1953 Muntz CRT Television Restoration

Short video demonstrating my 1953 Muntz TV (2159A) 21" console, rectangular CRT, (Chassis 17B6). I have restored it working condition by replacing all the paper capacitors, most resistors and tubes.

[@luisreyes1963]

Good work in reviving an old TV set.

[@paulaharrisbaca4851]

I have one of these!! I used to see if any TV shops would fix it for my in the early 1980's and they always said "what do you want to fix one of those for?" I was way ahead of the curve. I was a teenager and it was my grandpa's TV he gave to my mom before I was born.....

[@kevingleason1051]

When people ask me about why I collect and restore vintage electronics, I say why do people collect and restore vintage cars. Sometimes I can see the thoughts turning inside their heads LOL .

[@kevingleason1051]

Nice that you used "Orange Drops" . I usually use them in audio, vintage color chassis, and Stromberg-Carlson radios, and use "yellow jackets" in most other restorations. Great work on the Muntz ! 😊

[@sebringny77]

I bought this same TV about a year ago from an antique shop and I must say that watching it start up here brought a huge smile to my face! I haven't plugged mine in yet because of fear of hurting it. Mine was found in the same great shape and has a different Muntz logo in the front. Thanks for posting this and taking care of yours!

[@douro20]

Muntz TVs were a marvel of simplicity; they wanted to make TVs which were cheap to manufacture but still very well made, and they accomplished this by simplifying them as much as possible. They do suffer in terms of reception performance, but they can produce a very good picture with a strong signal.

[@ikonix360]

douro20 yes he marketed his TVs to the areas which had TV transmitters near.

[@maxwelsh6121]

I don't know if this is apocryphal but I believe it's fact, madman Muntz had his engineers buy and test many major brands removing as many components as possible or bypassing with cheaper parts to reach the 'plans' for his sets

[@jimlocke9320]

@@maxwelsh6121 Yes, there is a story where he actually did that himself. He checked into a New York City hotel room with line of sight to the TV transmitters on the Empire State Building, bought several TV sets and stripped down the designs to a minimum number of parts that still worked with a strong, nearly ideal, signal. When he checked out, the disassembled TV sets went in the trash. I believe that his TV sets were primarily intended to be marketed in the Los Angeles basin, where homes could receive signals line of sight from surrounding mountains. There may have been other areas with nearly ideal signals for his sets. While high end sets had 3 stage IF amplifiers for receiving weak signals, Muntz low end TV sets had 2 stages, which simplified the "singing" (oscillation) design issues, which result from the output signal of a high gain amplifier coupling into the input. He could eliminated shields on the IF transformers and tubes. Some models of the Muntz TV depended on the TV signal to provide a timing signal to produce a raster. When the tuner was set to an unused channel, the screen was dark, while competitors' sets produced light and "snow". This design eliminated the horizontal and vertical controls. However, the screen would go black during normal viewing if the signal was lost, e. g. from being nulled by a reflection from an airplane. I am not aware of any other low end set that didn't produce a raster on unused channels, using oscillators that free ran when no signal was present and locked to the sync with signal present. So, this design had to come from Muntz and/or his engineering team. In many cases. Muntz TV sets used hand selected resistors instead of potentiometers. When adjustment was needed, instead of tweaking a knob on the back of the set, the user needed to have the TV serviced to replace a resistor with one of a different value. Some TV shops may have installed potentiometers. I am not aware of any chassis upgrades offered by third parties. An add-on chassis with improved critical circuits might have vastly improved the performance of the set. Some models did not have fine tuning controls. A TV repairman may have needed to perform the adjustment. I understand that fine tuning adjustment screws were accessible with the channel selector knob removed. There is mixed data on reliability. With fewer parts to fail, Muntz TV sets did better than their competitors in that regard. However, the lack of adjustments meant that service calls were required to handle problems which could be corrected by user knob twiddling on competitors' sets. Muntz is said to have bankrupted the company trying to develop a stripped down color TV. The Muntz brand was sold and used for a number of years afterward. The Zenith converter box provides an ideal signal with timing and unchanged signal level even when the TV signal fails. allowing the Muntz TV to play at its best!

[@zLOSTfan]

I love the retro tv! Thanks for sharing.

[@woodbarter5713]

Excellent repair. I was an AT in the USCG when we still had a few pieces of equipment using tubes. We still made component level repairs at that time now I think they just send everything off. You've inspired me to try to find an old TV set. I like my big screen flat but I would use a restored TV like this to watch movies of the time. From Here To Eternity and Gone With The Wind should be watched on a set like this. Nostalgia at its essence. Thanks for sharing this.

[@databits]

Wood Barter Thanks for your comments!

[@steveinnepa]

A hundred fifty dollars worth on parts ..well spent ! Excellent restoration job. In today's disposable world, it is great to see these old sets come back to life.

[@henryjames2484]

Love it…Channel 2 Went on the air in 1953 back then it was WTVI Belleville Illinois

[@FilmSphere]

I have the same exact Muntz TV! It is the same model and has the same mahogany wooden finish. The only difference is that mine has doors that open to reveal the screen. I love to sit down and watch TV Land or alien movies from the 50's on it!

[@adriancressy8363]

The sound is quite amazing. TV sound has been terrible forever. The Flat screen TV's are even worse. This set sounds very nice.

[@kirbyyasha]

I can't wait to get my Muntz up and running. Such fun TV's

[@dgwaters]

Cool video! The pop-ups were a really nice touch! There's just something about vintage TV's like this that give class to any room.

[@CoopyKat]

I love the sound the TV makes when you turn it off!

[@databits]

Thanks for your comment howellfilm! This is likely my last Muntz TV restoration for a while. Over the weekend I restored an 8-Track Recorder and a Beta VCR, though! You should post video of your restored TV's!

[@76duster]

i have the same muntz chasis! the only diff. is my model has the doors on the front that cover the set. saved it from a dumpster! haven't gotten around to finishing it yet, the magnavox is first in line. have a raster on the muntz so it shouldn't be to bad to fix. love to see these old sets restored and not dumped! keep em' glowing!!!

[@jimlocke9320]

Many of the early console TV sets had doors to hide the picture tube and control knobs when the TV was not in use, so it would look more like a piece of furniture and fit into living rooms of the day. I think people ended up leaving the doors open all the time, so were willing to buy console TV sets without doors when it was time for a new set. Also, there needed to be space around the set for the doors to swing open and closed. If the household decided to add a chair or table, they might have been obliged to leave the doors open. My parents' GE console TV, purchased in late 1954, did not have doors. However, in the early 1970s, I did acquire a Magnavox console color set with flexible doors that slid into the cabinet for viewing and pulled out to cover the front of the set when not in use. You didn't need to leave space around the set for the doors.

[@451hist]

Nice work! Thank you for sharing!

[@kennerfee100]

A little before my great grandparents died nearly a decade ago, I managed to visit their house and they still had this TV. I would constantly complain about why they still had a 50+ year old TV, but I still watched some of the local kids channels, but I hated that there was no colour.

[@databits]

Thanks 4Corry. The Muntz TV was a fun project.

[@kevgo64conservative]

Yep.I own a working 1950 Admiral.12LP4 picture tube.50s TVs are so cool!

[@KylesTechChannel01]

I’m getting ready to get my 1955 Zenith portable repaired, looks like it fell right from space. I’m saving up about $500 to pay a professional to do all the work as he pretty much has a warehouse full of parts and is super experienced. Also picked up a super high powered modulator that I’m running into an antenna as my own OTA analog broadcast station. Really cool stuff!

[@erin19030]

Lazy ass!

[@musicman0150]

That's a beautiful television set. Excellent picture and sound quality. From the sound, I'm guessing the speaker might be more of an 8" because I remember working on some of these types of TVs in high school during my training and studies in electronics and they usually had the 8" speaker, a very common size for a big full range sound yet small enough for narrow cabinets. It's rare to find a 10" in a TV unless the cabinet is extra large. Most of the TVs though back then usually had a 6x9" speaker or on rare occasions they went as large as a 9x12" which is very rare. Superior job on the restoration. Keep it running as that type of technology is what brought the changes we have today over 60 to 70 years of TV viewing. Gary

[@databits]

musicman0150 Thanks for your comments, Gary!

[@tonstad39]

You are a wizard at restoreations

[@19Chuck80]

Wow amazing just amazing, how you get it working so well, how rare this is....the sound is great...they seemed to use bigger speakers back them....Thanks for showing

[@databits]

@Amad @Rich - Thanks for the compliments. The TV is malfunctioning again since I created this video. Time to drop in some more parts!

[@nominalvelocity]

Hey, that's really cool! I'm sure under your care, it'll be buzzing away in another 60 years :)

[@CoopyKat]

The speakers in those old TV's sound pretty impressive, which surprises me. But I know that back then they didn't make cheap electronics like they do now (the speakers built in to HDTV's are horrific!)

[@JahnoKestt]

That's a neat set up!

[@RandyOnTheRadio]

I was wondering if one of these converters would indeed work with an old black & white TV. You just answered that question. Thanks.

[@annelisepereira5721]

beautiful tv thak you brazil

[@databits]

Thank you Brazil!

[@4Corry]

Cool review

[@roydalezobel4946]

It must be fun to watch old time movies on this device. Maybe old episodes of "The Twilight Zone" or "I Love Lucy". Nicely done. :)

[@kraig8812]

If I get a TV like this and it's restored then the first thing I might watch would be Pixie & Dixie.

[@choppergirl]

Uh, all paper caps do not need to be replaced. I only replaced the largest dual paper cap (2x 50 ohm 160v) on my 1951 GE 430, and the sucker cranked right up and works like a charm. In fact, I was able to shift the frequency on it with an antenna mod and pick up hams in SSB and AM mode, on an stock AM broadcast band only radio. If something isn't broke, don't fix it. Esp. not with those ugly orange sprague caps.

[@collectingonthecheap56353]

I would love to see an update to this, to see if your Zenith DTT-901 is still in working order after all these years like mine are. Also, to see if your Muntz is still holding up.

[@databits]

@AntiqueRadiodoc - Thank you!

[@AntiqueRadiodoc]

Nice neat work, Good Job!

[@calbeatnik]

I imagine the picture tube itself must have been in pretty good condition. Seems like it would be pretty hard to replace the tube if you could even find one. But good job.

[@databits]

rick t Thanks for watching and for your comments!

[@erin19030]

That's my moms set! It had a 12” speaker .

[@mdanh2002]

How did you feed the output of the digital tv converter into the vintage TV? Is it via composite cable (does the vintage TV have one?) or via RF output?

[@databits]

RF, the only input on the TV. Used a 75 ohm to 300 ohm adapter.

[@Mrtraveler01]

I live in St. Charles, I can get 2,4,5,11 and 30 with a VHF antenna however I have to move it around to get a signal with 4 being the biggest pain to deal with. For some reason the UHF antenna didn't seem to work any better for me.

[@erin19030]

One could repair a circuit part under the chassis without removing the chassis, lots o room to lay on your back and solder upside down, or just lay the set on its side.

[@CoopyKat]

The speaker sounds really good surprisingly, is this the original TV speaker??

[@Nannerchan]

They were cheap and had few components. My uncle swore by them. Most people just swore AT them.

[@databits]

Yes, I'm sure they had frequent visits from the TV Repairman.

[@kraig8812]

Hey databits, do you have any other vintage Television sets. I have two of them. One is a 1987 GoldStar and the other I have is a 1978 Philco.

[@alsationwolfdogs]

ok, what channel do you leave the tv on when your changing channels on the converter box,???

[@maxwelsh6121]

Earl Madman Muntz , invented the four track for car audio that Bill Lear "improved " by halving the width of the tracks to allow stereo -with 8 total trax; yeah Max, we all know that already .... But- have you covered any other Muntz products like the 4 track ?

[@ackbomb]

Where do you get capacitors like that? I have the same exact tv set!

[@4Corry]

Hi I was wondering if you still have that TV hook up a Wii U up to the converter.

[@davidbrawn873]

Lucky it didn't have that many hours clocked on the CRT.

[@lunaraura2828]

You sound like that Alan guy from Two And A Half Men. Cool project, btw.

[@mrhvids4461]

nice

[@databits]

Thanks.

[@jacksonbilow1530]

I want that!!!

[@paulnadratowski3942]

Cool. Are all your channels in RF UHF stations?

[@1L6E6VHF]

paul nadratowski According to rabbitears.info, ALL St. Louis market stations are UHF now, though channel 13 will be moving to actual channel 13 in the future.

[@AMStationEngineer]

I don't know how, but I have two N.O.S. Muntz 6GH8A's, ahhh, sweeet, the "tubeless wonder", and I'm not talking about tires, either....

[@maplewoodsp]

Where did you purchase your new capacitors. I need quite a few. :)

[@PurpleLover101]

Were did you buy it

[@databits]

Uh, I'm glad you had such success, but dried up old capacitors are a potential fire hazard. And nobody is going to see the mainboard anyway, so ugly replacements can sometimes create a pretty picture.

[@PurpleLover101]

Also how much would I have to pay you to get cause I've been looking for one

[@maniatore2006]

Wow that is Great :)

[@davidcorreira5411]

about how many vintage TV sets do you own?

[@delreycustomshop7624]

Jesus, that circuit is incredibly stripped down to the bare minimum!

[@erin19030]

Cabinets were made from quality wood grain stock.

[@databits]

I have not seen a roundie TV in person.

[@classicgarage9548]

has anyone here in REAL LIFE ever seen a roundie (round screen ) up close? ive seen a lot

[@Y10Q]

you should have tuned it to HBO's late night programming.....

[@databits]

Y10Q - I can't get that over the air!

[@tonesmith]

I have this exact tv. I would like to sell it. if anyone interested

[@erin19030]

Ya got some weak CRT

[@Patrick_AUBRY]

More then two generation of propaganda...