Clocks & Music
1945 RCA Victor 56X3 Two-Tone Wood Tube Radio Restored with Bluetooth
1945 RCA Victor 56X3 Two-Tone Wood Tube Radio Restored with Bluetooth
This 1945 RCA Victor Model 56X3 is a compact tabletop set with a two-tone wood cabinet, a warm honey-toned top and sides paired with a dark, near-black lower panel. A wide fluted grille spans the front beneath a reverse-painted glass dial reading "RCA Victor," with broadcast frequencies from 55 to 160 marked alongside a "United States" label and rewind-style tuning icon. Three dark Bakelite knobs run across the lower panel for tuning, volume, and tone.
The 56X3 is a six-tube AC/DC superheterodyne set built for the standard broadcast band, produced by RCA at the close of the Second World War as radio manufacturing resumed for civilian markets after years of wartime production restrictions. Its cabinet favors a rounded, softened take on the streamlined wood tabletop designs common in the prewar years, built by RCA's own cabinet shop in Camden, New Jersey rather than an outside contractor, a detail that became a point of pride for the model among collectors today.
Several production runs of the 56X3 chassis were made in 1945 and 1946, with small variations in dial styling and interior components between runs, but all share the same general layout and six-tube AC/DC circuit. This example carries the cabinet and dial styling typical of the model at its introduction, offering a clean postwar transitional look between prewar wood radio design and the simpler cabinets that would follow later in the decade.
This example has been restored and equipped with Bluetooth through a 1/8 inch adapter, allowing a smartphone, tablet, computer, or record player to connect and play through the radio's original tube driven sound. The result pairs modern convenience with the warm tone of a vintage RCA Victor set, housed in one of the more understated and handsome wood cabinets of the immediate postwar period.
