Homemade Fisher died..

[hermitcrab]

My avatar is the fisher I made ... I have a 200 CD player connected to it so the wife can easily play music when she wants to ... I come home and she says not working ... I figured she did not have the switches set right... I turn it on and Nothing, Nada, Zilch... if I crank the volume all the way up I can barely hear any sound ... it is both channels and all functions .... either I lost B+ for the amp, or some caps gave up the ghost ... I hope ... worst part is I have to take the back off to get to all the screws I put in to hold the chassis in ...Boo!

[William]

Sorry to hear that, Elton. I hope it's a simple fix but, in the meantime, you can listen to one of your back up units.

Bill

[electra225]

I hate when that happens. Sorry for your trouble. If it just quit all of a sudden, that usually means something simple or something terminal. Good luck.

[Firedome]

What are the electronics in the home-made cabinet? (very pretty btw!)

[hermitcrab]

What are the electronics in the home-made cabinet? (very pretty btw!)

this has the 69T chassis, so far just preliminary poking about I found the output coupling caps to the speakers one is open, and the other has over 30 ohms ESR... but bridging them did nothing .. even touching the center of the volume controls gets nothing... I think I am missing voltage to the preamp board... this will not be a quick fix i'm afraid ...

[Firedome]

So probably out of a '66-ish FIsher Ambassador or some such? I think our own Dave here has one of those chassis.

[hermitcrab]

So probably out of a '66-ish FIsher Ambassador or some such? I think our own Dave here has one of those chassis.

Yep you are correct ... found the components lying up in a hay loft in a barn left there by the previous owners ..my friend purchased the property and found the parts, we just assume that the owner turned it into a liquor cabinet or bar? as no cabinet was found.

[Firedome]

Good on ya for saving it. Many wouldn't have, including me at one time. But I've since gained respect for that era of US-made SS audio, and now feel it's well worth the effort to preserve it. If I could save all the '60s SS Maggie consoles alone that I see around here I'd have a barn full, there's always at least 1 or 2 on CL and FBM here at any given time. SS FIshers I see only once in a while.

[hermitcrab]

We have a couple Fishers on the local FB market right now.... one has been up for over a couple months and about 5 miles from me... they are asking 125 for it ... it is the electra model with a dual 1010 changer...with all the paperwork in great looking condition if I had room ....a couple others in detroit area...
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... c3-4ffe-ad
and another https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 16d4bb-edc

[TC Chris]

That first Fisher lives where my Chevy and sailboat live.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

And looks like a bargain at $125.

Chris

[TC Chris]

The second one is near Flint; post-US Fisher. And ugly, or rather, UGLY.

Chris

[hermitcrab]

Agreed it is kind of ugly... don't know the point of the cabinet jutting out like that in the center

[hermitcrab]

well I can report the stereo is fixed... I found a bunch of those german electrolytics blown out on the ends , now I got great sound and FM is great, but the AM is crap...very weak, can't even pick up a local station unless I place my hand on the ferrite antenna ... tried to do a alignment and nothing is working , AM RF adj... does nothing, AM Mixer does nothing , now I am going through the IF checking all the transistors , thankfully they are all socketed ... I got some of those russian PNP germanium transistors that shango always uses ...just might give them a try for substitutes... I hope it is not the sealed front end tuner box

[William]

It's good to hear you solved your dead Fisher problem, but not so good you found another problem in the process. I have confidence that you will make it all better again.

Bill

[hermitcrab]

Glad to report the fisher is back together and working fine , the AM will always be a problem as I found a broken connection from the ferrite rod into the sealed box of a tuner ... no way to fix that unless I find a new tuner... don't play AM that much anyway.. I did pull the pickering cart out and installed a AT3600, mainly because they are cheap in price for a magnetic and it has a 78 needle option , ... the pickerings do as well , but they seem to wear out quicker than most styli , so I am trying the AT3600 to see how well they last... the AT3600 voltage is a tenth of a volt lower than a pickering... and you can tell by where you have to set the volume .... also the bass seems lacking more ...but it tracks perfect at 3 grams ... time will tell I guess.

[William]

Where did you get your cartridge, Elton? Was it from Gary?

Bill

[hermitcrab]

Yes I did ... I also found a seller on E-bay selling Phanstiel 182 cartridges for 5 bucks a piece,same price as what the styli go for ... so I snapped up a couple of them ... Gary is asking 20 bucks a piece..