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Old 2nd Aug 2020, 8:40 pm   #1
MurphyNut
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Default Murphy A28 console looking good!

This was kindly given to me by a friend many years ago, he had started collecting sets and then for whatever reason lost interest, I was very pleased to have the old Murphy to join the growing family.
Needless to say, it was in a sorry state with the usual dull looking cabinet and ripped speaker fabric. At the time I didn’t have much knowledge on the electrical side of things so was pleased it actually worked reasonably well.
I had however developed some skills with restoring woodwork. My house is full of 1930’s walnut furniture that I’d worked on so taking on the cabinet wasn’t too much of a challenge.
The cabinet came up lovely and there it sat in my little museum being used occasionally over the next twenty years until recently, when it developed a fault.
Annoyingly the signal kept fading out and back in again! So I decided to investigate. I was amazed to find hardly anything had been done to the set. All the original wax capacitors were still in place as with all the electrolytic in the main chassis.
The only evidence of work done was in the mains supply unit in the bottom of the cabinet, the two smoothing capacitors were changed a long time ago, they read spot on so I left them.
So all the wax caps were replaced, I removed all the valves and cleaned the pins, new mains lead and cleaned the wave change contacts. I’m always impressed with the design and construction of these Murphy sets, everything is so well thought out and impeccably well made, the set now performs brilliantly.

The 28 series from 1935 only consisted of two models the console and radiogram, both were well thought out in acoustic terms. The cabinets were designed to be shallow and lined with sound deadening material to help reduce that “boomy” coloration in the sound reproduction. It works, I can listen to the set all day with no fatigue.
I really like the tuning scale, the text is lit very evenly by 4 bulbs and under the cursor blocks there is a deep red glow, a very classy look!
“The icing on the cake” with this restoration was the speaker fabric, the fabric I used first time around was a compromise. But fairly recently I found a link on this forum to Corrien Maas.
She weaves speaker fabric and had actually reproduced the “diamond” style fabric used by Murphy in the mid 1930’s. I purchased some and used it on this set, it really gives the set that right look!
The fabric might seem expensive but when you think what’s involved I don’t think it is. I’ve asked her to make up some more as I know she doesn’t have much left in stock and I will certainly like to purchase more.
Pictures of the finished radio.
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Old 5th Aug 2020, 10:40 am   #2
music-centre
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Thats a lovely set and an excellent restoration job, I dont know how you got the re-finishing on the case to look that good, I have to leave them as they are or I just make them look worse!

I bet it does sound good, I like the Murphy sets from this time, I have an A30C but its nowhere near the quality of that one.
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Old 5th Aug 2020, 12:50 pm   #3
vinrads
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Wow Clive that looks stunning ,well done with the restoration, now on to the next one , Mick.
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Old 5th Aug 2020, 2:01 pm   #4
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Excellent work Sir. Very impressed. Well done.
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Old 6th Aug 2020, 12:19 pm   #5
dave walsh
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Another excellent restoration/renovation Clive. "Frank" would be amazed by your efforts. I've got one but it doesn't look anything like that

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Old 12th Aug 2020, 10:10 pm   #6
Phil G4SPZ
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Nice work, Clive, well done!

We have one of these sets in Gripton's workshop at the Black Country Living Museum, ably restored by my colleague Len from a worm-eaten, damp-damaged wreck to a handsome set. The inter-station muting and AFC both caused us some head-scratching, but we sorted it out in the end. A lovely sounding set too, the only remaining problem with ours is that two of the knobs are missing. You never see Murphy knobs amongst those big boxes through which we rummage at the NVCF!
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Old 13th Aug 2020, 7:55 am   #7
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

I grew up with one of these in the fifties. I wasn't tall enough to see the tuning scale, but we had a Columbia turntable... the one in the rounded ovoid shaped plinth that I could play 78s on. I knew the knob positions for gram, and I knew to replace needles. Thanks for stirring the memories!

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Old 13th Aug 2020, 8:10 am   #8
SeanStevens
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Excellent piece of furniture that sings! Murphy did some lovely cases and some weird ones too. I did the cases on some for Hermit6345 - A92 (not a looker) and an A72 (the one that had a plug in remote control).

The curved veneer is excellently done - it looks very deep when coated.

Did you use varnish?


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Old 13th Aug 2020, 9:43 am   #9
MurphyNut
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ View Post
Nice work, Clive, well done!

We have one of these sets in Gripton's workshop at the Black Country Living Museum, ably restored by my colleague Len from a worm-eaten, damp-damaged wreck to a handsome set. The inter-station muting and AFC both caused us some head-scratching, but we sorted it out in the end. A lovely sounding set too, the only remaining problem with ours is that two of the knobs are missing. You never see Murphy knobs amongst those big boxes through which we rummage at the NVCF!
We visited the Black Country Living Museum last year and really enjoyed it especially your radio shop. I have some spare Murphy knobs that are used on this set, PM me if you're interested and I can post them onto you.
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Old 17th Aug 2020, 6:59 pm   #10
FStephenMasek
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Default Re: Murphy A28 console looking good!

Very nice! Less bending and squinting for tall people with the dial on the top.
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