Freshman Masterpiece (1926)Freshman Masterpiece, 1926 5 tube TRF Battery Model. The Charles Freshman Company of New York made this set an various other permutations, most notably, those without the built-in speaker. It was sold as an "affordable" set, apparently far less expensive than other competitive models. This model I believe is model 6F6. There is another model that uses big 4 inch dials with no windows for tuning display. This one has a built-in horn speaker which happily has a good driver. This was another ebay purchase and worked out pretty well -- 4 of the 5 tubes are good and the horn works. It suffered minor case damage in transit along wood seams, but it glued together pretty good.I had originally expected to refinish the radio, but once I cleaned the cabinet with hand cleaner and 0000 steel wool, I discovered that the finish was in fairly decent shape for being nearly 80 years old and I decided not to refinish. Once I cleaned it with the hand cleaner, I rubbed the cabinet with lemon oil and then finally a coating of Johnson's furniture wax. The front panel is made of some sort of plastic and no matter how much I cleaned it with various materials, it looked about the same. Finally I rubbed it with rottenstone and a damp cloth and got an even appearance across the panel. Then I polished it with a Blue Coral Plexiglas cleaner that I had bought years earlier at Pep Boys. It gave the panel a nice mirror finish. I replaced my one bad tube and fired it up using my home-built power supply and the darn thing worked. Fidelity isn't much, but I guess you really can't expect too much from a wooden horn speaker. Still, this is a neat old one that I really like, especially because of the built-in speaker. Besides I finally got one that my wife likes!
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