Stunning YAOU transistor radios 1960 Japan vintage General TV - collectornet.net

I never knew how to pronounce the name of this transistor radio maker... until I saw this model. I opened up the leather case and said "yaou!"

Yes, yow, wow, zowie! What a stunning example of the finest Japanese transistor radio artistry! Made on April 18, 1960--exactly--this magnificent transistor radio has six transistors and has a LOT of gorgeous design features. There's that underpainted dial area. Those plastic louvres running horizontally across the front with a bit of a rise in the middle, kind of pleasantly poofed up. And there's that little metal lettering badge on the lower front corner, parially painted in with white paint--a very nice touch. And the radio's got a wire handle that also serves as a stand. The back isn't the usual ivory color you might expect. No, it's a pale peach color. One of the overall things that I like best here is that nothing in the shape of this radio is straight--everything has a bit of a curve to it and, at least in part because of that, it is a delight to look at and to hold.

It looks VERY fragile, and I guess that's part of its beauty too. I'm sure that the fact that so few of these have survived is at least partly due to that fragility. I've only ever seen one example of this radio--this one.

The folks at Yaou used the name "General" on some of their products, as this 1957 ad shows. They were also, as the ad says, "The leading largest television maker in Japan." Whether they were thwarted in attempting to use the name "General" in the United States by the American General Electric company, I can't say. But I kind of bet they were, since clearly they knew that the brand name "Yaou" was a less than ideal name in the American market...and, as shown in that ad, they were already using the General name on their televisions and larger radios. So... for whatever reasons, they used both names. Over the years I've managed to find a roughly equal number of Yaou-branded, and General-branded, radios, all different from each other. Some of them are pretty plain, and some of them pretty wild. That's a two-band General on the left, pulling in a shortwave band, in addition to the standard AM band. Next an 8-transistor shirt-pocket model with the kind of dial I like to call the speedo dial, or speedometer dial. Probably the strangest of the lot, and most interesting is this one--and it has a model number in it--6G780. I'd say this one was the earliest of this group of Generals but I can't prove it since there's no manufacturing date inside of it as we see on many of their other radios, especially the Yaou-branded ones. And this last one, on the right, HAS the date...but no model number. It was made January 9, 1961. This radio says General on the front, but Yaou on the label inside. The radio this video's about, this one, says Yaou on the front, AND on the label inside where it says its inspection date is April 18, 1960. Unfortunately, I can find no model number on it anywhere.

Inside we see that it has a "P. D. Speaker," whatever that means. We also learn that the speaker is "ultra high fidelity." Of course it is. The transistors are branded "TEN," which is the maker Kobe Kogyo which later evolved into Fujitsu Ten, and exists today as Denso Ten, making car audio, video, and other stuff under the Eclipse brand. There's more about Kobe Kogyo, including what is believed to be THEIR first transistor radio, in other videos on this channel. ..It looks nicely made inside here with a battery compartment that really means business. There's a metal plate in here protecting the "ultra high fidelity" speaker, where most transistor radios have nothing more than a piece of card, or paper, in this area.

What's this hole on the side? Well, to be more accurate, let's call it a notch. We see this occasionally on transistor radios and though we might not like that the notch is there, I don't think we can really call it a flaw. Not when you know what it is. It is there to accomodate the wire of a battery eliminator, a source of power that let a radio be powered externally, usually by plugging it into the wall. These were available as a generic accessory... and some radios, notably Universals and Candles, sometimes came equipped with battery eliminators in the box.

Now, it's sometimes said about design...that great design...can happen by accident, but that great designers can repeat. Well, this radio's design is so great--in my humble opinion--that it far outshadows the Generals I showed you, and most Yaou radios. So was the radio we're looking at today just a design accident... or could Yaou repeat. .... Well, it's completely different but I think I've got to admit: Yaou could... and did repeat the accomplishment of a terrific radio design...with this gorgeous model, their 6G-908. Neither of these radios borrows any element of its design at all from the other. Both are fresh and original and have just the two things in common: their brand name, and the word that best describes them: Yaou!

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