[Ron Ramirez]

Hi Lloyd

Should I congratulate you, or should I offer my sympathies?

Philco introduced the 4-band 16 chassis in the Fall of 1934, which was after their 1935 selling season began (which occurred in June 1934). By then the cathedral 16B was long out of production, having been replaced by the Deco "housetop" 16B tombstone in June '34 which still had the 1933 5-band chassis.

You want to make a custom 16B cathedral with a 4-band chassis? Heck, why not? G'ahead, no one will mind.

When I used to do radio repair work for others, once a guy sent me an empty 16B cathedral cabinet, a 116B chassis, and asked me to marry the two together. So I had Dick Oliver make a special front panel...and now he owns the only 116B cathedral in existence, complete with 1936 oval escutcheon (the 116 dial scale is too large to fit behind a conventional 16 escutcheon).

Oh, 27-5039 is the correct dial scale for a model 34, which is the battery-operated version of the 44/144.

Edit: Yes, Arran, the 16B cathedrals used an 8 inch K-17 speaker. Philco switched to the 10-1/2 inch H-13 when they introduced the big tombstone in June 1934.

Skinner & Co. marketed the 16 consoles as sort of "high fidelity" sets. But the 16 sold well not because of its fidelity - but because of its shortwave capabilities.