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pilot c-1090 console is in the house!

madwing

madwing

AK Subscriber
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:banana:

so, i finally picked up and brought home (with the help of the owners, who drove it 160 miles and helped me bring it in the house, god bless 'em, because it wouldn't fit in my car...even though it measured that it should!) the console they mistakenly advertised as an "s-190", which is in fact the model number of the companion speaker "for stereophonic sound" (see picture). i wrote about it in this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=145577&highlight=pilot+s-190 . it comes with the sa-232 amp, the fa-690 tuner/preamp, and a garrard 88/4 turntable, as advertised.

it *also* came with a pilot model 100 multiplexer unit :banana: and a "calrad sw-12 trinaural stereo speaker selector" (:banana:, i think).

i've pulled the tubes from the amp and have found the following:

*3x el84/6bq5, as follows: 3 sylvania "tested in usa/made in england" and "KAG a/c" (in orange) with "made in great britain along the bottom (in white); two have KM1/B6D4, and one KM1/B6E1, in dark grey stencil near the bottom
*1x el84/6bq5 marked "sonotone/made in west germany" and "787601/A" in white, and what looks like "kx2/≠8g" in faint grey stencil
*1x gz34/5ar4 labelled "mullard" over the shield, "made in great britain", and "122" (all in white), and "f31/B0J" in grey stencil :D
*1x 12AU7A, pretty grotty, tough to read, in grey stencil (12, then AU7, then A, stacked up)
*2x 12ax7, labelled "tele/fun/ken" and "made in western germany" in white.

is the sonotone tube a telefunken? or?

i haven't looked at the tube complement in the premap or the multiplexer. nor have i yet looked at the drivers. that's next.

edit: i just opened the aux speaker cab, and it has a jensen P15P "special design" driver...in blue! i had no idea this had a 15" speaker in it. is that a good jensen?
 

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The "≠" likely means it's a Siemens.

Is there a diamond on the bottom of the Sonotone (between the pins)?

Wow. Looks like you hit the jackpot. Congratulations!
 
If you need schematics, I have a partial scan of the Sams folder for the SA-232 amp (I think someone posted it here), and I have the Sams for the multiplex. I'll see if I have the tuner... maybe.
 
Plink said:
The "≠" likely means it's a Siemens.

Is there a diamond on the bottom of the Sonotone (between the pins)?

Wow. Looks like you hit the jackpot. Congratulations!
Click to expand...
no diamond on the sonotone, only on the little telefunken 12ax7's (one diamond has a "2" in it, the other a "20").

the sonotone has a "39", and the little unlabeled 12au7a has a "T" in the middle of the pins, and a "20" in the widest gap between the pins. Two of the sylvania 6bq5's have an "X" in the middle, and one has an "O".

thanks!

edit: i found this website, http://www.audiotubes.com/mullcode.htm that explained what i have. all the british tubes are mullard, from the blackburn plant. the 6bq5s were made in the last week of april or the first week of may, 1956. the sonotone must be a siemens, you were right plink. made in july of '58. the rectifier is a blackburn mullard, seemingly from october of 1960. very, very cool.
 
Tom Bavis said:
If you need schematics, I have a partial scan of the Sams folder for the SA-232 amp (I think someone posted it here), and I have the Sams for the multiplex. I'll see if I have the tuner... maybe.
Click to expand...
thanks, tom. i have the sa-232 schematic, am in the process of buying the fa-690 schematic, and would love to have that for the multiplexer. i am also probably going to splurge and buy the c-1090 schematic available from sam's (overkill, i know).
 
I have a Mullard GZ34 that's acid etched F31 B0J as well. It is a unlabeled OEM though that came out of a Eico ST40. Bonus!

Lar
 
Hey madwing, we talked during your last thread, I have the same unit except my pre/tuner is a little differant, don't know much about tubes, all the ones in the head unit are original, outputs in the 262 are new replacements, I have those Jensens in mine.

They vibrate your chest two rooms away!
Going to get someone to restore mine next month, Good luck it's a very nice piece and the sound is gloryous, Pilots where the best there was in the late 50's sorry MC guy's it's my 2 cts!
Craig
 
hey, craig. what's different about your pre/tuner?

you have the 264? or the 232?

i have yet to check the tubes in the preamp and the multiplexer. i've gone through my amp's tubes and am somewhat disappointed. all the power tubes are reading either low or 0 (3500/7500 mhos for the best pair, 0 and 1800 the other two); buuuuut, the 5ar4 is fine, as are the 12au7a and 12ax7's (about 1700/2200 for the former, and 1000/1250 for each triode on the latter).

i did score a quad of amperex el84's (stencilled "packard bell") that i am going to put in as soon as they come. a question to the assembled: the previous owner used this, and said it sounded ok with the original mullard/siemens quad in it, even though one of the mullards reads 0. is it safe to listen to it with the original quad in it until the packard bells come in?

the drivers in the main box, plus the smaller drivers in the companion, are all quam's...four of them, in addition to the p15p. looks like two 3 1/2", one 6" and one 8".

i am going to be redoing mine over the next couple of months. i'll be glad to trade notes! speaking of which, you don't have any documentation, do you? didn't you get yours from your grandfolk? maybe they passed something along? i'll be getting the c-1090 from sams, and will share when i get it.
 
Hey! sorry I have the 232 amp, got the #'s mixed up, my pre/tuner id the 690-A, I have four blk plastic switches below the knobs I think the deference is the loudness and AM wide/narrow switches, my multipex works as does the rest of it, but at 50yre old it needs to be refurbished to new.

Gramps was an engineer,and probably threw all paperwork away, knew it would last his life time(it did) and had the scematic in his head, I wouldn't be suprised if my tech says he made some improvement to this or that circuit. when I got it 4yrs or so ago 3 EL 84's were low and 1 was quite bright, my friend who tested them said don't leave the room with this on! So we went to the store and got 4 NOS somethings and I play it every now and then sounds great but, I know it can be better. I think we are both very lucky and, probably have two of the very few with the nice original console cabs in good shape, most people busted these up to sell the excellent guts to tube lovers, I was told by my tech that the SA-232 amp is very sought after,stay in touch!
Peace Craig

Oh and mine says Pilot 1090-A componet console on the badge on the main unit what's c-1090?
 
Stereophonic High Fidelity Radio Phonograph Ensemble, Model C-1090" is written (along with pilot's official name, location, and the power specs of the unit) on a silver piece of labelling on the back of the main unit (on the board that backs the turntable). it's the same label stock as says "Stereo Fidelity Companion Speaker System Model S-190 'For Stereophonic Sound'" on the back of the second speaker box.

just for kicks, there's also an inked date and initials on the upper right of the same board at the back of the turntable; i can't read the initials, but the date is 9-58...i think that's when it was born!

my console cabs are nice, but have some damage, as do the screens, from moisture. i think they could be largely put to rights, but never made perfect. to change the screens i think i'd have to take the whole thing apart, because it appears there are screw blocks that would pull the trim over the screening from the inside. the s-190 is a really, really well built cabinet, veneered with ribbon stripe mahogany over plywood, plus solid wood for bracing.
 
Interesting? My 2nd cab has the Pilot 190 speaker system on a brass plaque two small screws on each side just like the one on the main unit. On the back of the main unit I have the same silver label, never noticed it before, to the upper left of the label is some hand written scribbles in black pen, looks like stylized F J kinda sweeping like initails.

Slightly above the label is a stamp in bluish ink, kind of the color of old mimiograph blue reads: 235448(very clear) and something unreadable right under that, appears to be a rubber hand stamp not pressed hard enough, and right above that is a pressed/stamped into the wood 2 Below the label another rubber hand stamp 22500 and again something unreadable underneath (the 22 part was pressed hard and smudged, could be 2?) in the same bluish ink.

On the upper right of the board is another pressed/stamped into the wood H just under that is another rubber stamp TFC with 9-58 under it, this ink looks black. Do you think ours are brother and sister? Does yours have similar stamps/markings like mine? I never thought much of them till you talked about yours, interesting to say the least! take a look again and let me know what you see.
Anxiously awaiting, Craig
 
stuwee said:
Interesting? My 2nd cab has the Pilot 190 speaker system on a brass plaque two small screws on each side just like the one on the main unit. On the back of the main unit I have the same silver label, never noticed it before, to the upper left of the label is some hand written scribbles in black pen, looks like stylized F J kinda sweeping like initails.
Click to expand...
craig, my companion speaker has the exact same brass plaque. nothing else on the unit, except the silver label.

stuwee said:
Slightly above the label is a stamp in bluish ink, kind of the color of old mimiograph blue reads: 235448(very clear) and something unreadable right under that, appears to be a rubber hand stamp not pressed hard enough, and right above that is a pressed/stamped into the wood 2 Below the label another rubber hand stamp 22500 and again something unreadable underneath (the 22 part was pressed hard and smudged, could be 2?) in the same bluish ink.
Click to expand...
the only stamp like these i have is on the blocking bar for the speaker "posts", the one that stops the amp from coming out if you unscrew it from the case. mine is stamped 219966, which is also the serial number of the amp. the 690's serial is 209658. of course, i don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to their system of numbering...

stuwee said:
On the upper right of the board is another pressed/stamped into the wood H just under that is another rubber stamp TFC with 9-58 under it, this ink looks black. Do you think ours are brother and sister? Does yours have similar stamps/markings like mine? I never thought much of them till you talked about yours, interesting to say the least! take a look again and let me know what you see.
Anxiously awaiting, Craig
Click to expand...
mine also has the H on the phono lid back just above the inked TFC/9-58 on the upper right of the plywood behind the phono. mine also has the number 203 stamped in various places around the main case.

i opened up the main case to see what kind of driver was in there, and it's another P15P (220852, same as the other, made by jensen in the last week of 1958). i just can't believe how cool that is, and can't WAIT to fire it up. it also appears to have the same quad of smaller speakers (2 x 3.5", 1 x 6", and 1 x 8").

i did find one thing i'm worried about fixing :worried: the slide switch for the fm muting has had the gnurled plastic broken off. there's not a lot of lead to unsolder/solder to put a replacement in, even if i can find one.

it's also clear that the preamp has been worked on; it has a variety of maker's tubes, including ge, rca, pilot, mullard, telefunken, and sonotone. only a couple three are labelled pilot.

all in all a great grab.
 
Hey madwing! So we know they were built the same month/year in the same factory. That's cool enough for me:thmbsp: are you saying the broken part is the little black switch on the bottom row under the knobs? Thats probably a toughy, also from what I see the cab is built like a yacht, and it has to completely come apart to chang the grill and wicker screen. I would only trust a true craftsman to do that part. CL wanted ad in your area maybe? Mine is alright except where the cat got it, not to bad, but not enough to take that cab apart to fix it.
 
sure looks like it, craig. the broken part is the dpdt switch for fm muting.

i don't plan on taking the cab apart, so there will be no rescreening going on! at least not yet.

HOWEVER...

IT LIVES!!! :music::tresbon::banana::banana::banana:

after bringing it up over the last 24 hours on a variac, it's sitting pegged at 117 volts/2.4A. and it's playing the beatles "love" from my ipod into the tape head input. and sounding wonderful!!! there's no hum, just some grittiness in the bass on the left channel (a bit of clipping); one of the EL84 tubes on that channel reads really badly (near zero), and the plates are glowing pretty brightly...so i assume that's the reason. i am putting the sound out on my ar-4xa's, given i missed out on the philips conductor's i was looking for at the thrift. "blackbird" is on right now, and the intro is really haunting.:cool:

given it has not been recapped and the tubes aren't as strong as i would like, i am pretty damn happy with the sound i've resurrected from this beautiful thing. now i can hardly wait to get the amp cleaned up and everything buttoned up back in the case...and hooked up to the jensens...i doubt there will be any clipping going on there!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO GAVE ME ADVICE AND HELP :thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp:

it's the first time i've listened to tubes in a LONG time (since i was a kid and my granddad had his fisher, which may still be in my granny's garage, fingers crossed). i liiiike it.
 
And Thank You for saving it, once anyone see's, hear's one of these baby's,they Know it's just the best. You need to hear a good analog recording on it, ipods are ok, you got me digging out old Beatles tapes on a Teac RTR, Eleanor Rigby's violins will melt you!! I agree even needing the work ours do they still blow you away, eh?

Peace Craig
 
Just picked up a 1090 console myself. Going to rehab the FA690 and SA232. Switch out the Garrard for a TBD turntable, and switch out the Oxford speaker for an EV I have sitting around. Might even pull an old R2R out of the pile and hook it up.
 
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