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Minor Vintage Repair?

I've got a 40 year old Toshiba SA-2500  25 wpc receiver I got back in high school. Mid-fi at best in its day but well reviewed in its day and well reviewed recently by vintage audiophiles. It is in good shape and I use it regularly down at my country place. However, the light behind the station indicator is burned out. Without it you can't see which station you're on and you can't tell when the unit is on or off. The clear plastic indicator moves back and forth on a cable moved by the tuning dial. There is a wire that goes to it that presumably provides the power to the light but I do not see anything there that looks like a conventional light bulb.

Anyone have any idea how I can fix this? Probably not worth spending the money on sending it to anyone for professional repair.
n80
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Blast from the past, I sold many of those back in the day working for University Stereo.

I don’t have first hand knowledge of the Tosh after so many years, but the illumination is usually provided by a minuture lamp embedded at the very top of the indicator and often covered by the bent metal piece the attaches the top of the indicator to the dial string.

I replace these with LEDs and typically replace all of the other dial lights with them at the same time. Best of luck. Great receiver!
n80 OP
1,227 posts
 
@viridian Thanks. Do you know if these LEDs have to be soldered in? I can solder.....but its not pretty.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Sorry, I do not, as I don’t have a 2500 here to look at. There were various designs for those grain of rice bulbs, most do not require soldering. Once you get to it IMHO it will be clear (no pun intended).
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
Lots of discussions on MAC gear sites replacing the old little bulbs with LED.
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