Ambassador Viscount 3. Value?

[emmypea]

Hi - I'm new and don't know anything about vintage radios. I've just been having a look around the forum and have learnt so much already!

My dad is a bit of a hoarder and has now developed Parkinsons, so I've been trying to help sort out some of his stuff.

I came across an Ambassador Viscount III in one of his sheds.

It looks lovely and I'd like to take it and use it as an ornamental item, but only if it has no value. If it is worth anything, I'd like to sell it for him.

Do any of you know anything about their value?

If it's worth any less than £20, I'll keep it!

[paulsherwin]

It's an above average mid 50s woodie with SW bandspreads and push pull output, but not worth a great deal unless in absolutely pristine condition. Radios of this type typically sell for £10-£20 if they sell at all, though you never know and sometimes they fetch more.

Don't plug it in without arranging some electrical restoration first.

[HamishBoxer]

Agreed, worth a restoration.

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Emmy, it should be easy to fix and would make an interesting set to listen to as well.
There are quite a few people in the area who should be able to fix it for you.

Ed

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

It's an above average mid 50s woodie with SW bandspreads and push pull output,

Actually it's not so far above average as it looks: the Radiomuseum entry has it wrong and the valve complement listed there is a fiction. The original Ambassador Viscount was quite highly specified for a domestic model. I bought a Viscount III some years ago, and was doubly disappointed: the poor thing arrived with a damaged cabinet and that very impressive tuning dial in several hundred pieces, but it was also only then that drastic cost-cutting was apparent. The III, like many Pye offerings, is a fairly basic radio for all the SW bandspreading, and has neither push-pull output nor an RF stage. Still worth preserving or restoring, of course.

Paul

[PJL]

The radiomuseum image looks similar to a chassis I passed on to someone in this forum. If my memory is correct, it was PP UL41 and had a mains transformer with a secondary for driving the heater chain.

I would agree it is of no great value so OK as an ornament. Lack of FM/VHF means you won't be able to receive much even if you did restore it although it is possible to add a bluetooth adaptor to use it as an amplifier/speaker.

[paulsherwin]

I wonder why the Radiomuseum info is incorrect?

If it's just a 4 valve superhet then £5-£10 is a more realistic estimate of value.

[Paul_RK]

I offered the remains of the broken set FOC here last year: didn't get any takers - mistakenly I listed it as a Viscount II - but it's still in our County Durham garage if anyone's interested. Here's the chassis photo I used then. It's a fairly basic superhet at heart (no, the chassis hasn't been stripped of anything, the parts you don't see were never there!)

[Synchrodyne]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

Actually it's not so far above average as it looks: the Radiomuseum entry has it wrong and the valve complement listed there is a fiction. The original Ambassador Viscount was quite highly specified for a domestic model. I bought a Viscount III some years ago, and was doubly disappointed: the poor thing arrived with a damaged cabinet and that very impressive tuning dial in several hundred pieces, but it was also only then that drastic cost-cutting was apparent. The III, like many Pye offerings, is a fairly basic radio for all the SW bandspreading, and has neither push-pull output nor an RF stage. Still worth preserving or restoring, of course.

Was the Viscount III developed after Ambassador Radio had been sold to one of the never-mind-the quality-feel-the-width organizations, which I think happened c.1954?

It was presaged in this Wireless World 1954 April advertisement, which whilst referring mostly to the Viscount 2, also included the comment “Shortly in production – a 5 valve version of the VISCOUNT for those who desire a lower priced receiver but the same H.F. performance. Watch out for the VISCOUNT 3.”



At least from its general description, the original Viscount appears to have been comparable to other top-end export sets of the early 1950s such as the Murphy TA160, Pye PE80 and Ekco A182, even though Ambassador was, I think, a relatively small company. It undertook the design and production of the BBC VHF-AM/FM comparator receiver, and its paper on that conveyed the sense that it knew what it was doing (at least as seen from a non-professional perspective.)


Cheers,

[Paul_RK]

I'd forgotten about the takeover, but a post you made includes the evidence from February 1955:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...15&postcount=3

The Ambassador name vanished from the market more or less immediately - I think there may only ever have been one domestic model with FM. Perhaps the factory was turned over to producing Baird-badged items until the introduction after a little while of the Stereosound brand: not just for stereo equipment, I've an example here of their Carousel transistor portable.

[Paul_RK]

Going back to the original file of my chassis photo, it looks as though the Viscount III - this one at least - employs an ECC82, followed by what I can only think is an EL84 with an EZ80 in the foreground.

Paul

[Heatercathodeshort]

Maybe some Plessey influence. J.