HMV 1507 radio record player 1953

 

Quite a neat idea for 1953, record player hidden inside a radio, but I'm afraid in my eyes the drab off white Rexine finish let it down and that's reflected in the selling price of these units today second hand. HMV liked to use their own turntables and they are quite robustly made is not a little strange looking. .

the repair

Well where do I start? as usual with the cabinet, a good clean down was called for, but even after that colour mix didn't look good, so I decided to spay it green and keep all the cream fittings. I completely stripped it down taking many pictures for an easy recovery.

The guy that sold me this unit had it all in parts in a polythene bag, he assured me that nothing was missing, so I took him as his word and brought it at a reduced price. Outside had been bleached and the inside was grubby, so that's why I decided to spray green, I've done two units in this colour now, they look nice together on display.

Circuit with some overlap in the middle. The cartridge was a crystal type with high output fed through an 1:1 isolation transformer, I installed a modern China equivalent. The smoothers were open circuit 2 x 32uf with 1953 printed on them, I fitted 2 x 47uf 400v.   
I included a photo of the original cartridge as it is quite rare to find now, it did work for a short while but the crystal inside I expect fell apart, they do after a few years. Ceramic is more durable and magnetic ever better but requires an extra valve pre-amp stage as low output signal.

New smothers fitted at base of the chassis close to the old 32x32uF, some tape to hold them steady. Right is the cleaned Bakelite grill and window. Nowhere to fit extra lights in this one - nice big clear dial anyway

Two views of the underneath of the chassis showing the old smoother blog on right, the only fault found apart from dirty switch contacts and a doggy cartridge. I did however spend some time under the turntable fixing some grease in all the right places plus I added a junction box for the cables connecting the deck that also holds the mains transformer and auto off power switch on deck.

The mains plug was missing so I used a small 3 pin Bulgin  type to the original fitting on side. There is a place to hold the cable inside the rear all very tidy design. I also added a shot video to show working unit. As a final touch I ordered a 1953 single by Ella Fitzgerald to play on the unit.