Repair Gallery

Until now, this site has been pretty much picture-free, which I grant is a bit daft given that the point of the site is to advertise repair and restoration services (but why on earth would people want to SEE what I do before entrusting their family heirlooms to me??!) Well, OK then: here are the stories of some typical repairs.

If you click on any of the thumbnails, you’ll get a bigger version of that picture together with some commentary, or you can just click on the first thumbnail of each repair and then use the navigation arrows to follow the story through.

 

Pye Black Box record player

I repair lots of record players of various descriptions, but I have a soft spot for Black Boxes. These are quite staid-looking machines (unlike some Dansettes), but they are very well-built and punch far above their weight in terms of sound quality (unlike some Dansettes). They must have been popular because various varieties of BB were produced for around 10-12 years from 1954, and they’re still quite easy to find. The one described here is an early one and is fitted with a fairly uncommon Collaro single-play turntable.

Conrad-Johnson MV55 hi-fi amplifier

Something a bit different now. As I say elsewhere on the website, I do repair a significant number of high-end valve hi-fi amplifiers and preamps. Here’s one that came in recently and is worth including because the problems it had are fairly representative of those suffered by a lot of high-end valve equipment.

Philips 543A

As it happens, this was a straightforward job with nothing special or remarkable needing to be done to bring the set back to life. However, the pictures do show the kind of results that can be obtained with a bit of care and diligence.

Grundig Mandello stereo radiogram

Often, repairs involve little more than changing components - out with the old and in with the new! - and a few tweaks here and there. However, occasionally one has to do some genuine construction to completely replace part of the circuit that is just too far gone to repair. That was the case with the Grundig radiogram that’s described here.

HMV model 456 radio

This one was a challenge. It is a large, high-quality radio that dates from 1938, and would have cost an awful lot of money at the time. I suppose it must have gone wrong at some point in the first few years of its life and had then been put to one side (my guess - difficulty in finding a repairer or spares during WW2. It’s a common enough story with pre-war radios).  Unfortunately, the conditions under which it had been stored didn’t do it any favours, and resulted in a bit of an epic restoration. 

Vintage Vet

Repair and Restoration of Valve Audio and Radio