GEC Series 1 Fineline sets

[Colourstar]

Seeing as the BRC1500 seems pops up fairly regularly of late, I thought it was time to redress the balance by including one of it's competitors, the GEC Series 1 Fineline range.

I always thought these were interesting sets, having rather more imaginative cabinet designs than the 1500s, including siting the main controls along the top on some models. Quite a few, including the one pictured here, also came in white cabinets. I believe the only difference with the later Series 2 models was the use of a varicap tuner. I've never seen one.

I think this series of sets may have also marked the last time the Sobell brand name was used. Back in the 80s I had a lovely 24" Sobell 'Fineline' from the local jumble sale. It had a blue front, snazzy black and silver speaker grille and the controls along the top. There was of course also the rather individually styled 'Junior Fineline' portablle.

Series 1 sets seem to be very rare today compared to BRC1500s. Maybe the sheer number of the latter explains their relatively good survival rate compared to other manufacturers.

Any memories of these GECs from the trade point of view?

Steve

[Nuvistor]

I only saw the odd GEC, they worked well the ones I saw, took my course 48 practical exam on a dual standard one.

Frank

[AndiiT]

HI, I (sort of) "cut my teeth" as an apprentice on GEC sets as my first employer was a GEC dealer.

As with most sets of that time they had their fair range of stock faults many of which elude me now although the sight of the mains filter capacitor reminded me of a number of those which shorted out in a big way at times as many of the houses that these sets were rented out to didn't have the best electrical installations (two pin unfused plugs and sockets etc.) due to them being in old mining villages, remember this was the mid/late 1970's.

A mains filter capacitor failing on a circuit which was only protected by the (often incorrect value) fuse at the fuse box could fail with quite a bang

I think the main failing with these sets was the double sided print and in particular the edge connected IF modules, they were quite difficult to remove/replace if I recall correctly.

I always thought that the sets were quite nice cosmetically though, with the top mounted controls and a reasonably shallow front to back depth. I'm sure that at least one model had a wire stand which had a shelf underneath that resembled a shoe rack and have seen at least one house where the shelf was used as such.

Regards

Andrew

[music-centre]

I had a Sobell one of these as my Bedroom TV in the late 70s/early 80s, it had a wood veneered case with the sides angled so it was narrower at the top and looked quite slim front to back.
Black/silver speaker grille and controls on the top, it was a nice bright picture with plenty of contrast and the sound was better than average with a reasonable size speaker.
It tended to go off station slightly if if you didn't push the buttons straight down though.

I might be thinking of a different set but I seem to remember it had an old style metal rectifier along the front of the chassis under the Tube that eventually gave problems?
Steve.

[HurtyAC]

Hi, I was an independent repairer in Leyland nr. Preston. Saw a few of these sets but were no were as popular as the Thorn 1500 unlike its predecessor the dual standard sets. The GEC Fineline that I did see a lot of was the 12" Portable. I only had one fault with these which was the stud mounted bridge rectifier. It would fail, the replacement from GEC was a large black plastic encapsulated bridge rectifier rated at 3.8 amps.
I remember when I started a Preston Polytechnic, bumped up to the 5th year Advanced Colour, doing the 4th year in the afternoon/evening and the lecturer had brought his in (1st practical) to be looked at humming away, I thought bridge rectifier, very common. He said it was "load related" to which I said but all the stages are working correctly. The "rental" TV lads said "I was wrong" as they had "changed the bridge" already. Eventually they reluctantly parted and let the "new boy" in to have a look. First thing was the bridge had been replaced with 4 X 1N4004 diodes. I measured them on the AVO and all measured 910 ohm forward resistance except one which read 900 ohms so temporarily fitted one and on came the set perfectly. Switched off and I explained to the lecturer that you need the proper 3.8A bridge, I have them in stock, I'll bring one in next week. Left the rental lads measuring the removed diode which was obviously the first one to break down under load given away by its slightly different forward resistance. One of life's little experiences!

Adrian

[Welsh Anorak]

I only saw a few of these but they seemed quite reliable and easy to fix if you were used to the print - as you probably were with the colours.
I sold an ex-rental to a venerable old widow. The set went wrong on a regular basis, due to the aerial lead having 'fallen out'. Of couse she was removing it on purpose as she was lonely and wanted me round for a chat. Took me a while to catch on!
Glyn

[AidanLunn]

That's the same model my father's family had when he was in his early teens (early 1970s).

[Colourstar]

Originally Posted by music-centre

I had a Sobell one of these as my Bedroom TV in the late 70s/early 80s, it had a wood veneered case with the sides angled so it was narrower at the top and looked quite slim front to back.
Black/silver speaker grille and controls on the top

That's must be the same as the 'jumble sale' Sobell I owned in the 80s.

Thanks for some interesting memories everyone!

Steve

[FERNSEH]

Had lots of these sets out on rental in the seventies. Very reliable sets but the version presented here was not as popular with customers as many other series 1 and 2 sets which had more attractive cabinets. Your set must one of very few surviving series 1 models. Good sets but because far more BRC 1500 sets were made the law of averages dictates that more of those will be in existence than the GEC sets. Nice to see one again.
A Sobell branded series one set was made.

DFWB.

[mickash]

These always seemed more reliable than the Thorn 1500 but then we did have far more of those out than the GECs.
They weren't as easy to work on as the 1500s as there wasn't a proper "sevicing position" of the chassis and the dreaded double sided print could be a problem.
The GEC cabinet styling was more attractive and did give a more slimline appearance than the Thorns. Top mounted controls also deterred people from placing ornaments or potted plants on top of the set which meant they were less likely to get an accidental watering!

One particular repair of these I remember was at a house that had been struck by lightning. I arrived at the house on a Saturday morning, the storm had taken place the night before. The lightning had hit either the aerial or phone line and every appliance in the house had been affected including the phone and cooker. The mains wiring had been affected and had blown the plaster off the walls in places. The TV got off quite lightly. A new mains switch and aerial socket were all that was needed to get it back into full working order. I think it was the only appliance that wasn't written off.

[Hybrid tellies]

I only saw a few of these GEC 625 only sets. I remember being impressed by their looks, picture quality and reliability.

[Welsh Anorak]

The only downside - literally! - of the top mounted controls was when the phantom switch cleaner sprayer had been at work. A heavy hand on the channel selectors could make them vanish, never to be seen again. The 24" versions had the more conventional styling of the 2047 series, minus the VHF tuner, of course.
Glyn

[Colourstar]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

The 24" versions had the more conventional styling of the 2047 series.
Glyn

I don't know about that Glyn, my Sobell was a 24" set and that certainly had the top controls.

Just found some old photos of another GEC Series 1 that I had some years ago. I think this is a 2048

Steve

[slidertogrid]

I have a 20" fineline in my collection, it displays an excellent picture probably only matched by a 20" Co-op A640 that I have. Unfortunately the GEC has a nasty chipboard cabinet which is a tendency to crumble. My set isn't too bad but I had a second identical set that was falling apart.
I found them to be very reliable when they were in service but they weren't as nice to work on as the previous dual standard sets IMHO.
The biggest let-down was the "square screen" tubes. After a few years they started to defocus in the corners, some went really flat so as the picture was only watchable in the dark.
I saw a lot of sets fitted with either Solus re-guns or the gravely phosphor Unitra tubes that appeared in the mid 1970's.
GEC plastic cabinets didn't like switch cleaner remember the sordid-state colour set that the big plastic bar on off switch that would fall inside the cabinet?

Rich.

[hamid_1]

Steve's set in the first post, with the controls along the top, brings back a lot of memories for me. It's a model 2084 - one of the "Fineline" range, the name presumably reflecting the increased number of lines on the screen following the switch from 405 to 625 for all TV channels.

There's a catalogue on display, showing the range of sets here : https://www.radios-tv.co.uk/early-19...nochrome-sets/

Back in 1986 I found a GEC 2084 in a skip and carried it home on the bus, with some strange looks from the other passengers. Back home, I plugged it in via an extension lead and switched on from a safe distance. No bangs, instead it produced sound and a picture with a severe lack of height. I asked a secondhand TV shop for advice. The shop owner said it was too old (even then) for him to deal with, but he introduced me to a semi-retired TV engineer who still repaired old TVs and radios at home in his spare time. The old chap told me what the fault was - a 10 Megaohm resistor in the frame circuit - and also gave me some more old stuff to play with, including a Marconiphone 4800 (BRC 1500 series) TV and a Marconiphone T69DA valve radio. I eventually got these working too. That was the start of my journey into old telly repairs.

One odd thing I noticed about that GEC TV was that when not tuned in to a TV station, foreign shortwave radio sound could be heard instead of the usual rushing water noise. I also came across a Junior Fineline TV which had the same effect. Does yours do this?

Anyway, the GEC 2084 must be a rare set now. Since 1986 I've never found another one.

[FERNSEH]

GEC 2117. Now there's a GEC 625 line monochrome set I have no recollection of and I was a GEC dealer. It didn't appear in any of the sales catalogues that were supplied to me. Looks like the controls of the 2112 colour set were grafted into the 2117.

DFWB.

[Colourstar]

Yes that is an odd one David. What would the fourth sliding control be for on a b&w set I wonder? Unless they gave it a tone control maybe. Also in that brochure is the Sobell 1101 which must be the 20" version of the 24" set I had in the 80s.

One thought: Why bother having Sobell as a separate brand if it's in the same brochure as it's GEC cousins?

Steve

[FERNSEH]

Hi Steve,
Even though the GEC sets we are discussing were made to the technology of the original Sobell company, by the early seventies Radio and Allied Industries were concentrating their sales efforts on the GEC brand.
I had only a few Sobell branded series one sets out on rental. By 1973 the Sobell brand had well and truly been abandoned and the company was known as GEC radio and Television Ltd. I did very well with the companies products right up to the end when they gave up making TVs and sourced the sets from Tatung.
That fourth slider control on the 2117? Must of been a tone control. Actually the 2117 has the appearance of a colour receiver, so if the household budget didn't allow the purchase of a colour TV, then, with the likes of the 2117 you could buy a set that looked like one.

DFWB.

[toshiba tony]

Sorry to butt in on this but you all obviously know your Finelines. I now have dementia but was an engineer in the 70's. But Adrian mentions a bridge rectifier, I wasn't aware that any valved mono sets used a bridge for HT rectification, but did this one. As I said sorry to impose, I like to keep my hand in

[FERNSEH]

Reading through the information about the all transistor portable model 2114. I get the impression that the 2117 was also an all transistor receiver.
If that's the case, then it's possible the 2117 used an HT bridge rectifier.
GEC's answer to the Rank A816 perhaps.