GEC FINELINE- EARLY 70s B&W SETS

[Colourstar]

Back in the mid-80s when most of the "reconditioned" telly shops (which smelled of fag smoke and hot valves) still stocked black & white sets, you would often see examples of the GEC/Sobell single standard hybrid 20 and 24 inch black and white sets. These looked more exotic than the usual Thorn 1500s etc and often featured white (or nicotine yellowed) wooden cases. The main controls were mounted along the top of the set along with the 4 pushbutton mechanical tuner. There was usually a bright aluminium strip on which was the script "GEC Fineline". There also were Sobell variants. The chassis was mounted vertically, but was about half the height of a BRC 1500. I've not seen one of these sets for years and I'm convinced they are all but extinct. Has anyone saved one? If so, how about uploading a photo. Any relevant servicing tales or childhood memories of these sets also welcome!

Cheers folks!
Steve

[Hybrid tellies]

Yes I remember these sets. Our company did not do GEC but I did several on the side, I found that unlike their dual standard predecessor they were reliable gave good results and apart from the double sided print they were reasonable to work on.
The only odd fault about this chassis was that they like to burn up the height vdr. I have never seen this fault on any of the other hybrid mono sets.
For performance,reliability and servicability I would put them nearly on par with the excellant ITT/KB VC200 chassis.

[Brian R Pateman]

Originally Posted by Hybrid tellies

Yes I remember these sets. Our company did not do GEC but I did several on the side, I found that unlike their dual standard predecessor they were reliable gave good results and apart from the double sided print they were reasonable to work on.
The only odd fault about this chassis was that they like to burn up the height vdr. I have never seen this fault on any of the other hybrid mono sets.
For performance,reliability and servicability I would put them nearly on par with the excellant ITT/KB VC200 chassis.

When I was in the trade on the South coast (mid to late 80's) I had a number of these in my rental fleet. The Fineline was indeed a reliable set and a good prospect if you had a reasonable clientele of elderly people who didn't want a colour television.

Regards,

[Tazman1966]

I recall as a lad, we had several of these sets in our junior school (Romilly Juniors, in Barry, South Wales). Each one was inside a tall metal cupboard and worked off of an indoor aerial and gave a really clear picture. Little did I realise that a few years later me and my mate Andy would rescue a couple from a skip, repair them (well actually only one of them, the other needed just a bit of "tweeking") and flog them for £25 each in the Barry Post freebie newspaper. Ah memories!

[Tim]

Oh those!!

Worked on a couple when I was a lad. Seemed to remember lack of picture height caused by PCL805 anode and screen resistors going high in value.
And the double sided print was a b****r if you didn't have a temp controlled iron or solder sucker!!
I did get them working though, and ran one in my bedroom for a while with a wire coathanger aerial.
Don't see many now.........

[slidertogrid]

I sold many of these secondhand,and they never gave much trouble even when they got old, I used to remove the little plastic "trimtool " knobs from the back and blank off the holes with grommets ,it stopped all the finger trouble ( usually blamed on the grandchildren!).
The ex rental outlet I bought my colour sets from had to take black and white sets as part of the contract ,they hadnt the room for them so they were piled up outside, i used to pay 25P a set for them if it hadnt rained, free if it had! most of the GECs worked first time, its true that the pensioners liked the GEC, the buttons being on the top you didnt have to bend down to change channel or turn the volume up! you couldnt make a pile of them in the workshop though unless you stacked them on their end!

[Colourstar]

Thanks to all for the response to my initial thread on these sets. I've read all the replies with great interest. A big thumbs-up must go to Marcus 3500 of this forum, as thanks to his donation of a GEC 2048, I now have an example in my collection! This set had apparently lain unused for many years, but after careful checking and gradual application of power, it works splendidly with only very minor tweaking needed- thanks Marcus! This particular model is a 2048 and one I've not seen before. The off/vol and bri/con controls are grouped concentrically on the front, just like the later GEC 19 and 23 inch dual standard sets. Alas one of the "inner" knobs is lost, but appears to be the same as the tuner buttons, so something will no doubt turn up. I like all my sets to be in clean condition, so a happy hour was spent with the trusty barely-damp sponge pad and nail brush. Result was a bowl of dirty brown water and very clean telly. Incidentally, picture performance is excellent, with very good contrast and black level, comparable with the Rank chassis of this 60s/70s. See attached pics of the revived set.

Steve.
Blimey it's hot, I need a

[marcus 3500]

Hi Steve,

So glad you got the gec 2048 up and running you have made my day looks fantastic!
After her 30 odd years sat waiting for the new owner to bring back to life and watch her again

Speak to you soon
Kind regards marcus......

[dazzlevision]

Hello Colourstar,

I have one of those small black knobs with "chrome" cap.

If you send me your name and full postal address in a PM, I'll post it to you - no charge.

I used to unpack, set up and install these sets. They worked pretty well and were fairly reliable (for that era). There were three versions produced - Series 1, 2 & 3. The final version was varicap tuned, so didn't suffer the poor pushbuton tuner reset accuracy that the mechanical versions did. The frame and line timebase/output stages were virtually identical to the dual standard predecessors - going right back to 1963. If something works well, why change it?

Regards,

Dazzlevision