Building a quality FM tuner was an expensive undertaking like a VHF tuner in a TV set, and by 1959-60 outsourcing to the Germans pull-string tuned unit was an efficient way to get the radio function, though stereo records were the real reason folks spent money on consoles by that time.
As I may have mentioned elsewhere, European consoles may be stylish and sound great but they are NOT made of durable materials, especially the speakers, cabinets and volume pots. After a recap and struggling with funky function switch contacts for an EMUD console to work, the paper caps were the main reason it did not work. I never saw caps test that bad, not even bumblebees. The legs fell out of the cabinet bottom, made from very crumbly particle board, requiring plywood to hold legs and grafted onto the unstable cabinet bottom. Only the BSR Monarch player was
This tuner from a Motorola SK-32 received 1 station that closes the eye tube, a 50 kW modern country station 14 miles away. There is barely any response on other FM locals, due in part to badly drifted gray dogbone caps ranging from 10 pF to 200 pF. Voltages all test spot-on, as well as coils, AFC diode and the resistors. Alignment of IF amplifier transformers and tuner trimmer caps improved things slightly with some other local FM stations making a faint appearance. Still pretty bad for a Motorola and not acceptable for a paying customer.
I called a bench tech friend upstate, asking how a Motorola using a 6BQ7 could receive FM even more poorly than a tubed Japanese set, that seems to favor all the wrong frequencies. I never had this issue with a Zenith or Motorola before!
He had an non-functioning RCA version with 12DT8 tube like my 61-62 model RCA's that were just off-frequency. He shot-gunned all the caps and resistors after confirming voltages were correct and coils were OK. Now it works like new after an alignment
After that news, I ordered 12 mica caps for a tiny board pictured below.
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