Radiophile.com - Silvertone 4586

Silvertone 4586, 1936

Tube complement: 6K7 RF, 6L7G mixer, 6C5G oscillator, 6K7 IF, 6Q7G detector, 6C5G phase inverter, (2) 6F6G audio output, 6G5 tuning eye, 5Y3 rectifier.

Approximately 38 inches / 96 cm tall. The grille cloth is not original. And if you've noticed that the radio also doesn't have the correct knobs, worry not: The correct knobs have been obtained and installed. I need to re-photograph this radio.

This radio has a solid-metal dial that's lit from above. Not quite as pretty as a glowing backlit dial, but nice enough.

From a Silvertone radio brochure.

What was that I said about the dial being "not quite as pretty?" I was mistaken.

During the production run of this model, Sears used two different chassis types made by two different vendors.

Chassis no. 101425, made by Colonial Radio. Colonial Radio was a frequent supplier of radios to Sears. This chassis seems to be the more common of the two types (it's the one in my radio). The tuning knob is in the center, directly below the dial.
Chassis no. 100156, made by Stewart-Warner. On this chassis, the bandswitch knob is in the center below the dial, and the tuning knob is to the right.

From the front of the radio, use the position of the tuning knob to tell which chassis is present. The dial-scale calibrations are slightly different also (to accommodate the different tracking of the two designs), although the only way to clearly see this difference is to have the two chassis side-by-side for comparison.

The Colonial chassis service information is in Riders vol. 8, Sears pages 42-44. Servicemen probably encountered the Stewart-Warner chassis in this radio and were stymied because there was no information in Riders. There must have been complaints, because eventually (13 years after the model was sold) the Stewart-Warner chassis information appeared in vol. 18, Sears pages 1-8.

How do I know the names of the original chassis vendors? I looked up the chassis numbers in the Silvertone Manufacturers Source Codes table in Mark Stein's The Complete Price Guide to Antique Radios: The Sears Silvertone Catalogs 1930-1942. This excellent reference book is highly recommended for any Silvertone enthusiast.

Why did Sears use two different chassis? Perhaps there were vendor capacity issues. This was a very popular model, judging by the large quantity that are still around today. Or maybe a second chassis vendor offered to supply a chassis for this radio at a lower cost to Sears. Who knows?