[DCASAZZA]

After getting my 650 to a point called finished i've been playing it in my garage for a while before moving it into the living room. This morning I noticed a loud hum but only when tuned on a station. It had a raspy quality of a renegade light dimmer. It turned out to be a string of outdoor christmas lights, not a big supprise right. Well here is the supprise part. The string was OFF. Suspecting leakage of a hot string to ground from a miswired switch (on a neutral side) I checked the voltage at the end of the heavy duty extension, with the switch off, 0 volts at the end across all three wires!
When I unplug the "dead" string from the "dead" cord the raspy hum goes away. I dont know about y'all but this is a first for this guy.

Buy the way I have restored many a dark string of lights with a telecom sniffer placed next to the dark section. It hums but bad bulbs tend to be very microphonic and you will likly find more than on a section.

By the way this was the first time restoring a cabinet and using lacquer as a finish. WOW I'm sold, the finish came out beautiful while still retaining the character if the piece. This was a train wreck when I started and the final disposition of the radio make me feel good about its journey to today. I'll post pictures soon via links.

Merry Christmas from South Florida