Marconiphone T56A

[JoshWard]

I acquired this attractive Marconi set back in October from the collection of the late Lucien Nunes. Many thanks to Stuart and Steve for passing these items on to new homes. I had already acquired its sister, the HMV 1131, from the same source in August. Hopefully the HMV isn’t too jealous that the Marconi jumped the queue! I was sorting out the ‘to do’ pile and happened across it. Thinking it was a really nice looking set I couldn’t resist taking a closer look!

This model was launched in February 1957 and was presumably one of the last EMI models before the takeover by Thorn. Shortly afterwards, the same PCB based circuit appeared in a number of HMV/Marconi/Ferguson products.

After removing the back cover I was greeted with a thick blanket of nice fluffy dust- a positive sign that the set had stayed dry. A quick look around revealed that the ECC85 and ECH81 valves had previously been replaced with Pinnacle branded ones. The EABC80 was a Mullard branded one so I suspect that isn’t original either as all the others are badged Marconi. I must admit I was a bit disappointed when I saw the small size of the loudspeaker. Combined with a bakelite cabinet, I wasn’t expecting it to sound particularly great. Removing the chassis was a bit of a pain- there are two semi-circular metal cutouts in the base which pass over semi-circular sections of bakelite which are used for the tuning dial retaining screws. The clearance between the chassis and these bits of bakelite was very tight!
It all looked nice and clean with no signs of previous bodging so power was applied. I was rewarded with lots of noise but not much else. The controls were very noisy and after some twiddling and cleaning of the wavechange switch I was able to receive some quiet and distorted stations on AM.

The next stage was of course to set about replacing the wax paper capacitors- there are only a couple in this set. Whilst I was working my way through I checked resistors that were in the vicinity and found quite a few which had gone high in value, including one which had trebled! With these replaced things were a lot more lively, but still distorted. Time to investigate the smoothing can! Sure enough, the end of the can had a slight bulge to it. Replacing it improved things enormously. It was a bit of an awkward chassis to work on- quite cramped in places and the EL84 and EZ80 being on a raised plinth meant access to the components around those was a little fiddly.

With AM working well, attention was turned to VHF. Normally the first point of call is to substitute another tuner valve, in this case the ECC85. I found a known-working (and checked on my AVO tester) one amongst my spare valves and popped it in- no luck. I have had issues with other valves causing a lack of VHF so I worked my way through swapping them- again no luck. Sadly, it looked like it wasn’t going to be simple and I have a fear of delving into VHF tuner units. I bit the bullet and made enough access to take some voltage readings on the ECC85. They weren’t right and pointed me back towards the valve! I eyed up the Telefunken Concerto on the workshop floor (repaired, awaiting a cabinet clean up) and pinched the ECC85 out of that. Sure enough with power applied VHF came through loud and clear! So it seems the NOS valve which I had previously used for testing in other sets has given up the ghost. A quick rummage in my bag of valves waiting to be tested revealed another ECC85 which was fitted and found to be working, I returned the other one back to the Telefunken and assured it one day I will get round to cleaning it up, it’s only been waiting since last summer!

With the set fully operational attention was turned to the cabinet. Although in good condition the maroon bakelite was very dirty and there were some very stubborn splashes of white paint, presumably oil based. After what felt like an eternity of applying T-Cut it eventually cleaned up nicely. The knobs were encrusted with grime, some all-purpose cleaner soon sorted that out. The brass had tarnished but cleaned up well with some fine grade wire wool and T-Cut. This was followed by a fresh coat of lacquer.

The last job was to clean up the nice MK mains plug and replace the 10A fuse with something more appropriate!

I am very pleased with how this one has come out. The maroon case and brightly coloured dial make for a very attractive set. Now it is working properly the sound is surprisingly good, much better than I was expecting from the size of the loudspeaker. It would be interesting to try it with a larger one. Now where did I put that HMV?

[Kentode]

Nicely done, Josh. Is it maroon to match the knobs?

[Gabe001]

What a lovely set, and what a good job you've done there.

Great work!

Weren't there any black Hunts capacitors in the set? The Marconi and HMV sets of the same era I worked on previously were full of them.

Gabriel

[bobbyball]

Nice job, it's certainly an attractive looking radio and good to have FM.

[JoshWard]

Thanks all.

Ken- Yes, it is maroon.
Gabriel- Surprisingly, there weren't any. Most of the caps were good quality types, presumably ceramic. There were only two wax paper ones.

[music-centre]

Good looking set, don't think I've seen one of those before, good to see its transformer based/"E" series valves rather than the hot mains dropper that you usually see in this size Bakelite sets of the period.
Steve.

[slidertogrid]

What a lovely set Josh ! And as usual an excellent interesting write up! I had a similar set with the same style knobs but made in clear plastic so they lit up when the set was on. As you say one of the last of the quality sets before the floppy greasy PCB model!
Rich.

[JoshWard]

Thanks both. Yes, it's nice to see a mains transformer in a set of this era!

I know the set you mean Rich, I think it might even be the same basic cabinet. Here's mine- an HMV 1360. It's an early version with a barretter- an unusual sight in a 1950s set! It looks great when it's lit up.

The floppy PCB comment made me laugh- they do have a habit of sagging! I am quite fond of them though. A quick headcount has revealed six different variants here!