In a Nutshell
The cult radio in walnut burl, with Electrola playing also modern 33⅓ rpm vinyl records

Introduction:
Here's the story of this radio: I am interested in restoring 1929 microsynchronous TRF sets (reports in ref.s 1 and 2), because I consider this series by the Victor Talking Machine Co. as one of the brightest milestones in radio technology and radio history. I share this opinion with the myriads of customers who despite the upcoming depression bought one of these radios. Sales in 1929 totalled more than 50 million dollars for about 300'000 units, the largest in the company's history. The new micro-synch owners, even after 5 or 10 years, lauded the outstanding reception and selectivity and the ease of use of their tuners, the exceptional reproduction quality and volume reserve of the 245 amplifiers, and the surprisingly clean bass of their huge Burtex coned electrodynamic speakers. Model RE-45's Electrola with its brushless induction disc motor (no belt, no rubber, no failure) was way ahead of its time as was its low impedance magnetic pick-up.
Today it gets increasingly difficult to find in particular guaranteed working instances of the sets most wanted part, the monobloc amplifier model 245, mostly appreciated by East-Asian collectors and highly sought-after by guitar afficionados, because of its transformer-coupled stages and the powerful 2x45 15 Watt push-pull audio output. Unfortunately almost all amplifiers turn out to be defect, the sellers generally having no clue how to test them (see below under techies) without having the whole radio and all the tubes (the 245 has 20 magnetic coils, and only works if none of them is open).
The 1929 series included some models, that were exclusively produced in Montreal for the Canadian market and are correspondingly rare. One example is model R-34, that I had restored before (ref.3). Recently I had found a Canadian RE-46 (pict.45), that has a wonderful lowboy cabinet with doors and front-side storage for 8 record albums. I did not find any other instance of this radio, but know that it was advertized already in 1930. The Electrola of this set plays in addition to 78 rpm records so-called program transcription records with a speed of 33⅓ rpm. They were introduced in 1931 by RCA (for more see ref.5 and under historians below). Since the RE-46 cabinet is in bad shape, I decided to transplant its Electrola to a RE-45, and modified it to even play modern 33⅓ rpm vinyl records (see under techies). I therefore offer here the top model RE-45 of the 1929 series in walnut burl finish (mahogany was the other option), equipped with this 1932 Duo-Electrola, and modified to play also modern 33⅓ rpm records.

Additional information:
ref.1.    http://www.greenhillsgf.com/Item_270042331293_mod.htm
ref.2.    http://www.radio-antiks.com/IndexRadio-Antiks_Victor_RE-45.htm
ref.3.    http://www.greenhillsgf.com/IndexOwn_Victor_R34.htm
ref.4.    http://www.nipperhead.com/old/vre.htm has free 12-page manual for Victor Radio
ref.5.    http://www.stokowski.org/Victor_Program_Transcription_Records.htm
ref.6.    https://ia800607.us.archive.org/24/items/Disques_1932-01/Disques 1932-01.pdf, pgs. 478, 515 ff.
ref.7.    https://youtu.be/h1mb0te3wVo

About my Radiogram:
The cabinet finish is original, the zinc-plated tuner top cover with its dog is repolished. The amplifier is working perfectly and has all 20 coils with nominal resistance values (see pict.40); even the phono winding of the driver transformer is ok, but is not used (see techies). The schematics in pict.s 23 and 40 have been drawn from the actual radio, and the values for the Ohmic resistances of all coils (bottom of pict.40) are averages over many radios I had restored before). The probability that at least one of these 20 coils has an open winding (mostly caused by copper oxydation at spots exposed to air, not by overdriven voltages or currents) is extremely high. That makes it necessary to sacrifice other defect spare components and use them as donors for parts. The amplifier's transformer cans are filled with black tar, and are a mess to refurbish. But it can be and must be done. The tuner has been aligned and neutralized as described in literature (ref.4). The radio originally had the regular Induction motor Electrola, that needed the usual rebuilt of its horseshoe tonearm head. As described in detail under techies below, the Transcription 2-speed Electrola of a Canadian RE-46 has been transplanted and adapted to play modern 33⅓ rpm records. Both, the radio and the Electrola work flawlessly, as you can see from a youtube video (ref.7 or click on thumbnail 64). Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

For the historians only:
Shortly after introducing electrical recording for phonograph records in 1925, and shortly after introducing a new 33⅓ rpm speed for 16" transcription records in radio broadcast studios in 1928, RCA Victor introduced an early version of a long-playing record for home use in September 1931 (ref.5). These Victor "Program Transcription" discs too played at 33⅓ rpm and had grooves slightly denser than a 78 rpm record, so that the same stylus could be used, and up to 15 minutes per side of a 12" record could be achieved. Victor's new vinyl-based "Victrolac" was used as record material. RCA's 33⅓ rpm adventure was short-lived, for 3 reasons: a. the great depression, b. too expensive and bulky phonographs, c. poor sound quality and record wear. The next debacle, RCA's 1949 10-years-too-late 45 rpm-only initiative was still an after-effect of this shock wave.
The only way to play the new program transcriptions has been with one of the expensive new RCA Victor machines, which were too bulky and heavy to handle delicate 33⅓ rpm grooves and the home recording part of which did not really entice buyers. In September 1931 RCA Victor announced (ref.6) that an inexpensive device, designed to convert a 78 rpm motor into a two-speed motor, would shortly be released for those who already owned satisfactory electrical machines. People had desperately tried to temper down the Electrola speed by turning down its governor - and had failed badly. The new motor board assembly consisted of a governor-less synchronous motor equipped with a planetary speed reduction gear and clutch, permitting of turntable speeds of both 78 (1) and 33⅓ rpm (2). Still the tonearm and pickup were the same heavy equipment as before. The original horseshoe magnet low impedance pickup weighs 200 grams, and a counterbalancing weight of 1 pound (!) was installed. This was the working condition of my Electrola before modification

For the techies only:
a. To go the path to the end it was worthwhile and challenging to try to have this 2-speed machine not only play program transcriptions, but also the Canada-only long-play microgroove 78 rpm records introduced in the 1950's and even modern 33⅓ rpm vinyl records. Two different needles for 78 and micro-78/33⅓ and a cartridge with higher amplification had to be used and the tonearm weight and needle pressure had to be drastically reduced. I removed the 1 pound counterweight, installed a counter-spring instead (pict.46) and emptied the headshell from its horseshoe magnet. I installed a ceramic cartridge with flip-flop sapphire needles (78 and micro-78/33⅓) in the old headshell (picts.51-55), and finally modified the coupling of the cartridge to the amplifier (pict.23), at the same time changing the volume potentiometer from 500 Ohm to 1 Megohm. The final needle pressure is now 8 grams, which is sufficient to move the tonearm across the record without returning tracks. The whole set works absolutely magnificently, and still has kept its original look.
b. How to test the 245 amplifier without switching the radio on and without having tubes? Pict. 40 shows my schematics of the amplifier, including the (Ohmic) resistances of all 22 coils (including speaker) at the lower right side, pict.38 shows the locations of the amplifier parts and all pins needed to do the measurements. Additional tests may be necessary of the few resistors and/or capacitors. My experience is that practically all amplifiers have at least one of the 9 high-Ohm windings and in particular one of the 5 windings with more than 2 kOhms, corroded to interrupt continuity. Even after fishing the defect transformer out of its can full of tar (heated to about 210 °F), it is not possible to repair those defect windings, and a donor has to be found to salvage a transformer with appropriately similar windings and size.

Here are the specifications:

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