SS and tubes: battle or harmony? I'm for enjoying the best of both worlds.

One of my early hobbist adventures was to use a tube rectifier to charge capacitors of appropriate voltage ratings and then have fun discharging them. OK, so I'm male, at least half geek and was barely a teenager. What did you expect?

But I also enjoyed bringing back to life a couple tube based pieces of acoustic "furniture." Anyone have an antique tube based multi-band receiver with a "round eye" glowing tube showing through the front panel that helps you tune in a station with that display?

NiceGuyWithEars:
Which brand and model tube amp versus solid-state amp did you compare when coming up with this conclusion? Just wondering.

Hello bestbang4thebuck.

I have a 1937 Silvertone Model 4585 that I bought many years ago for $25. The last time I checked I put a strand of regular speaker wire on the antenna input. I not only picked up local broadcasts but also a number of Foreign Broadcast including Russia. Not bad for almost seventy year old radio with many of its orginal tubes if not all. The only part of the radio that does not work is the Tuning eye. If you know where I could get a replacement tuning eye for the radio I would be most apprecitaive.

Peace, LTK

Unfortunately I have no sources to offer for that eye. Hopefully another Gunslinger will have information.

I just did a Google search for "tube tuning eye" with decent results. It's a place to start!

[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited April 14, 2004).]

I have an old Scott model LR-M that is WWII vintage. It covers 540khz to 19mhz in 4 bands. (there was one on e-bay a couple of weeks ago.) It uses a 1629 tuning indicator.

The following page offers swapping info on several tuning indicators.

http://www.gbronline.com/radioguy/tuneye.htm

Whats the number on the tuning eye? I may have one.