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Old 8th Dec 2008, 6:57 pm   #1
howard
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Default 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Hello again,

I bought this set yesterday at Wootton Bassett at the Bring & Buy table. It was sitting there working on MW but I tried VHF and that didn't work and the off/on/volume pot was not working properly but its case was in almost mint condition with no chips, cracks or nasty scratches. It was on offer at £44 but as it was in an unrestored condition and not fully working I made a realistic offer of £25 for it which was accepted. When I got it home I had a look inside and the chassis really was covered in dust (see end right pic below) ! This was the first non-Philips built Cossor I'd bought so was surprised to find original Cossor valves inside with the US naming convention on them ie: 6AQ8 6AJ8 6BY7 6AK8 6BQ5 6V4 which are in fact relabelled Mullard ECC85 ECH81 EF85 EABC80 EL84 EZ80 valves. This set also has the largest loudspeaker I've seen in a fairly compact table radio, a whacking 10 x 6 inch elliptical. There were only a handful of wax/Hunts mouldseal capacitors to replace, and good quality ceramic disc caps were in evidence. Both the trader service sheet and the Cossor service manual are available on Paul Stennings DVD and the website above.

This was a straightforward restoration and took around 16 hours to complete,
so briefly ...

The chassis

- the chassis was removed from the case ... no unsoldering to do here as the loudspeaker and ferrite rod aerial fixed to the case have plugs which simply pull out, plus one earth wire to the loudspeaker frame which unscrews.

- a mountain of dust was brushed and vacuumed away and all wax and oily deposits cleaned off the chassis with white spirit. I removed the glass dial to clean it properly and also to gain access to the paper background behind it.

- I checked the mains transformer for leakage with my 500v megger ... absolutely perfect

- I replaced the wax and Hunts caps with new Vishay polyester caps and put in a new 6AQ8 (ECC85) and then fitted a new 3 core mains cable as the original cable (which looked like bell-wire) was looking distressed.

- I cleaned all the pots, waveband switch and earth springs on the noisy tuning capacitor with Servisol 10 and carefully oiled all the dial cord pulleys

- I switched on and nothing happened .... I didn't hear a click until I turned the knob backwards and then it clicked and came on (I drenched the on/off switch with Servisol 10 and left it overnight and it works fine now). The bulb was working intermittantly so in went a new 6.5v 0.3a MES.

- The set was working well but I swapped each of the valves in turn with NOS Mullards and only the NOS EABC80 (6AK8) made any improvement so I left that replacement in. No re-alignment was necessary.

- I refitted the two loudspeaker plugs which just pull apart, as bare wires were showing

The case

The outside of case had already been cleaned so I just polished it with Brasso and cleaned out the dust inside. I removed the gold coloured plastic trim tacked onto the bottom of the baffle, this was scratched and bent so I sanded it down, repainted it with Plastikote antique gold acrylic (a perfect match) and tacked it back on firmly and straight. I then reassembled the set.

It's not particularly pretty looking this early Cossor VHF set but it has a gorgeous bakelite case and it is well built internally. It sounds very good too with its huge loudspeaker and picks up more or less everything on all wavebands (VHF 87.5-100 MHz only). I'm delighted with this radio and it is in almost mint condition.

Howard
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Old 8th Dec 2008, 7:04 pm   #2
Steve_P
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Very nice job on a set that works better than it looks! They were made to be functional, not pretty. It was probably quite an expensive set in it's day. Easier to work on than some Philips sets!!

Cheers,

Steve P.
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Old 8th Dec 2008, 7:46 pm   #3
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Hello Steve,

Yes it does work well and sounds very good, and inside its components are easy to get at and to replace and as you say it's generally easier to work on than 1950s Philips sets. A really good quality British radio

Howard
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Old 8th Dec 2008, 8:35 pm   #4
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Nice work, Howard.

That's an interesting set, now I want one too! Do they crop up often?

That size of speaker is certainly unusual in a postwar set with a Bakelite cabinet. The Hacker Mayflowers, of course, use something similar, but somehow it's more surprising to find one in your Cossor.

Nick.
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Old 8th Dec 2008, 10:56 pm   #5
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Hello Nick,

I can definitely recommend one of these sets as mine sounds very good especially on FM. This is the first 524 I've ever seen so I don't think they're common but I've seen a couple of the slightly earlier 523 Melody Master sets on eBay lately which have an EM80 magic eye so there are few of these Cossor VHF sets around. I hope you find a nice one soon.

Howard
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Old 8th Dec 2008, 11:20 pm   #6
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Thanks Howard,

Just seen one of the wooden-cased-with-eye variants on offer... but they're pretty ugly

Cheers,
Nick
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Old 9th Dec 2008, 9:29 am   #7
Malcolm G6ANZ
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Hi, I've got one sitting waiting for work. It was my parents and I remember it from my childhood. If I recall the FM never worked very well but this may have been due to a poor aerial. The knobs are missing but i found a pair of the gold outer ones at Wootton Bassett now I need the odd shaped inner ones. I saw the one on the b&b and was tempted but thought of the space at home and decided not.

Malcolm
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Old 9th Dec 2008, 3:36 pm   #8
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Another spendid job Howard!
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Old 9th Dec 2008, 5:27 pm   #9
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Excellent Howard,

I agree with you on the effect of the big speaker. I had one many years ago and it was very impressive. It eventually lost VHF and so before I knew better I scrapped it though I had the good sense to keep the speaker. I regret being impetuous as I now realise a replacement ECC85 might have solved the problem.

The main thing to watch is the outer " gold " control as it drives with two ears of plastic engaging with the slotted control shaft, these can wear or shear with rough use.

Yours looks better than the memory of my new one!
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Old 9th Dec 2008, 5:29 pm   #10
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Just love the marbled bakelite case Howard. This is a rare finish on a set of this late vintage. Good to see the fully enclosed mains transformer too. A sign of quality.
Neil
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Old 10th Dec 2008, 11:53 am   #11
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm G6ANZ View Post
...... If I recall the FM never worked very well but this may have been due to a poor aerial .....
Hello Malcolm.

It works well on FM and sounds really good, but it is a touch quieter than AM like the Bush sets of the period.

I hope you manage to find the other knobs and complete your set.

Howard
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Old 10th Dec 2008, 12:15 pm   #12
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Quote:
Originally Posted by wireful3 View Post
Excellent Howard,

I agree with you on the effect of the big speaker. I had one many years ago and it was very impressive. It eventually lost VHF and so before I knew better I scrapped it though I had the good sense to keep the speaker. I regret being impetuous as I now realise a replacement ECC85 might have solved the problem. The main thing to watch is the outer " gold " control as it drives with two ears of plastic engaging with the slotted control shaft, these can wear or shear with rough use. Yours looks better than the memory of my new one!
Around half of my valve sets have FM and where that didn't work it has always been a duff ECC85 or UCC85 (or EF80 in early Philips FM sets). I keep loads of all three of these valves spare as they're not that robust (and NOS Mullard ECC85s are hard to find) .

One thing that puzzles me about this set is the volume/tone control arrangement. Usually where a set has a combined volume/tone switch the inner knob controls the off/on and volume whereas this set the inner knob is off/on and tone and the outer knob does the volume. Both volume and tone pots are 500K so I've been wondering if whoever fitted the replacement dual pot in it got the wiring the wrong way round ....

Howard
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Old 10th Dec 2008, 4:42 pm   #13
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Post Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

The radio was lucky when you happened by tyhe stand Howard, well done on restoring it The Regentones sometimes have the on/off tone control as well. The speaker looks like a Parmeko, though I don't know just who they where. Super well made radio.

Geof
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Old 10th Dec 2008, 9:06 pm   #14
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

Volume/tone controls.

Howard from my memory the controls are correct.

At the time, I think some designers thought that the ON/OFF switch should be incorporated with the tone control. The volume control could then be left at a comfortable setting so would not have to move every time the set was switched on. This would hopefully reduce wear on the track. Presumably there was the assumption that a noisy tone control pot was not so serious a problem.

Another factor with this set is that not adjusting the outer knob very often would reduce the wear on the plastic "ears" . Though in my case it still succumbed.

Incidentally although not Hi Fi it was still acceptable on the Gram input
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Old 12th Dec 2008, 3:28 pm   #15
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Default Re: 1955 Cossor 524 Melody Maker MW/LW/SW/VHF 6 valve table radio

I guess we all have different ideas about what we consider attractive, but to my eyes, that is a very lovely thing and I shall be keeping a look out for one since it's the first set in a long while that I've looked at in a picture and though "Must get me one of those!"

Keep up the good work Howard.
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