Most of us collectors have a wish list of tellys that are unusual, have particular design aspects or historical significance.
My collector friend Pete lives 600km south in Albury, or on the Mexican border (Victoria) as we say.
Pete has always wanted an Astor Plymouth. A fellow collector who lives a further 400km south in Creswick and who is downsizing his (huge) collection for medical reasons, offered Pete one for free.
Just have a look at this thing! 23", early-mid '60s. Magnificent condition.
Finish is very high gloss Rosewood. What looks like cabinet marks are just reflections.
The round bezel displays the channel number.
We left Creswick with Pete's truck and my car loaded with old tellys! A bootload of portables in my car. A 26" Philips K9, working with a good CRT, lots of great stuff.
Worth the 2000km round trip? I think so!
Now, unlike the other two sets you showed (4KA/3504) this Astor is drop-dead gorgeous. I don't think we had anything that came close to that, it's stunning, your mate must be over the moon with it. 2000km mile round trip just boggles the mind, that's the entire length of the UK (lands end /Jon-O-Groats) as the crow flies, top to bottom and back!
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I second that a great looking set! What was the film with the sat-nav that announced "straight ahead for 2000 Miles.." 😀?
You just need huge pink converted bus and a stack of Abba tapes...
On the way back I was listening to a BBC discussion on ABC Radio National AM about the sex lives of locusts and death watch beetles!
Those ugly TVs, the guy wouldn't part with. Had been looking for them for 20 years!
Along with an original first model 1956 17" AWA console that looked like it had just left the factory in Ashfield.
Lots more.....
In return, all he wanted was for me to fix a couple of portables for him.
Now, unlike the other two sets you showed (4KA/3504) this Astor is drop-dead gorgeous. I don't think we had anything that came close to that, it's stunning, your mate must be over the moon with it. 2000km mile round trip just boggles the mind, that's the entire length of the UK (lands end /Jon-O-Groats) as the crow flies, top to bottom and back!
Yes that was some drive. At least I had the IS250. Mostly freeway but on the way down we took a shortcut through the very scenic Victorian high country. Coming back we stuck to the freeways, south to the Melbourne Western Ring Road which joins A31, then the M7 and M2, 110km/h all the way to almost home and no traffic lights. Deadly boring drive though.
@irob2345 I thought I recognized a Lexus in the reflection on the photo, I've had my IS250 for five years and it's fourteen years old, it's been a great car, 138000 miles on the clock, Toyota seem to know how to build cars and trucks to last. It's a bit thirsty around town, but I can get 450 miles on a full tank on a motorway run.
Just out of interest, and because I have it, here is a copy of the schematic for the Astor
My IS250 I've owned from new. It is about the same age as yours but with nearly 400,000km on it, only replacement an alternator and a radiator fan that was damaged by a high-speed collision with water over a road.
I get between 650 to nearly 800km on a tank of E10.
Toyota certainly knows how to build cars!
Report from Pete - CRT is good, full raster but no line sync.
Set seems to have had a bit of work done to it in the past but the soldering and parts dress associated with this is seriously ugly and will need re-work. Chassis would have originally had a mix of polyester (blue Ducons and Mustards) as well as paper. Use of polyester Anocaps (made by Astor) to replace the paper caps dates the repair to late '60s or early '70s.
There is a new (at some stage) line transformer and Oz Pye yoke as used in later Astors and one of those selenium 1S2 (DY86) replacements fitted.
New 6GV8 (ECL85) in the vertical.
6JW8 (ECF802) in the horizontal oscillator socket - should be 6BL8 (ECF80). Will probably leave it there for now.
One end of the chassis is soaked with an oily substance that appears to have been sprayed on all the pots.
Cover missing from the LOPT box.
All this contrasts markedly with the cabinet condition which is almost perfect original.
