Removing the audio pieces from the shipping box and removing the bubble wrap revealed fairly dusty equipment, with that musty smell that comes from equipment sitting in a garage or basement.
Here they are on my dinette table.
The wood enclosures are in decent shape (one side fall off the tuner case when I lifted the wood shell, but this is minor) except for the preamp U shaped piece which is not attach, as it has some screw holes that were broken off.
I started off looking at the tuner and determined that this piece would be the most work. Besides all the RF/IF circuits, the radio dial mechanism needs to be re-strung. So I moved onto to the power amp.
Altec Lansing A-340 Tube Amplifier
As can be seen from above, the outside will need a good scrubbing and if the inside was anything like this, the work would move slowly.
I was pleased to see that the specified output tubes (6550) were in place, as I had read online that some of these 6550 tubes on these amps were replaced with the cheaper 6L6 tubes, requiring a different bias (so they say...).
Anyway, after inspecting the outside and then removing the bottom, I was pleasantly surprised to find two gems:
The inside looks pristine:
The full schematic diagram for the amp was glued to the underside of the base
While I had already found this schematic online, it was a nice feature for Altec to make it easy for service technicians! Back in the day, you would have to spend $25 or more for a SAMS Photofact of the manual and schematic (points to anyone who remembers those days!!!).
