of the vibrator and the caps... $125 total. I still keep in touch with him, I bought a vacuum tube amp for my office, i had a set of B&O speakers, I will never switch to transistors... I made a friend for life...

The problem I had with shipping my radio with a blank check, waiting for 6-9 months to even get looked at, it wasn't something I was willing to accept. It had to be another way. Maybe I got lucky, maybe it was good karma, maybe John's spirit is watching over me and his car.... Call it whatever you want, but the radio works and sounds awesome...

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Guest gunjeep444

I talked to Alan, he said about $230. Details he gave really shows he knows what he is doing. Also real reasonable on the red line speedometers, about $160.

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