1963 Saba Radio Automatic Freiburg 14 Continental 410US No.2
1963 Saba Radio Continental 410US Automatic, Export version of famous Freiburg Vollautomatic 14 Stereo, with Cable Remote in its Box, 2 Stereo Decoders, Mint, Unused, Serviced and Fully Working
In a Nutshell
A truly unbelievable story: The radio was bought 1963 brand-new in Europe, and moved to Canada. Instead of converting it to Canadian standards, the emigrant decided to sell it. The new owner too never used it, probably because he too didn't know what exactly to convert. So, I bought and converted the radio, which is in mint as-good-as-new cosmetic and working condition. Not a single slightest scratch, one of the most collectible radios of all time, this should be in a museum
Introduction:
This is the 4th SABA radio I restored (see refs.1-3). Please read these publications first for general remarks about SABA radios, their history and common problems, and the unique SABA motorized automatic station scanning and frequency control. The history of SABA (Schwarzwälder Apparate-Bau-Anstalt August Schwer Söhne) is excellently documented i.a. in refs.4 and 5 below, most articles being in German. Ref.4 is written by Ernst Erb, the prime mover behind radiomuseum.org and the first in ref. 5 reads well like a "Krimi" (whodunit). Much of SABA's history can also be found by searching for "MPS Studio", the "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" record label, founded by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer [HGBS, 1927-2004], brother of Hermann Brunner-Schwer [HBS, 1929-1988], who co-owned SABA between 1961 and 1968. Hermann's autobiography "Bilanz einer Aufgabe: vom Aufstieg und Niedergang eines Familienunternehmens" (Balance of a Purpose, about the rise and fall of a family enterprise, ref.6) contains a subjective, debatable and partly very personal account of the Brunner-Schwers, their relations with German National Socialism, wartime experiences, and their rivalry within the very competitive radio market, in particular with Max Grundig during the period of the "Deutsches Wirtschaftswunder" (Economic Miracle). For readers understanding German the legendary 1956 SABA advertizing film is worth watching (ref.7), for readers fluent in Swabian dialect in particular its introduction, presenting the "knitting granny" (die strickende Oma aus Stuttgart) marionette, directed by master puppeteer Albrecht Roser [1922-2011]. Saba radios have their own private forum (ref.8), in which not only technical details are discussed, but also a wealth of intimate evidence about the social and cultural life within the factory's gates can be found. Clearly the progressive downfall of this family-run enterprise after the leaving of the two brothers was deeply regretted by all senior staff.
Saba radios are best documented, and the forum helped me appreciably restoring this radio to full glory (see techies below). The 1963 Freiburg 14 (ref.9), its export version Continental 410US (ref.10), and same year's Studio A are the highest end, largest, and most expensive table sets Saba ever built. And they are SABA's first true FM Stereo radios. Note the "14" only accidentally matches the 14-tube content. Next year's Freiburg Vollautomatic 15, and the 1967 FR-18 had only 13 tubes. The original price tag was a hefty 1130 DM (today more than US$5000). These SABA sets are the finest and most collectible radios; they have Sabas famous automatic station scanning and automatic frequency control, and come with the optional SABA cable remote RS-125 , that not only allows remote control of on/off and volume, like others but also remote automatic station tuning. Export models like mine have an FM band that extends to 108 MHz. In Germany stereo broadcasting started in 1963, so the 1963 models could be equipped with the Stereo-Rundfunk Einsatz 14 (ref.11), SABA's first fully transistorized stereo decoder. Today IC based decoders with PLL chips are available, that have better channel separation and less stereo volume suppression. In 1967 SABA built its first fully transistorized table radio, HiFi-Studio Freiburg Stereo Mod. ST-F, the specifications of which had been polled by a late 1965 public contest in the German hobby magazine "Hobby". This radio will be the 5th SABA I am going to restore.
About my radio:
The radio was bought new in 1963 in Germany by an emigrant who moved it to Canada and shortly after sold it, without having converted it to Canadian standards. The buyer too did not use it, but kept it in its immaculate original cosmetic condition. When I as the third owner, bought and converted the radio, it had two minor issues: the stereo indicator magic band tube EM87 did not signal FM stereo stations and there was no left-right separation, 2. the muting, when pressing the on/off button halfway down and the interstation noise suppression did not work, as they should. All the rest including the motorized automatic station scanning and frequency control and the remote control did work fine and symmetrically. As discussed under techies below both defects are very common and well documented and are independent on whether the radio had been used or not (details see techies below). All tubes were the original Telefunken and Lorenz tubes; I replaced the two EF86 driver tubes by a matched pair of Matsushita 6267 tubes (why? see techies below). The expensive and rare matched pair of Lorenz ELL80 audio tubes have the same date code 442, and test 110/110 and 105/110 on my EICO 666 (80 = minimum for good). The cosmetic condition is pristine, with not the slightest scratch, dent or chip in the natural lightish walnut (Walnuss naturhell) cabinet , and no oxidation or even dust on the chassis. The radio is exceptionally complete. It has the hanging tag designed by Donald Brun [1909-1999] in 1958 (pict.60, this stylized black forest fir tree was also used for the 125 years anniversary 1960, and for advertizing MPS (see techies below) label records). A damaged instance of this tag was recently sold on eBay for US$ 60 (ebay item 303503362762). The radio also has the often missing FM scale ledge with all 16 scale tabs and plexiglass access cover (picts.24,26). The radio plays loud and clear and with superb sensitivity and selectivity on all bands - yes, also on short wave. The automatic works flawlessly on all bands finding stations with the tip of a finger and holding tight on them, up and down the scale. Stereo reception with the repaired decoder 14, as well as with a new PLL decoder (picts.33,39 and ref.12), has been tested by observing the second tuning eye's and the balance control's response. Both decoders are included in this sale, as well as the cable remote RS-125 in its original box. Finally, to top completeness a replica of the original dust cover, made by eBay seller "thecoverhub" was added (pict.74). The motor and dialcord cogs were painstakingly cleaned and lubricated, to achieve smooth-running of the motor tuning. Finally the whole set was aligned on all bands by following the 2-page "Abgleichanleitung" of the manual. In particular the alignment of the "Steuerfilter" profited from the use of a signal generator (Hickok 288X) and an oscilloscope (pict.58). The youtube video (click on thumbnail 76 or go to ref.13) shows the radio working and also some of these tests. Please
e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche auch Deutsch, je parle aussi le Français.
For the techies only:
As summarized above this radio had not been used and not been converted to Canadian Standards by the two previous owners. Apparently they did not know what exactly to do: the voltage selector was turned to 115V, the original SABA plug was cut off and a contemporary black bakelite plug installed, but the most important conversion was not done: the replacement of the two motor capacitors C718 and C723 to adapt the tuning motor from 50Hz to 60Hz frequency. Using the radio without these capacitors changed would overload and eventually destroy the tuning motor. The conversion caps, paper work, spare fuses, push-button bulbs and more were found included in an accessory bag (picts.42-48). The radio had two minor problems, that turned out to be independent of use or no use of the radio, and that caused me and the Saba forum (ref.14) to spend quite some time: the original multiplex decoder 14 was defect as usual. After either revitalizing (pict.37) or replacing the 5 infamous whisker infected AF-117/118 transistors and the 4 black leaking electrolytic capacitors (picts.34-38), also an unsuspiciously looking WIMA capacitor C6 was found leaking and causing the stereo indicator magic band tube EM87 to not work. The second problem, the fading away of the muting electronics, was finally diagnosed as a problem with the two (unused) Telefunken EF86 driver tubes, that tested however excellent on my Eico 666 tube tester. These tubes are very susceptible to a high-Ohm environment as we have it here. Replacement by a pair of matched Matsushita 6267, which instead of a solid metal anode have a mesh anode, eliminated the problem, which apparently was caused by thermic, i.a. construction dependent grid emission (pict.66). Finally the resistor R315 was doubled (4.4 MOhm), as suggested by the forum. The cable remote RS-125 allows automatic and high-speed station scanning, AM/FM switching, on/off-temporary muting, volume and speech/music tone control.
For the historians only:
The period around 1963 for SABA was still characterized by financial, cultural and social advancements, that ended with the first post-war depression of 1967. Fighting the mass-production trend of other manufacturers like Grundig, SABA relied on handmade quality with the slogan "Meisterwerke Schwarzwälder Präzision" (masterpieces of Black Forest precision), for which buyers had to pay about 10% more than for competing products. The factory in 1918 had moved from Triberg to Villingen, which was home also to prestigious EMT/Thorens, Revox, DUAL, Perpetuum-Ebner and others. In 1963 Ludwig Erhard, the architect of the by then 15 years old "Deutsches Wirtschaftswunder" (German Economic Miracle) advanced from Secretary of Commerce to West Germany's Chancellor. His slogan "Wohlstand für Alle" (prosperity for all) resonated with SABA bosses Hermann Schwer [1877-1936] and his two grandsons Hans Georg [HGBS, 1927-2004] and Hermann [HBS, 1929-1988] Brunner-Schwer, who granted a say to their staff and supported 11 in-house leisure clubs, a kindergarden, 3 vacation homes, Christmas parties in the canteen and in-house newspapers (Saba Post, Saba Kontakte and Saba Aktuell), all contributing to SABA's familiar working atmosphere. During the Nazi regime HBS' and HGBS' mother Margarethe ["SABA-Mutti Gretel", 1905-1983] and step-father Ernst Scherb [her second husband] had kept good relations with the authorities, including Hitler. They both were members of the NSDAP. This however could not prevent a catastrophic bomb raid against the factory on April 19, 1945, followed by occupation, looting and dismantling by the French army. HGBS left SABA in 1968, the same year when SABA was taken over by the General Telephone & Electronics Corp., Stamford, Conn. (GTE), to follow his true passion of recording music, and founded the "Musikproduktion Schwarzwald" (MPS) on SABA's premises on Villingen's Richthofenstraße. This studio attained world fame in the music and Jazz scene, up to this very day. It was also in 1963, when Canadian Jazz giant Oscar Peterson [1925-2007] for the first time appeared in Villingen to record several titles together with HGBS, and when a great friendship started to develop between their families (see photo by Friedhelm Schulz in pict.70, top right). The host of these private recording concerts before a hand-picked audience was HGBS' wife Marlies Brunner-Schwer, who with almost 93 years still lives in their Villa No.2 (picts.69-71). Note added April 2023:strong> Sadly on April 1, 2023, Marlies Brunner-Schwer passed away at the age of 95 SABA engineers, in particular Swiss born radio and TV chef developer Eugen Leuthold [1903-1978] were the best, before in the mid 1970's over 30 years the ousting of the Schwer family, replacement by American GTE, French Thomson and Chinese TCL staff, reduction of work force and finally dismounting of affiliate production and R&D facilities happened. Leuthold, who had developed SABA's early receivers S35, 212WL and 240WL in the 1920's and 30's, is also credited with the 1954 creation of SABA's unique Motorized Automatic Station Scanning and Frequency Control. It was first implemented in the Heimatserie's Freiburg 3DS of 1954 and lastly in the first fully transistorized version HiFi-Studio Freiburg Stereo Model ST-F of 1967.
