BACKGROUND:
PYE were originally a British company, their products were aimed at the professional broadcast market and they were a well established "name" in that industry until around the mid 1980's when the company was "divested" with Philips picking up a number of their products but for the consumer, products were then produced in the PYE "name only", being manufactured in Taiwan i.e made to a consumer "price point"
HERE is a great wealth of information about PYE UK, the birth of the company and their progression through the years, with a number of interesting articles and photographs.
These knobs were extracted from a CD6D "HiFi" Cassette machine produced under the name PYE in the 1980's. I seriously doubt anyone is actually going to restore an old PYE consumer model piece of equipment BUT think laterally, just perhaps these knobs may suit use with other audio related consumer equipment, Japanese amplifiers spring to mind.
UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - Metal Front Panel Knobs PLUS the main ON-OFF switch
Probable country of origin: Japan or Taiwan (the switch certainly looks to be Japanese)
The three knobs are all real Aluminium "skins" with a plastic body. They are not solid Aluminium nor are they those knobs which have the Aluminium look painted on!
All knobs are circular and in the original equipment, were used for the following functions:
Power ON-OFF
Tape Selector
Dolby NR ON-OFF
Additionally, the Power knob remains fitted to the shaft of the switch mechanism
The switch is Push ON Push OFF latching type
DPST
The switch body has a Mitsubishi logo stamped into it and the text on one side indicates it is rated at 5A @ 250V AC
Type number is SS-13
DIMENSIONS:
Power Knob
13.6mm OD x 16mm length
The whole Aluminium section is metal, unlike the other two knobs.
The Tape Select & Dolby NR buttons are identical, measuring ...
9.5mm OD x 18mm TOTAL length - I say total because with these knobs, the Aluminium section is 12.25mm length with the remaining 5.75mm being Black plastic shaped like a flange
Effectively these two knobs are a hybrid of the Aluminium top section and plastic lower section.
NOTE: I presume these two sections have been glued at the factory because I could not separate them at all using normal force without damaging the part.
All of these knobs are intended to fit a plastic or nylon shaft which is shaped as a very small square at the end of the shaft ... the shaft fits VERY snuggly into the knob female section and I suspect that again, the factory added some glue to make life difficult!
ANOTHER NOTE: I had a devil of a time removing the two identical knobs from their shafts but ended up succeeding and not damaging the knob(s)
I left the Power knob & switch connected together, I didn't want to risk damaging the shaft of the Power switch.
I cannot give the dimensions for the square female socket inside the two knobs as it is buried quite deeply into the knob and my micrometer just will not fit inside the knob.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Clean
All knob metallic sections are bright and shiny, without surface scratching
Internal female sockets on the two smaller knobs are undamaged in any way
I cannot vouch for the larger Power knob - shaft junction as these remain connected together and I chose to leave them that way.
The locking switch action is positive - very good in fact.
Electrically, the switch checks out fine on both poles.
I have now packed these knobs and the switch into a sealed clear plastic packet and ensured no damage can occur to the metallic knobs.
