There was an earlier thread that asked everyone to list their tube gear. I thought it would be interesting to know of the tube gear you own, if you had been under the hood of it and if so, what did you do? For me it would be all Fishers:

500-B (I used the upgrade kit offered by Metalbone). It works like new and sounds incredible. The upgrade was pretty easy and enjoyable. However, it won't be completely done until I find a dial glass for it.

500-S Using the kit gave me a bit of confidence, so I am in the middle of recapping this one. I have swapped out all of the non-ceramic coupling caps with Orange Drops, as well as the electrolytics in the signal path. I just finished the two 100uf electrolytics in the power supply, but I am waiting for my variac to arrive before I power it up. So far, I have found this pretty easy to work on. I just hope my bringing the power supply back to the original circuitry from the schematic works. There was a 20uf capacitor connecting the two 100ufs in the power supply (this was not in the schematic or in the photofacts pictures and I couldn't figure out why someone put it there.)

TA-600 I just purchased this off of e-bay. I paid a fair price for it, as it doesn't have any tubes but two EMF-84s (and I don't know if they work), but the chassis is in very good shape with only minor staining/pitting/rust on it and the face. This looks like it is going to be a real challenge to work on as many of the caps are in tight spots.

I will most likely be selling the 500-S and possibly the TA-600 when I am done working on them. I just really enjoy the process of upgrading them and find getting these things to work the way they should a blast. I just hope some people on e-bay like my work.

Magnavox amps: one has mostly new caps, and all out of tolerance resistors replaced. Other has original caps yet, but all resistors that were out of spec changed.

Philco 39-116, every paper and electrolytic cap replaced. Every piece of wire in the set replaced (rotten rubber wire). Lamp sockets overhauled, full RF and IF alignment, new dial strings, replaced the spring on the mystery control selector mechanism, repaired a detached spring on the stepper solenoid for the controller.

Schaub-Lorenz Goldy 250, new bridge rectifier. Still needs a proper alignment as the AM dial isn't quite right. Unfortunately the alignment info is in German, and no sprechen.

Norelco: 2 new resistors, full IF and RF alignment. Experimented with removing the cathode follower tube and installing an output transformer to eliminate the 800 ohm speakers with poor results. Seems to do better just leaving the cathode follower and wiring an OPT across the 800 ohm speaker leads. The larger speaker is bad and I've been unable to locate a proper replacement so it will most likely get an 8 ohm speaker and an OPT.

Magnavox amps: one has mostly new caps, and all out of tolerance resistors replaced. Other has original caps yet, but all resistors that were out of spec changed.

Philco 39-116, every paper and electrolytic cap replaced. Every piece of wire in the set replaced (rotten rubber wire). Lamp sockets overhauled, full RF and IF alignment, new dial strings, replaced the spring on the mystery control selector mechanism, repaired a detached spring on the stepper solenoid for the controller.

Schaub-Lorenz Goldy 250, new bridge rectifier. Still needs a proper alignment as the AM dial isn't quite right. Unfortunately the alignment info is in German, and no sprechen.

Norelco: 2 new resistors, full IF and RF alignment. Experimented with removing the cathode follower tube and installing an output transformer to eliminate the 800 ohm speakers with poor results. Seems to do better just leaving the cathode follower and wiring an OPT across the 800 ohm speaker leads. The larger speaker is bad and I've been unable to locate a proper replacement so it will most likely get an 8 ohm speaker and an OPT.

From what I have read in forums like this, alignment seems like a dark art of some kind. Was it hard to learn?

not really. Most manuals have alignment directions that are fairly easy to follow. AM is really simple, just hook up the signal generator as indicated and peak the cans in the order specified to get the highest reading on a voltmeter across the speaker leads. I've never done FM with the sweep gen and an O-scope to get the perfect IF response, but I've done it with a regular signal generator and a voltmeter. It comes out well enough for my needs. Stereo isn't something I've fooled with much, so I can't speak on that front.

I've never tuned up the Goldy just because I can't read the directions to know what to adjust. I might just have to wing it and see what I can get. I should be able to get enough out of the directions to get the frequencies and the tuning slug numbers and locations. All AM sets adjust basically the same anyway, its just the IF freqency and the location of the specific adjusters that varies from radio to radio.

so far i have replaced the selenium stack in my st70 with a diode and modified my PAS to take two phono inputs. oh yeah, i replaced the PAS power transformer with a new one to get it working.