Mystery component

[ihatemornings]

Apologies if this is a silly question, but I was born in 1980, long after these components were made...

What are the two long green/black spiral patterned components? A continuity check on my multimeter gives me a beep in both directions, so I guess it's not a diode or a resistor...

[toodles]

They are probably wire-wound resistors, the "wire" being the spiral wrap, and since the wrap is quite a wide band, the resistance value is likely very low. Try a digital ohm meter to read the value. They would be rated for quite high power--a watt up to several watts, perhaps even 10 watts.

[John Vanderlee]

These are often part of a transistor amplifier output stage, used to bias the emitters of the big output transistors. They may be as little as .2 ohms, so the continuity checker thinks it's a piece of wire.

[ihatemornings]

Thanks! Both very useful answers. I think that's exactly what they are.