Vintage Fix AVL

Vintage Fix AVL Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Vintage Fix AVL, Electronics, Asheville, NC.

Servicing, restoring, and preserving vintage and antique consoles, radios, TVs, 1920s-1970s

please send inquiries to [email protected]
Hours: 10am to 5pm, Wednesday through Friday

It's been a few months hiatus from the social media side of things around here, but work has certainly continued nonethe...
05/02/2024

It's been a few months hiatus from the social media side of things around here, but work has certainly continued nonetheless. Here's one currently on its way back to the customer. Another German made Grundig, chassis and record changer. Record changer thoroughly serviced. The FM dial assembly needed to be restrung to replace a broken string, and the weighted flywheel that's a part of the string, pulley, and a clutch system of the tuner assembly had also deteriorated and was slowly breaking apart, as often happens with pot metal. Fresh weighted flywheel from a donor set, new string for the FM dial, a lot of old garbage capacitors pulled and replaced, and functions checked. Works like a charm!

*Catching up on a lot of messages in addition to projects, as handyman season is also upon me taking time away from electronics work, so a little patience, and bear with me y'all!

If I keep staring at it, it may fix itself, but that would't be very fun 🙃
02/06/2024

If I keep staring at it, it may fix itself, but that would't be very fun 🙃



One thing led to another and I ended up getting this Tek 475 serviced and running instead of the 465 in the last post. T...
01/29/2024

One thing led to another and I ended up getting this Tek 475 serviced and running instead of the 465 in the last post. The 465 is back on the back burner for now. -insert story filled with technical mumbo jumbo here-

Back to regularly scheduled work for a bit, but now with tiHis awesome 475!

#1971

After taking a break for my big 4-0 birthday last week, I'm starting this week in the shop with an equipment servicing d...
01/23/2024

After taking a break for my big 4-0 birthday last week, I'm starting this week in the shop with an equipment servicing day. I've been meaning to add this Tektronix 465 oscilloscope to the workbench for quite a long time now. Finally pulled it out. Ready to go through the power supply first and verify things there, but in the meantime I've already identified a capacitor that gets unreasonably warm much too quickly. I've been using a Sencore model sc61 for quite some time, but this Tektronix 465 will replace it as my primary, then the Sencore will be relegated to secondary or backup.

Victrola bits, plus the spring assembly process in reverse. What a thing to wrangle, that was.Cleaned with naphtha, Supe...
01/06/2024

Victrola bits, plus the spring assembly process in reverse. What a thing to wrangle, that was.

Cleaned with naphtha, SuperLube Teflon based grease used on most parts, except the worm gears which got red lithium grease. Light machine oil on small bearings.

Good ol' Vicky Trolla running like a top! Full tear down, cleaning of all old grease, reattach a weight that had separat...
01/06/2024

Good ol' Vicky Trolla running like a top! Full tear down, cleaning of all old grease, reattach a weight that had separated from the governor assembly, regrease, reassemble, check operation.

This Victrola is ready to sing!

After a two week hiatus for the holidays, first week for coronavirus and the second week for the actual holidays, we're ...
01/03/2024

After a two week hiatus for the holidays, first week for coronavirus and the second week for the actual holidays, we're starting the new year off with a freshly finished Zenith Circle of Sound, and the first of two 1920s wind up Victrola's. There's an awful lot to get caught up on, but I'll take this as an all right start to the new year! Happy new year, y'all!

Rock'n and roll'n with this Philco Predicta Holiday. After going through and replacing a tremendous number of components...
11/27/2023

Rock'n and roll'n with this Philco Predicta Holiday. After going through and replacing a tremendous number of components, it's now time for troubleshooting and operation verification before going through alignment. With a basic digital to coaxial RF converter and an old DVD player, sound comes through but not so much picture. We'll get it soon enough. Obviously to be continued....


Workin' it. The best helpers I could ask for. Helping me make the last component change on this Grundig chassis. Look ma...
09/16/2023

Workin' it. The best helpers I could ask for. Helping me make the last component change on this Grundig chassis.

Look ma, extra hands!


Here's a rather fun one that's in the shop, a Philco Predicta "Holiday". Disassembly had already started before I grabbe...
08/27/2023

Here's a rather fun one that's in the shop, a Philco Predicta "Holiday". Disassembly had already started before I grabbed this picture. Front mask has been removed, and you can see the degradation of the plastic in the second and third photos. Both sides of that will be hand buffed with a quality plastic polishing compound. Specifically Novus number two.

Initial testing has already been done, and this one shows evidence of a strong, and bright picture tube! From here on out it's typical component replacement and then a tune-up to make sure the picture comes in sharp, clear, steady, and even.

Nice little Arvin graced the shop earlier this summer. This guy is definitely a step, or two, above the typical All Amer...
08/24/2023

Nice little Arvin graced the shop earlier this summer. This guy is definitely a step, or two, above the typical All American 5 radios of that era. Also gave it an audio input for bluetooth.
Some previous semi-recent work had already been done, but it was incredibly sloppy, borderline dangerous, so this one was less about component replacement, and more about sorting out some previous bad service work.

(I really need to step up my photography game!)


Saba Automatic 11 "Breisgau". Automatic, motorized tuner with reverb\preamp chassis. Ultra clean set so it was surprisin...
06/04/2023

Saba Automatic 11 "Breisgau". Automatic, motorized tuner with reverb\preamp chassis. Ultra clean set so it was surprising to encounter as many bad components as I did. Both selenium rectifiers we're replaced with modern silicon diodes, the crappy WIMA capacitors were pulled - a number of them tested very bad - one had exploded. The usual other paper and electrolytic capacitors replaced. At least one resistor was cooked beyond recognition, another was burned open, another was on its way out. A single dial cord was reinstalled with a new spring. Also found a shorted terminal on the volume control that was killing the audio signal from the main channel that carries the radio audio; which also affected the auxiliary input. Borrowed a spring reverb tank from my guitar amp to test reverb.

Really interesting set, incredibly well engineered, QUIET - no discernable hum - amplifier. What a beauty. That dial glass is almost worth more than everything I own, I'm fairly certain. This one has to be shipped back to the customer.

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