GE RC 1616B

[William]

Don't you just love I thought I was done, but the unit you are working on has other ideas or challenges to make life fun. Yours sounds like my VM challenge that I need to get back too. Good luck, Elton, I hope you get it figured out.

Bill

[hermitcrab]

the speaker is a 8" woofer and the total depth of the room in the speaker cabinet is 2 1/4 inches... will never find another to fit in that space ... I took the speaker apart , the woofer has no rubs and looks completely normal for what it is , the schematic says the tweeter is 3" ... but it is not , it is only 2.5 " and stiff as a board , so I figured how long has this unit sat unused? so I manually carefully worked the cones back and forth to see if a coil was stuck or frozen ... now it seems the longer it plays, the better it sounds... the radio does nothing, both AM and FM are dead silent , now I have to see what could cause both bands to be dead , the radio runs though the MPX chassis , so could the MPX kill both FM and AM? I thought the function control might be the problem, but so far cleaning that has done nothing ... the battle continues

[William]

This is both a challenge and a battle, but I have faith you will get sorted. In my thinking, which is limited, I would think the MPX would only affect the FM. It does not make sense to me that AM would through MPX. Do the tubes light in the radio? I assume yes, but if not, that would mean there is no power getting into the radio section. Sometimes it is the simple things we overlook. Also, if the tubes do light, do you have B+ ? Just me thinking out loud here.

I have a GE Trimline SS portable unit that I have mentioned before. I paid 10 bucks for it and the first time I tried it one channel sounded great, and the other was all highs. Long story short, someone removed the woofer from one of the speakers??!! The woofers are 10" but not very deep so limited to what will work and still keep the integrity of the unit. So far, no luck in finding a replacement but I keep looking. I hope yours, Elton, continues to improve so you can enjoy what you have.

Bill

[hermitcrab]

unfortunately there is no way to bench test the chassis alone... the tubes all light and they have been tested.. it has to be a voltage or power problem to kill both bands ... the electrolytics have been replaced... I guess it's time to pull it back out and start checking individual components for opens or shorts ...there are 2 RCA jacks red and blue that come from the radio to the selector ...I assume they are outputs , maybe I can sub a signal into either of them and see if I get any sound on the FM or AM setting?

[hermitcrab]

I fed a signal into the set from the radio chassis outputs ... they are working, so the radio is dead ... also I tried to play a 45 on the set, and the 45 adapter is too tall to go on while in the case... are these changeable to a shorter spindle?

[electra225]

Yep, there are two size spindles. If you change the spindle, you have to change the post for the overarm. So, for practical purposes, you can't change the spindle. I have a Trimline like that. Somebody put a tall spindle changer in it and the overarm won't clear the back of the cabinet. I can't tell with the angle of the pictures, but that might already have the short over arm in it, just had the spindle changed. Changing the spindle is no big deal. I could measure mine and you could measure yours to tell which one you have.

As to your dead radio, take a metal tool and touch the tuner and see if you can get a noise out of the speaker. Check the B+ on the first tube in the radio, then follow the B+ all the way to the amp to see if and where it disappears. I don't think you have lost B+ totally or you wouldn't have any audio. There is one tube in the tuner involved in the audio.

I'm glad to see pictures posted today are showing up. Mark is working on why we lost the earlier ones. We appreciate everyone's patience.

[bones007]

Talked to Gary at Vm he says not possible to change this spindle, radio had a open Selinim rectifier

[electra225]

"bones007" is a computer glitch. This happened at least once before, with another member. Somehow, the system takes a member's email information and uses it for a username.

I have a short-spindle 1200 series VM changer out of a Motorola. You would need to swap your tone arm and overarm, but it is a good changer, just had a cartridge with a stiff bridge. If you can't swap the spindle, how could you change it if you had a damaged one?

[hermitcrab]

Gary says it takes multiple parts to change the spindle and suggested, I find one with a short spindle...so this unit must have had the original changer swapped out for this one? it is impossible to install or remove the adapter unless the changer is folded up... and how would that work when the back is on ? ... I have other VM changers with a short spindle , but I am not going to bother with it... I'll just play LP's on it don't know how it put bones007 which is my ID on another site but I posted from my phone so maybe that is the reason ? I have seen other GE's like this that had Garrard changers in them...maybe this had one originally

[electra225]

We had another member post from his phone one time and it gave some strange username. I have no idea why. What cartridge does that changer have? GE C-100? I have several GE/VM changers with that Custom tone arm. They will track at 4-ish grams and still let the changer cycle. I set most of mine at 5-ish grams, give or take a few tenths of a gram.

[hermitcrab]

This had I believe it said astasic 17? but one channel was dead , so it got the usual p-226 replacement, this one tracks heavy like 6 or 7 grams , otherwise it will skip all the way across the record ...So far this GE is on par with the Phonola I have... I would think it would do better, the more it plays the more the speakers on both channels sound partially shorted with distortion... this unit has had a rough life...

[electra225]

I'm impressed with how good a GE stereo can sound, given the typically modest electronics. Sounds like yours has had a hard life. I'd think that 6 or 7 grams would be plenty heavy for a stereo cartridge. Could the needle be damaged, causing the needle to skip across the record?

Edit: Gary's site gives 4 to 8 grams as tracking weight for that cartridge. Have you checked the changer for being plumb? I have some 8" speakers in the shop. I'll dig one out and see how deep it is. Check the tube sockets. I had a GE that started sounding distorted when it got warm, but it was dirty tube sockets in the output tubes. Yours has 7189 SE outputs, doesn't it?

[hermitcrab]

Greg, this one sounds great if I do not use the original speakers ...I hook up some Sony floor speakers I have and it sounds normal , no distortion... yes this uses the 7189 output tubes... kinda useless when the speakers that are an essential part of the cabinetry are no good

[hermitcrab]

well mystery solved ... wrong changer in this unit... according to a member on audio karma , these only came with Garrard changers ... so someone at sometime put this changer in, out of a trimline player...so now I need to search for a garrard changer ....

[electra225]

What model Garrard changer do you need?

[hermitcrab]

They used the AT-60 Garrard changers

[electra225]

Is the plinth the same between VM and Garrard? Isn't there signs something has been modified to accomodate the different changer? I thought one model of that "big" Trimline had a VM changer, one had a Garrard. You might be better finding a short-spindle VM than messing with the plinth to accomodate a Garrard changer.

[TC Chris]

the schematic says the tweeter is 3" ... but it is not , it is only 2.5 " and stiff as a board

A lot of cone tweeters feel unnaturally stiff when compared to similar sized full-range speakers. I think it's part of the design, a way to avoid reproducing lower frequencies. The highs need very little cone excursion.

Chris Campbell