Electronic restoration of vintage West German made all band valve radio. This long video covers the details are restoring this vintage Grundig radio to working order.
That was a long sit but it brought back memory's to me from my tube radio disassemble day's when I was maybe 8 or 9 (that'' s around the 80). They where nice build the bigger sets and they did sound awesome. Now they have about 5 or 6 of them sitting there in a thrift shop for 35 euros. Even a 50's Philips for 35 but its a bit expansive shipping :P Still was fun to watch Shango, better then plenty of "quality" monies they make nowadays.
The finished product sounds AMAZING! I think the finished product was worth the effort. A really unique radio from a unique time period. Thanks for sharing with us.
Danka dude, haven't been called a hero since I retired from the Police Force in '93 but I did manage to get all the way through the video. It is nice in the way it shows how one problem can lead to the next, and the progression of such a situation even when dealing with the top of the line products from back in the day. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Grundig since 1972 when I was transfered from Fort Lewis Washington to Fort Bliss Texas, this but a couple of years after I returned from Vietnam. We were the Advanced Party for the 3rd Armored Cav who were moving to the Fort to engage in Desert Warfare training, because of the trouble in the Middle East, a situation that has changed very little except for the fact that the 3rd has been over to the trouble spots since the initial outbreak of the wars. At any rate, when we got down there, my self and my good wife, our first child in arms and the second comfortably resting in my good wife's womb, our furniture was somehow lost over the road somewhere, and we had a small apartment just off post with no furniture, just the bed rolls we carried along in the old '63 Ford Econoline van that I drove down in. A trip to the hock shop just off base, a common shop near all military bases, and I found an old Gurndig combo radio/reel to reel tape machine. I picked it up for a few bucks and it was our soul entertainment till our stuff arrived about a month later. Well I did find a cheap black and white TV for 20 bucks at the base thrift store. I have loved the Gurndig machines since then and still have one little pocket model AM/FM/SW radio, made in, of course, China as nearly everything is now days, however when I pulled the back off her to take a look, I found that the quality was still present, and the build was WAY better then most of the shit coming out of China now days. Apparently the Chinese can build good stuff if you put a German in charge of the shop.
Hi When I was a boy I started in electronics with this radios in Germany. This radios were everywhere on flee markets on the street, from friends. The magic eye tubes are expensive today even if you buy a used one you can just see during daylight. Grundig developed 3D sound, they figured out in a music hall in the concert you will get the treble and the bass from the front and only the treble is reflected from the walls right and left. The front speaker has treble and bass loudspeaker and the sides speakers are treble speakers. 3D sound. The bass is absorbed from the building or structure, this is also the reason why you hear the loud bass bumming in cars passing you with loud music. The last Grundig I repaired with the help of a friend had a broken rectifier and we put a silicon bridge rectifier with a serial resistor to drop the higher voltage. When the radio works it has a beautiful sound. It performs well in sound quality and was popular in the higher quality market e. g. to listen to classic music. Nobody would repair a tuner it was changed (spare part). On shortwave we listened to 49m Europaband. Most popular sw band in Europe. 73
Lovely old radio with great sound and built with typical (West) German quality. Watched beginning to end and understood 50%, but worth it to see just how much patience you have!
I appreciate all your work that you have gone over on the TV's and Radios's that diagnose i have learned quite a bit with your repairs please keep up the GREAT work
I admire your perseverance. I've got several good working Dutch and German radios from the 50's and 60's. They sound great and there are still lots of them around here in The Netherlands.
I am primarily a master of clock and make a living repairing such; but love working on radios too just for the challenge. I am learning and have a leg up on AA5 sets and transitor sets pretty good so far. But when I watch your stuff I feel like I am being taught piano by Mozart himself. I'm soaking it in. The European sets are my favorites and I have several waiting until I have learned enough to actually 'do no harm' thank you for the stellar level of knowledge and McGivering that will make me a better tech.
Excellent video, well worth 1 hr., 45 min. Run time. Definitely learned some good trouble shooting procedures, and learned to steer clear of push button band switches. Rotary band switches are much better, but you solved all the problems. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
I took the plunge and bought a Grundig 3028 this week. $25 from Goodwill, pretty nice condition, and it works, mostly. Both tuners work, AM and FM work, the antenna rotate doesn't work. Doesn't sound right, a bit crackly, so a bunch of small parts will get changed out. This video was great for me. Thanks.
I've now made it to the end at least two times, on 2 different accounts & it's been great to review this again with a few more years of experience and knowledge behind me. Your patience is admirable & well rewarded by the end result. I seem to recall issues with the electrostatic tweet as well though, or maybe that was a different unit. 73 Dan in UK
I got through it all and I am thoroughly impressed. I fix radios for me but you fix some stuff I would never touch. That said I hear KNX here in Tennessee on ocassion. To get it though, I use a 366 foot antenna in my back yard. Old Grundig radios are very nice units.
I too have a valve radio which was assembled by my father . now when i took and repaired it and listened to the Radio .i thought to my self how much patience they had to change station to station to hear the selected program.I dont mind people calling me crazy .I was really happy to hear the old sound of the valve Radio. Thanks for posting such video.
Excellent video Shango, thanks for sticking at it, a real insight. I had a slightly later version of this set and it was pcb mounted, I'd say for me it was the most complicated set I had come across. Seemed strange after hearing you talk about American tube numbers in so many videos, going over to the European numbers that I've been used to here in the U.K.
No..... Your my hero! Supper quality sleuthing and troubleshooting, worth all @104 minutes. And throw in the lady with the smoking problem, really bizzarre. Thanks!!!!
You are the McGyver of radio, and a man of patience as well. I watched the whole thing, and it was great---lots of troubleshooting, which is what I find interesting.
Extremely well done Sir !! I have a very similar Grundig console set using a similar chassis that developed carbon tracking on the FM switch bank sorting the HT to earth when FM was selected.. thankfully because of the way the switch bank works with the protruding sliders at the back of the switch bank.. with the help of a friend we managed to use a micro switch that is actuated when the FM switches are selected, my one which you can see in my videos has the added complication of push pull amp, 6 speakers and twin FM bands... although these sets especially the console versions sound incredible once up and running the down side is they are just so "fragile" in their construction... very well done bringing it back from the dead!!
Thank you for this tutorial . I have change the 10k and repair the the selector switch like you have explained. Now my radio work good. Quebec city Mario best regard
I had a short break and couldn't resist to watch the full video today. Excellent idea with the voltage doubler. Pity that the old TX was fried on the 6.3 Volts winding. I love that radio parts store you have there in L.A. Put 2 x 3 Amps 1N5408 diodes in anti parrallel in series with the 6.3 Volts TX output.
A marathon of a repair. Great Video. Perhaps I shouldn't have started to watch it just before midnight. I had to watch it all... I think it's bed time now!
Great work! You had wonderful perseverance to get all those problems sorted. They are called valves because the grids regulate the flow of electrons from the cathode to the plate. Keep up the good videos. Cheers.
I inherited one recently and am looking forward to restoring it. It is very dusty on the inside, I look forward to coming back to this video once I'm ready to repair :)
I send you a medal as a tribute to persistence and perseverance to that poor thing. You make it shine again as since its saved from the landfill you are a Resource Recovery and Conservation Act hero.
I watched the whole video and enjoyed it a lot. I admire your perseverance, you don't seem to just throw in the towel and give up like many would when faced with all the complex and time consuming issues like what this radio gave you. Thanks for explaining the bucking transformer too, I've run across the term before, but your explanation cleared up what it is. Yikes to the hole in the neck lady.....
I'm late to the party but this helped me a buck with one of the slide switches (the FM band one that also triggers the clutch mechanism). AM (BC) worked but no love on the FM unless I held it down which told me that it was not making contact due to a number or potential problems. I wouldn't be as far along without this video. Thank you big time.
Fantastic video! You sure have patience! I worked on a '58 Majestic years ago for a friend and although it's a nice radio, it's a pain. A much simpler fix, a new filter cap and rectifier.
I watched this in several parts over two days. Outstanding trouble shooting well beyond what most could handle. You're a master at this! A forensic electronic scientist would be a more apt description of your work! I watched a lot of your videos, it's like solving some crime drama mystery...with the crime being aged, worn parts and (in some cases) poor manufacturing practices. In this case, you restored a former masterpiece back to glory. Well done...
Enjoyed,this video where I come from these type of radios are really common,so I enjoyed seeing you digging in it your way,liked the vibrating grille cloth at the end,these radios outputs amazing sound..
New to the channel from good old England, former radio tv engineer trained in the mid 80's did lots with hybread tv , really enjoyed the complete video , can't believe how quite the background is over in the states , hear so many people installing poor quality inverters to there solar unless you are really selective just get a bunch of background noise, my neighbour recently had installed a new system to complement his existing solar panels and boy the noise is unbelievable, I did think about complaining to the broadcast department hear but hoping to move soon so decided to not bother . Great content keep it up
Well done, what a challenge. Many European radio's can be complex but do tend to sound very good even for normal domestic use. I think I would have got the magic eye working even with a different type. Quite easy to modify. I just love that green monster eye looking back at you in a darkened room. As a kid many years ago I remember my bedroom lit in green late at night.
Hey Shango, nice video. I enjoyed it thoroughly. About a year and a half ago I restored a Grundig Zauberklang 4090 and aside from the fact I recognized a lot of common parts in these types of radios, it also struck me you found exactly the same problems, or nearly so, I ran into when repairing the Zauberklang. In fact, it was so uncanny, that I started wondering if the two radios were produced in the same factory with the same parts. The only problem you didn't encounter, but I did, was a shorted output transformer. But all the other problems: the sparking and burning switches, the smoking resistors, the shorted output tube(s) (the Zauberklang has two since it's push-pull), the shorted power transformer. Yes, even the 'dumb' FM stage I encountered as well. Needless to say, I had to grin when you were summing up one by one the exact same problems I had encountered. The one thing you did, but I never dared to do myself, was to disassemble the switches. If you read about it on German forums, most people strongly advise AGAINST disassembling those, because they are devilishly difficult to reassemble. Not to mention the fact how fragile the coil assemblies are on top of the switches. Hat off for daring the feat AND managing to reassemble the switches :) There is one more weak point in these Grundigs, and that's the power switch. It tends to fail or simply break apart. Anyway, like you, I replaced power (and output) transformer and rectifier bridge as well as the filter capacitors, a number of tubes (or valves as they are called) and capacitors and resistors. Watching you struggle with the exact same problems, AND solving them like I did with the Zauberklang, restored my faith in my own capacities for restoring these machines. The Grundig had really tested my patience and confidence. Thanks a lot for sharing the video and tripple hurrah for this feat :)
Ha, that's so strange, I have here a Grundig 2025 "Hi-Fi Zauberklang" with many of the same issues although the transformer has already been replaced, badly, with a 250-0-250 and full wave rectifier. The big problem for me though, at the end when it died and was just humming faintly, then it was suddenly working again... Well, mine is currently at that stage and Shango kept the fix a secret! haha well, maybe i ought to throw it on it's side and hit it a few times & either magic sound or magic smoke will ensue.
I have to say, I'm impressed with Grundig's quality. Even the later (1979) RPC350 music centre I'm restoring is a cut above other music centres. Hell of all the caps I've tested all but 2 of the original Frako and Unicon items have tested better than some new ones!
And Herr Grundig must have had a "thing" for elaborate tuning/cord arrangements since on the RPC350 firstly it has 7 UKW presets (touch activated no less) and the dial cord itself is actually a pair of wires taking power to the lamp that moves with the dial cursor!
Yes, I watched the whole thing. Though not in one sitting. It is you who must be congratulated. You have tenacity. I understood much of what you did but taking the time to perform the job much less making a video along with your excellent commentary is something really special. Thanks I enjoyed watching.
Amazing job ! I repaired a lot of Grundig radios and other German sets but none exhibited as many problems as this one. Anyway on one set problem was an IF base which was carbonating (fireworks !).
A very experienced tube radio repairman I once knew was asked to repair an early, post war Siemens radio like that but smaller. It had no capacitors in it, only wires wrapped around wires, and many of those. He found that if you even bent one of those wrapped wires it changed things. It was the only radio he ever gave up on and he had worked on thousands of them. It is what he did for a living for most of his life.
Thank You for sharing this knowledge. Great job shango! I always throw the electrolytics bypass at el84 and the one at the EABC 80 out. The sound and stability at FM is much better then. If I had seen the video earlier, I would have sent you a transformer for free from Germany. The most German transformers are prepared for 117 and 120 Volt line voltage.
My grandfather had a large Grundig Majestic that played beautifully. It quit working in the 80s he took it to a repair shop in LA. He didn't here anything from them. No one answered the phone, he drove to the shop it was completely empty. No message on the front door. No nothing. Guess they stole all the customers stuff and fled in the night. He was quite upset. Rightfully so.
That's messed up! A knife sharpening service stole a few pair of antique German barber scissors from my mom. Swapped for very very close but cheaper pairs made in USA. She was pissed. They denied it.
Many time viewer, first time commenting, as one of your younger viewers at 17, your videos are of the most comprehensive and entertaining electronics repair of the internet. My prized possessions are a ChromaColor II console, a Zenith S-58040 AM/FM radio, and Western Electric 554 wall telephone from 1960.
I like, how you don't gave up on that thing and came up with a creative solution for the transformer replacement. Sometimes you can get radios like this pretty cheap here in Germany, but I think it's the same with American tube radios in America. Thank you for the nice video und liebe Grüße aus Deutschland!
they were also sold in Germany under the name "Billy" I had one, my Uncle told me it was a early 50's, was a fantastic unit, thanks,, interesting video
Well I made it all the way through! Can't believe I watched the whole thing! Cool radio though, I have always had a soft spot for Grundig, even the little pocket traveler that I have that, sadly was made in China under the Grudig name. AM/FM/SW shirt pocket radio/clock/alarm/world time/temp display. Nice set, I picked up off Ebay, a puppy had chewed up the data plate on the back and the battery cover. I found those parts brand new on Ebay so now she looks like new, runs like new. I had an old Grundig Reel to Reel back in the early 1970's that worked very well. I was unable to ship all my reel to reel tapes home when I was transfered from overseas back stateside, so I never did have much music to play on here. One night I was on CQ duty at the company and got to talking to my runner, he said he would give me a hundred bucks for the old machine! Well I had only paid 20 for her at a hock shop so I sold it.
I sincerely have to admire your tenacity in getting this to work! Given the overall state of the radio and I have to admit, it was SOOOO grimy on the inside !! My Siemens radio was pristine despite the various faults! Also I think the build quality was far superior to the Grundig, the tuner assembly was far superior and NOT switch carbon tracking et. 👀 Overall the sound quality (mine had two powered tweeters, 3 mid range and bass units. ) is awesome. You will find it hard to beat the warmth that a valve radio amp et gives, Solid TEAK cabinet makes it a real beast. 😶True to say the instructions / circuit was in German including wire colour coding and et but once you got used to deciphering that, it was fine. Voltage readings were taken on my Avo 20,000ohms per volt. Well done sir.. stay safe! 👍
Wow! I saw a bunch of these types and many other of that grade and era when in Amman Jordan at a radio shop near my hotel. Many of these high grade sets were likely from well to do families, the various embassies and of course during the occupation, many were imported or brought with military families.
I picked up a newer Grundig radio a few years back, it is a G8 traveler radio. Says designed in the USA assembled in China. It is a great little AM/FM/SW hand held radio with digital readout, built in clock/alarm clock and displays local temperature as part of the display, she takes 3 AA batteries and works better then any other little transistor radios I have ever had.
I’m from post-com part of Europe and we have lot of radios like this here. Generaly worthless, nobody interrested, and if so for like 5-10 euro a piece. Need to praise you for going trought hard restoration like this, I can’t imagine someone here doing that. Also never known that PT tend to go bad on those, never had one with bad, but maybe I was just lucky. Cheers. I like how you enjoy what you do.
This video is just great. Watched it twice. Our "german" radios may not be the best servicable, but its worth it. They sound amazing. Thanks for the video shangoo, or whatever your real name is.
i bought an early 90s top of the range sony walkman from russia one day and it was packaged the same way. on a parts unit! i had to put 5 stars on everything. nice video man by the way, i'm starting to see fewer of those german radios every day. thank goodness i got a nice working blaupunkt when i could
great video, I learned my lesson years ago with Grundig. congratulations getting it to work,when it works it works well but when it goes wrong they are pain in arse.
Congrats on this video. Welcome to European radios. Compared to American radios, these are a headache. I have restored a resemblance, and it was an authentic epic, He's been a few times to fly out the window ... but compared to the philips .... When the power transformer is burnt, I usually rewind them myself because it is very difficult to find substitutes. This is also true for out transformer. I'd like to order the site where you ordered the valves. I saw it was in romania. Here in Portugal it is difficult to find and when they are expensive. Once again I congratulate you on the video and if you have doubts on these European radios, do not hesitate to ask me the questions. Your Subscriber Sincerely Eduardo Pereira
