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Custom Electra Gotham found on ranch 1956?

E

electracoupe

New Member
Hello: I am new on this forum. I just got a phone call last week from a remote ranch in south central Wyoming; "I have an old radio and you can have it if you haul it away"....OK I said, will be right over. Here is what I hauled home. I think it is a 1956 or 1957 Custom Electra w/ Gotham cabinet. From the console website I found on here, it should have RC88/4 turntable but this one has a RC121D table? Chassis is K-14 200w Serial #65651, which jives w/ 1955/56 units, but I don't see any Gotham cabinet offered in those years? 1957 should have a K-100 chassis I think? Can anyone shed any light on this unit? All functions work GREAT...including the radio am/fm. I played an old Savoy blues album and it sounded fantastic! I think I got lucky on this jem.





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I have two Custom Electra II's with the K-100 chassis.

The one Custom Electra I that I worked on had the K-14 chassis.

The K-14 chassis has 4 6V6 output tubes while the K-100 has 2 EL37 output tubes. Both my Custom Electra II's have the RC88 turntables. The Custom Electra I that I worked on had a replacement turntable so I don't know what the original turntable was. The Custom Electra II has 3 speakers. The Custom Electra I had just one speaker.

I believe your radio is from 1955.

It's in very nice condition. I suggest that someone work on the chassis before you play it too much. A couple of bad capacitors could cause transformer damage.

Good luck with it!
 
Lucky indeed! That is an amazing console! Did you clean it up or did you find it in that condition? I think you are correct that yours is the Gotham cabinet. The K-14 chassis with the six knobs and integrated Z-Matic debuted in 1955 and may have carried over into the early months of 1956. However, it was replaced by the K-15 chassis for the bulk of the '56 model year. It looks like yours would date to right around the changeover between the '55s and the '56s. You've basically got a '55 chassis in a '56 cabinet. The '55 cabinet was called the "Rhondo" and was finished in "Limed Oak". The "Gotham" in Walnut, which is what yours appears to be, came out in '56. The basic design of the cabinet is identical - just different woods and finishes. There was also a piano-black '56 model (EK-14) based on that design called the "Ebony".

AK member Duffinator has a '55 Custom Electra in the Normandy cabinet (NK-14) that was passed down to him. I know he treasures that one. You can look up his '55 in the 1945-1958 Fisher Consoles sticky at the top of the page. In post #1 there's a link to a Roster of all the other mono Fisher consoles here at AudioKarma. Give me a few minutes and I'll add yours to that list.

Duffinator is also responsible for these '55 catalog scans which list a close approximation of your console as model RK-14 in the Rhondo cabinet. Yours, as indicated in one of your excellent photos, is model GK-14. Here's a link for Duffinator's '55 catalog:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1763471#post1763471

Note in the Technical Specifications sections that a 3-speed record changer is listed. That's your RC121D. Fisher changed over to 4-speeds like the RC88 in 1956. Also mentioned is the single dual-coaxial Jensen that you should find in yours vs. the 3-way system in the '56 and later Custom Electras that Jon discussed above.

I have scans of the operators manual and sundry other scraps of paper that Duffinator kindly scanned for me. I can send you copies if you PM me with an email address.

Jon didn't mention it, but he has the schematic for the K-14 listed under "Custom Electra I" at his Fisher Consoles website.
 
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WHOA!!!!! What a way to introduce yourself to AK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! Keep it intact, and please at least check under the hood to check the caps, and replace if original.

I'd love to see that JENSEN coax inside.

Larry
 
TheRed1 said:
Note in the Technical Specifications sections that a 3-speed record changer is listed. That's your RC121D. Fisher changed over to 4-speeds like the RC88 in 1956.
Click to expand...

My Contemporary and the Medalist II parts donor both had RC121D tables, and both were made after 1956. Both were equipped with GE VR carts - a VRII on the Contemporary and a VR-RPX on the slightly older Medalist II.

Also mentioned is the single dual-coaxial Jensen that you should find in yours vs. the 3-way system in the '56 and later Custom Electras that Jon discussed above.
Click to expand...

G610?!?
 
Sam Cogley said:
My Contemporary and the Medalist II parts donor both had RC121D tables, and both were made after 1956. Both were equipped with GE VR carts - a VRII on the Contemporary and a VR-RPX on the slightly older Medalist II.
Click to expand...
Are you sure yours aren't the 4-speed RC121 MkII's rather then the 3-speed RC121D model? Both your Contemporary and Medalist II were advertised as having 4-speed Garrard changers. However, the specific changer model isn't specified.

Sam Cogley said:
G610?!?
Click to expand...
I think the G-610 was a TRI-axial. It also retailed for about half the price of a Custom Electra, although there was the Custom Electra Deluxe model with the deluxe speaker system (deluxe price as well). Come to think of it that was a multicellular horn-type coaxial - not a tri-axial. I'm not sure exactly what model coaxial speaker to expect but the cross-section diagram that Fisher put in their mid-50s catalogs sure looks like a Jensen. Maybe an H-510? Perhaps electracoupe will do some console spelunking with a camera for us . . .
 
TheRed1 said:
Are you sure yours aren't the 4-speed RC121 MkII's rather then the 3-speed RC121D model? Both your Contemporary and Medalist II were advertised as having 4-speed Garrard changers. However, the specific changer model isn't specified.
Click to expand...

That could be. I only remember that they're 121s, not 88s.

I think the G-610 was a TRI-axial. It also retailed for about half the price of a Custom Electra, although there was the Custom Electra Deluxe model with the deluxe speaker system (deluxe price as well). Come to think of it that was a multicellular horn-type coaxial - not a tri-axial. I'm not sure exactly what model coaxial speaker to expect but the cross-section diagram that Fisher put in their mid-50s catalogs sure looks like a Jensen. Maybe an H-510? Perhaps electracoupe will do some console spelunking with a camera for us . . .
Click to expand...

Terminology for those things was very fluid then, and we do know that some early Fisher consoles used G610s...
 
Nice find! Good luck bringing it back to life. Someday I'm going to find that lonely Fisher console in someone's basement... :music:

Kory
 
Spelunking inside cabinet

Hello to all who posted: I took your cues, spelunked inside and here is what I found: I assume this is the JENSEN speaker you refer to? #220621 LS547 113-C5979. I did NO CLEANING to entire unit, it was inside in a clean house all it's life, original owner is who called me up. He also gave me a WAVE MAGNET Zenith portable as a bonus (does not work). This jewel has just a few scratches here and there. I will attempt to locate a radio savvy person here near Laramie/Rawlins Wyoming to change the capacitors to prevent transformer damage as suggested. I am not even sure which they are (being a neophyte tube guy and not ever messing w/ these). I do see the 4 small output tubes in right front of the chassis, I think these are them? I am a "newbie" when it comes to these components, so please forgive my ignorance, go easy on me (ha!). I wish this had dual speakers side by side, it would sound so much better, but not bad now. I don't plan on touching the wood or changing a thing besides the caps (can someone suggest where to buy them or who to call?)



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I would also recommend changing out the insulation in that cabinet.

Here is a picture of the Jensen I was thinking of.
 

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kpaxfaq said:
Nice find! Good luck bringing it back to life. Someday I'm going to find that lonely Fisher console in someone's basement... :music:

Kory
Click to expand...

We can all dream can't we? I don't think I've seen more than one Fisher console in my entire life,and that was solid state.I did once find a working RC 121 in a dumpster outside a VFW hall.I honestly can't recall if I sold it or put it in storage.
 
I must be getting tired. When I first glanced at this thread I thought the title read:

Custom Carmen Electra found on ranch 1956?



RC
 
Very nice!!
Just as an FYI, there should be some very worth parts in that unit as the schematic indicates 3 12AX7s and 2 12AT7s probably fisher branded Telefunkens. And that headshell with the turn spindle in it indicates that the sought after GE VR cartridge may be lurking beneath.

Sometimes it's the little things like this that really as some spice to the deal!!
 
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