1957 Zenith Manual 2 Tube Player

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

I bought this little player because I like green, and it
had Tone control, 2 speakers and 2 tubes + selenium recitifier.

I'd not restored a manual player, so it was fun.

Some sharpie had tacked on a separate e-lytic can,
using the wrong values.

I took off both cans and the rectifier.
I used a terminal strip mounted to the
chassis body to wire in new parts.

Installed a 1N4007 diode and had to increase the
56 Ohm resistor to 150 Ohm to get voltages in
the correct neighborhood.

The speed control board was bound up and the
motor would not spin by hand.
I used a rubber O-ring to replace the extremely hard
old idler rubber.

After cleaning, they both work well, but an oddity
is that using the 16 RPM speed selection gives you
33.3 RPM, and the 33.3 RPM gives you 45 RPM speed.

There are only 3 mechanical positions on the speed
selector, though there are 4 speeds printed on the
motor board.

It had a crystal cart (dead), so I used another 3 Volt
ceramic cart I had, drilling a mount hole through the
aluminum tone-arm.

I had another Zenith automatic 3 tube player with the same 2
four inch speakers, and it had really good bass output.
So, I was pleased when this little gal also had good
bass output.

I touched up the cabinet and it looks pretty good.

[electra225]

If that record player uses a 3-volt cartridge, what does the 6AV6 do? That is a cute little record player. Twin speakers really help the sound quality. Good job, Mr. Mogul and thanks for sharing.....

[William]

That looks great, Mr. Mogul, and should give you lots of enjoyment. Thanks for sharing this project.

Bill