Telefunken Bajazzo 55

[Geaney]

Hi Robert,

Many thanks for the excellent info. It's nice to be able to benefit from the experience of an expert. It saves me blundering along! I'm especially pleased about knowing precautions around first power up to avoid popping all the valves.

I was wondering about what to plug into that switch socket to go from mains to battery operation - major thanks.

I'm not overly keen on the colour scheme on mine either and there are multiple tears so I'll be on the look-out for replacement covering as well.

I've never heard one play - is the sound quality decent?

Cheers, John
I've uploaded another clip where I clearly display my lack of knowledge about the above so I'll correct it in a future clip

[Robert Darwent]

hi Robert I wonder if you could tell me where you got the covering from?

Hi Rob,

I seem to remember it was a fabric shop seller on eBay, but its 3 or 4 years ago now so I'll have to search back through my purchase history and see if I can find the listing. Bear with me!

Regards,

I've had a good look through my purchase history Rob but I'm afraid I can't find the specific listing, its too far back now.

However, if you do an eBay search in the 'Crafts>Fabric' category using the keywords 'snake (faux leather, vinyl)' you'll turn up some very similar cloths.

In fact, there is the exact same patterned cloth available at the moment that I used but in white/gold whereas I bought black/grey. No doubt the black/grey is out of stock right now but I should imagine is still regularly listed.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

[Robert Darwent]

I've never heard one play - is the sound quality decent?

In my opinion, excellent. I would rate it very similar on VHF-FM to that produced by a good Hacker Sovereign, and as we all know Hacker's are pretty much top of the list when talking about sound quality from a vintage portable.

It's nice to be able to benefit from the experience of an expert.

"Expert" - no, not at all John. I'm just a big fan of 1950s VHF valve portables. After collecting nearly a couple dozen sets made largely for the German market from manufacturers such as Akkord, Grundig, Philips and Telefunken, I have come across most of their operating eccentricities and quite a few of the pitfalls to avoid when trying to get them working again.

Just pleased I could pass on a few snippets of info to you.

Best regards,

[tiv48]

Cheers
I had another look but the thinnest I could find was the 1mm and its not fabric backed .
I have got some fablon but it does not quite look the same.
the stuff I bought is here.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160678569993?s...K:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648
Rob T

[Robert Darwent]

I had another look but the thinnest I could find was the 1mm and its not fabric backed .

Hi Rob,

This is the type of cloth I used;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-WHITE-GOLD...fts_Fabric&hash=item3cccce1ade

which does have a woven cloth backing, but like I said the listing is for the white/gold sort instead of the black/grey. I would imagine its just out of stock at the moment.

Edit:
Just noticed the listing is for a 12" x 8" sample piece. Might be worth sending off a message to see what lengths they have available?

Best regards,

[tiv48]

Thanks Robert
have just ordered 3 pieces .
but would still like less than 1mm.
Rob T

[Geaney]

Almost got the cab structural work sorted out. Things turned out somewhat worse than I first suspected. However, I think I've got the main pieces repaired now. I'll need to find some speaker grill cloth as I had to replace the original speaker board. The upright spars were badly damaged so I had to put new ones alongside the originals to provide a solid anchor for the front and back panels.

Even though this is turning out to be more work than I was expecting, I'm learning a lot on this project which is very satisfying. Many thanks again for all the excellent support and help on this one.

Cheers,

John

[Geaney]

I got the chassis fired up last night - basically worked first time. I had replaced one or two electrolytics but based on Robert's comment that he had not needed to recap any of his sets I decided to skip the rest and see how it would perform. Volume is low but I have reception on FM and AM - nothing on SW yet.

A box of various casting epoxy stuff arrived this morning so I'll be playing with this gooey stuff to see if I can mould replacements for the missing parts of the bezel.

This is one of the more interesting projects I've done so far. I can see why Robert likes this type of set.

Cheers, John

[Geaney]

After a good clean up the set now works fine - tons of volume, excellent sound quality. I'm waiting for the speaker cloth to arrive and though most of the epoxy stuff came a few days ago, after reading the instructions in detail it seems the mix ratio is critical so I need to get myself a precision scales (mix ratios are all done by weight).

The epoxy I got has a mix ratio of 0.37::1 so I don't want to go guessing. The info says that getting it wrong can vary from a mix that never sets to one that catches fire!!

In the meantime I've been listening to the set every evening and it's a joy to listen to.

Cheers, John

[Geaney]

Now that I've 'cast' the replacement parts for the bezel, I've started fitting them - two down three to go. It won't be pretty but it should look way better than when I started.

Cheers, John