Victor RE-45 ... performance, fair market value ?

[De Soto Frank]

Today I discovered a Victor Radio Electrola 45 in a local antique shop.

It is unmolested, down to the tatty original silk-wrapped power cords.

Finish is decent, with some scrapes and light dents that would minimize with a good cleaning and waxing. This done, it would be presentable enough to go in anyone's living room.

All hardware is present and intact.

Grille cloth very good, slighty dingy, but no holes, pulls or tears.

It has the early horseshoe pick-up on the simple straight-arm.

Has sliding "micro-synchronous" tuner.

Type 245 power & audio amp.

The electronics of this beast are impressive in their size and build, receiver on an upper shelf, with everything except the tube-tops covered by a formed sheet-metal pan, and the Power Supply & Audio Amp on the bottom shelf.

Has an electrodynamic speaker with a huge field unit, cone looks to be intact.

Let's assume that the only part of this machine that might work is the turn-table.


How does this machine rate among 1930's radio-phonos / Orthophonic machines in terms of performance?

Suggestions as to fair market value as described ? (Shop will not allow pictures.)

[52089]

You'll have a hard time searching for RE-45 on the board, but Google can do it for you:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=c ... fo%20re-45

You should find some good reading in there!

[marcapra]

I used to own an RE-45 and they are good performers with push-pull 45 output tubes. They were popular radio-phonos in 1929, so they are fairly common as Victor made over 107,000 of them. As you know they are very heavy. They are not worth as much as some of the earlier Victrola radio/phonos, such as the 9-54. The main thing to check is the transformer. If it's shot, it will be probably too expensive to restore. If it's not working and you don't know if the transformer is good, I'd say it's worth $50. The antique shop may not agree with me though. They just look at it as an antique piece of furniture.

[HisMastersVoice]

I paid $300 for mine in working condition, sans the pickup needing to be rebuilt. I love mine, it sounds fantastic!

[Oceangoer1]

If it is a fair price, BUY IT! It sounds like a rather nice looking machine. From what I read, I would think $200-$300 would be a fair price BUT cheaper would always be better, because you may put a good amount of money into restoring it. Also, I can't imagine any antique store letting it go for less than $200. I don't have much luck convincing someone to lower the price because of the cost of restoration!

I bought an RE-45 this past summer for $150 and everything worked, but all the electronics are getting a full tear down and rebuild to ensure safety and top performance. The finish is also a wreck. Expect to pay around $400 to $450 if you plan to send off the electronics for a rebuild. The magnetic pickup MUST be rebuilt, and that's around $75. Also, it would be wise to replace the straight tonearm with a later RCA Victor winged/cobra tonearm (it offers a counterweight system which is lighter on records and gives better sound). This is not necessary, but I've heard good things about this method, and I'm doing it with mine. I read something about the earlier microsynchronous system (on the RE-45 and RE-75), especially when paired with the "cobra" inertia tonearm, and how it has slightly better sound than later sets.

I think an early electric machine (with the horseshoe magnetic pickup) is a must for any collection, as it offers a comparison to acoustic reproduction. It's really amazing to hear what kind of sound was available as early as 1929 (and earlier!) because these sets sound really good when restored. Also, the RE-45 was one of the last true "Victor" products to be made before they were officially merged with RCA.

-Connor

[Lenoirstreetguy]

If properly restored they sound really fine: they were superior to most radio-phonos of the 1929-31 period. The interesting thing is that they were a real Victor product..the RE-45 had been developed just before the RCA take over of The Victor Talking Machine Company. The tuner is more or less unique to the set. It was quite unlike anything else on the market, and I'm tempted to say "before or since." The circuit is what's known as a TRF...tuned radio frequency...and the unusual configuration of the tuning condensers make it quite selective. This meant that Victor didn't have to pay license fees to RCA for the use of their superheterodyne patents. Of course this all became moot when RCA bought Victor, but there you go.

Jim

[De Soto Frank]

Thanks to all who responded to my questions on this machine.

I went back to the antique shop today with my "100 watt bulb-in-series line-cord" tester, and asked if I could go over the machine and power it up using my test cord, explaining that running the power through the 100 w bulb would limit the amount of power going to the machine, and that if there were any shorted components in the power supply, it would not be getting enough voltage / current to hurt itself.

If the bulb glows dim, no shorts. If the bulb glows at full brightness, there's a short somewhere.


The clerk allowed me to proceed.

After checking the original power cords for any obvious loss of insulation / bad touching, I went ahead and connected my series tester, and plugged it into a 15 amp power strip.

The bulb slowly glowed dimly, and the dial light came up dim.

I let it sit on low power for about a minute, then removed the series bulb and plugged it into the full 120 v line current.

Tubes and dial lamps came-up to full brightness, plates in the #80 rectifier tube did NOT turn red, so I figured at least the power supply was in decent shape.

I could hear a faint power supply hum through the loudspeaker, so I tried tuning across the AM band for signal and alternately dragging my finger across the needle-chuck of the pick-up, looking for some kind of response.

Aside from some stray crackles, I did not hear any radio signal or life from the phono pick-up.

The shaft for the volume control rheostat also seems to be frozen.

I tried the electric turntable, and after some prodding, it began to run... needs to be de-gummed.


With all that knowledge, I unplugged everything, found the clerk, and made an offer. Being a co-op situation, he had to phone the consigner.


With all said and done, I am now the proud owner of a pretty decent Victor RE-45.


The cabinet is tight with respect to joints and veneer, and should clean-up very nicely.


Will go back to pick it up probably this weekend.

[barnettrp21122]

I'm glad the story had a happy ending!
You're lucky to know enough about electronics to be able to test it in the shop, along with having a cooperative clerk letting you do it.
Good luck with your restoration!
Bob

[CharliePhono]

Here is a .gif of the underside of the chassis showing the unique configuration of the tuning condensors.

[Oceangoer1]

Awesome! Would love to see some pictures once you pick it up!

-Connor