1960 Motorola SK-30W

[Brettzky99]

https://www.facebook.com/share/1FtAM7JU ... tid=79PoIi

good friend of mine picked this up on my behalf

Trading him the restored SK36M for it

[William]

That looks nice, Brett, but don't you have one just like it or am I thinking of someone else on the forum. What's the difference, other than cabinet, between the SK30 and the SK36?

Bill

[Brettzky99]

I have a 28 that is identical inside
viewtopic.php?t=2679

The 36 has a smaller woofer, worse styling and is phono only

[Motorola minion]

Having worked on several of that first generation three-channel, I found a factory mistake in the chassis I had since the beginning. The amp had good bass even though I did not have the OEM woofer, but it was never the Motorola famous sound we know of today.

It seems that two adjacent pins (3 and 2) on one of the 6BQ5 bass channel tubes were soldered together, rendering it useless, doomed to a premature fail. Tube grid must be negative in respect to cathode or it's just a diode!

There is almost never a problem with the Motorola stereophonics if you replace just caps, so this was a big surprise to find so many years later.

[electra225]

Motorola did good building that one!

A question if I may, not being critical. I notice that there appears to be considerable wear around the knobs on the tuner. What material is that? Paint? How do you restore an area like that?

[Brettzky99]

For a second there I was nervous

Literally could not care less about the radio tuner section. I never turn it on.

I'll darken it somehow so your eye doesn't go to it. The top needs some attention too but it's gonna clean up nicely and live with the others