A Classic back to life.

[W3RSW]

Fantasitc Walt !   Great big band stuff.

You're truly a generation spanner.
-ought to name a Knight kit after you. 

I got a real kick out of seeing you in 40's garb...  and dig those shoes.

[K1JJ]

Very cool, Walt.

Interesting on playing both the trumpet and string bass.  You looked like a million bux.  I'll bet babes were chasing you guys all over the place.  Big bands were quite the thang back then.

BTW, in the 60's  I played rhythm/lead guitar in a Motown group. Later took up jazz alto and tenor saxes.

Nothing like FB music from a talented group. 

Later -

T

[K5UJ]

I was pretty much on top of pop music into the 80s, then started to lose interest.  When I was in school in Nashville, I caught Woody Herman gigs a couple times, Dave Brubeck's quartet, and Doc Severinsen with his band.   There were some others but this was 25 years ago so I've forgotten.  There's so much junk music it isn't worth the trouble to pick out the few good tunes so I'm completely out of it with current artists.  I hear names you know, like Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga; I have no idea what they sound like -- radio is more interesting.  Another thing is that getting tickets to anything is a real PITA and a ripoff--there's one or two operations that have a lock on all the performing venues and make you pay what a Bird 43 slug costs to get in.  I'd rather have the wattmeter slug. 

[W2DU]

In the first pic observe the violin, which is unusual for a big band. However, if you enlarge the pic you'll see a brass strap attached to the top of the tail piece. That strap supported an Astatic xtal phono pickup, mounted so that the needle of the pickup rested on the edge of the bridge, and held tight with a rubber band, making it a real electric violin. This was in 1936, and well could have been the first electric violin ever. I used the same trick on my bass fiddle.

The violinist was a real virtuoso performer, so he took many solos, and with the phono pickup amplified, he brought down the house.

Walt

[KM1H]

Thanks for the refresher Carl..............

I meant to say that it was the RCA 811K that I have. Very loud radio

It certainly is and its low on the distortion also, RCA was at the top of their game in those days but dont draw the interest of a Zenith or Philco were people will pay stupid prices for a low end model. I get them in here regularly for restoration. Glad to see yours has the sounding board and key. I take it you had no problem rebuilding the tuning motor or was the set bought restored? The motor can be a real PITA and the rubber wire just takes some time and care.

The 1000Z video must be using a lousy pickup or those thumpers in the radio are in poor shape. At around 25-30W it will fill a hall with fine audio but there are constant arguments about who has better....Scott, McMurdo or the 1000Z. I dont own a McM and the only Scott here is a postwar 800B with a slightly modified bass boost circuit and 6L6GC's in place of the original G's with SS regulated bias and screen voltages. The 15" coaxial Jensen will rattle the windows!

Yeah, I like consoles and have a fair selection of them as well as wood table radios.

We appear to like the same music, I was 12 when R&R hit and never had any interest in big band or Jazz. Early R&R, doo wop, R&B, soul, blues, some rockabilly, are the main interest. I often stream audio from Live 365 into a little TX that covers the house and then some and play back in any room Im in or out back on the property at the fire pit and with a ghetto blaster

Carl

[W3GMS]

Tom, my instruments were trumpet and string bass, depending on the gig. I had my own big band in college. I'll attach a pic of it. After being retired from RCA in 1980 I played mostly string bass, both in big bands and in small jazz groups.

Walt

Walt,
Your a man of many talents for sure!  I played a Trumpet starting in 4th grade and continued through High School.  My parents said it was good to play an instrument so I picked the trumpet.  I was "ok" at it, but my heart was really into picking up the Weller dual heat soldering iron and building a good radio project!  Looking back I am glad I did take those music lessons.  Maybe it helped me with the CW???  CW was always pretty easy for me and maybe that was due to the music. 

Fantasitc Walt !   
You're truly a generation spanner.
-ought to name a Knight kit after you. 

   

Hey Rick, I think your onto something.  I can just see the Ad now! 

Joe, W3GMS     

[K9PNP]

Nice job.  Dial pointer looks good from where I see it.  Have a GE L-915W and Philco 40-165.  They belonged to my grandparents and are the reason I got interested in radio years ago.  Used to listen to The Lone Ranger and Sky King, etc. on them.

I tried to explain to one of the young guys about using the speaker field coil as the filter choke in the power supply; don't know if he ever understood.  Of course, he has never seen anything but a PM speaker.