Classic Hifi Care

Hi-Fi Mogul was recently contacted by someone seeking repair help for a Fisher console, and asked me if I wanted to take on the
tuner and amp repair. What she has is a Fisher Statesman console, Model S-70 with the SA-100 amplifier that she acquired at an estate auction for $200. Hi-Fi Mogul took on the task of returning the Garrard changer to operational status and I picked up the tuner and amp a week or so later. A quick visual; inspection showed no burned resistors, exploded caps or transformers oozing anything. Testing the tubes showed that ~70% were still good so after performing a continuity test on the transformers I ordered replacement tubes and put in an order for capacitors and a bridge rectifier for the filament supply with Mouser electronics. I started with the amplifier and after replacing the tubes and capacitors I powered it up and set the bias voltage per factory specs. I had a bit of trouble with one channel so I cleaned all the tube pins and sockets and re-soldered a few tube pin connections. This solved the problem, so I moved on to the tuner re-cap, playing music through the amp while doing the work. After re-stuffing 2 of the electrolytic cans and replacing the filament supply rectifier, I carefully disconnected the parts from the others and mounted new caps underneath the chassis. I connected the amp and turned everything on and after the tubes warmed up I was able to tune stations on AM and FM and connected a Bluetooth receiver to the AUX input. So satisfied that it would work, I proceeded to replace the small electrolytic caps and all of the brown capacitors. Upon completion I cleaned all of the tube pins and sockets, removed dust from the chassis and polished up the tube shields and carefully lubed the tuner string pulleys. After that all of the pots were cleaned and lubricated and once the cleaner dried I moved the tuner and amp to my living room, connected the amp to my JBL Lancer 77s and connected a turntable. A RCA Red Seal recording of Beethoven's 6th Symphony seemed appropriate and that kicked of a 4 hour set of music to get everything up to temperature and see if anything started making noise or causing distortion. The sound was everything I expected from Fisher equipment, so the owner was contacted and I re-installed everything into the pristine cabinet yesterday. I fabricated a bracket to mount a 3 inch fan to help cool the amp and mounted it on the cabinet. After everything was re-connected, we turned it on and she was amazed at the quality of the sound and excited to spend time playing records after waiting several years to find someone to repair it. This is the fourth Fisher that I have worked on including my Dad's 500B that I still have, a Custom Electra III and a 400 and this one impressed me as much as the others.

Impressive transformers on that amp!

Chris Campbell

Here's the Garrard RC 88/4 from the Fisher.

From my research, I think it should have had the
better Type A changer.
This may have been a transition period between
the 1960 and 1961 Statesman models, and
there were RC 88/4's in Fisher inventory yet.

The cycling mech was not frozen up, so cleaning was not
difficult.
The motor rotor and bearings looked
clean as a whistle when dis-assembled.

The original Shure M7D cartridge tested good,
and I got several N7D styli from the Voice of Music.

Removing the cartridge head was one of the most
difficult things to do. It is just a friction fit, but a
very tight fit.

The idler needed replacement, and then it
was all ready to go.

As Dave1138 stated, the nice younger customer was
thrilled to hear it.
He did another great effort on this one.

MIssion accomplished for hi-fi goodwill.

Very impressive components and a great job by you both. Congrats on another piece of vintage electronics saved.

Bill

Gorgeous. Something special about the brass-faced Fishers.

I think the type A started going in consoles in '61, at least the President. My executive has the 88. The Statesman is a pretty rare piece. Glad it survived.

I like hearing stories of collaborative efforts to restore quality equipment. At least the cabinet did not require work, an item that I would definitely leave to others.

In this case, the owner was fortunate to locate not just a tech but a team, who has experience on Fisher's more prestigious tube models. If more folks that want these as their home systems may realize, its not too hard to find due diligence in repair help.

The last player I sold was fitted with a Garrard AT6, which the new owner is very happy with. An entire generation seems to forget stacking records but this was a requirement for this customer, who is much younger than me. I was just glad he liked the cabinet on the 1967 Custom Electra X, 220T/21R receiver chassis and the fact it had a changer. The original Dual 1009 did not work reliably for stacked play, thus I replaced it with the AT6. The rebuilt Dual 1000-series spindles may need some refinement, I have about 4-5 of them waiting for a better solution.

I too love the -pre '62 brass face Fishers best, hard to find in good condition.
Yes, imo the stamped steel platter of the 88 was much improved by the heavy cast turntable on the Type A, along with the more sophisticated arm and much better looks.

That's one nice console though, imho NO-one made a better a better factory-built console than Fisher. The SA-100 (pic 1) is one of the finest basic stereo EL-84/7189 amps of the era, along with the Pilot SA-232 (it seems that the prefix SA was used by several co's to indicate Stereo Amplifier)... for proof just look at the the size of those monster output transformers which tell the quality story right there. Rectification was handled by a slow-warmup Mullard 5AR4, the rectifier of choice, and outputs were typically Mullard or Amperex, Most transformers for Fisher amplifiers and receivers were made by Todd Electric in NYC. I'd be proud to have that gorgeous (and no doubt gorgeous sounding) console playing Beethoven's "Pastorale", it's a musical instrument in the truest sense of the word.

I had one of Fisher's SA-300 EL-34 amps from a President about 20 yrs ago, now owned by Al Pugliese in NYC, "The Fisher Doctor" but honestly felt the SA-100 had the edge in sound quality, sweeter & cleaner. albeit with less power.

At $1245 new t had better be worthy. I like how
Fisher added amps in addition to the receiver. That particular one was, I believe, the 600 in stand alone.

Oddly, the Executive, a step above Statesman and one below President just had the X202 with no additional amp... really wasn't room. There was just enough space behind the r2r drawer for the added mpx.