1962 Fisher Ambassador Italian Provincial

sold it in August 2015 for $250

I have been hearing allot about how I should get more modern audio gear and I always thought my 1959 Fisher console sounded pretty good but I decided to relent to peer pressure and upgrade to this more modern 1962 console for my office tube system

I found this sleeper in CL under Fisher record player with only a single picture of the cabinet. A quick review of the AK Fisher forum and the Fisher console thread and I determined that this 1962 Fisher Ambassador IV was a total GEM.

All original everything (well maybe)

660a amp with original Fisher 7591 outputs
All 12ax7 tubes are Fisher branded
Multiplex unit for FM stereo
Original Pickering cart and stylus sounds great

The changer cycles like new

Original documentation


What can I say, Arizona Electronics

Some more pictures
This is barn found and I have not done any cleanup yet.
Look at that build up of years of dust

That looks sweet.

Wow - that is a museum piece. Congratulations! I love that 6G-E12A tuning eye. You can always tell when Fall is in the air by the faint whiff of warm console dust. Seems like I might have to get cracking on an update of the Roster soon.

I love Omegaman's comment about upgrading.....Yeah, 3 years of upgrade!!!

WOW! Absolutely STUNNNING! Brush off the dust, and variac it the 1st power up. Looks like one of the can caps was replaced sometime in the 70's (note the TALL Sprague Can cap on the amp.) Check the voltages and if ok, i'd run it cautiously for a while and replace the caps in it when you can.

Larry

A recap will occur

larryderouin said:

I love Omegaman's comment about upgrading.....Yeah, 3 years of upgrade!!!

WOW! Absolutely STUNNNING! Brush off the dust, and variac it the 1st power up. Looks like one of the can caps was replaced sometime in the 70's (note the TALL Sprague Can cap on the amp.) Check the voltages and if ok, i'd run it cautiously for a while and replace the caps in it when you can.

Larry

Click to expand...

Hey, three years is three years ya know...baby steps

I was under the impression that no work had been done on this unit but it does look like service was performed. I will pull the amp and check it out

I did fire it up and it works great, I will use a little deoxit and change the paper caps. Quiet as a mouse. The tuning eye is weak but does work

looks pretty darn clean, factory fresh almost. that thing screams quality, must have been TOTL

Even your sense of humor is dry.

Congratulations on landing a beauty.

iwilson said:

looks pretty darn clean, factory fresh almost. that thing screams quality, must have been TOTL

Click to expand...

Actually it's #4 of 8 President, Executive, Chatham, AMBASSADOR, Futura, Custom Electra, Chadwick, and Philharmonic. High end of MOTL. Seems the MOTL models are the most prevalent here with a smattering of TOTL and BOTL models.

Model lineups are on the FISHER CONSOLE site.
http://www.fisherconsoles.com

Woo hoo, we're #4, we're #4

Very clean for a barn find, that's for sure

Omegaman said:

Woo hoo, we're #4, we're #4

Click to expand...

Also, by my count, this is your fourth Fisher console. Is that correct?

Compendium/Roster Sticky Updated! See top of page for my attempt at a complete listing of all of AK's Fisher consoles with a link to each of their individual threads. Last updated in Oct. 2012 there were quite a few new additions. If I have missed any please let me know and I will add them.

I sold the '62 teak Electra V

The Barzilay doesn't really count, even though its filled with tube Fisher gear.

It's really just this Ambassador and the '59 consolette with matching extension speaker and super cool 30A amp.

I wasn't counting the Barzilay - I thought you had four factory Fishers. I must have counted one twice. I've been staring at those listings for too long this evening. I double entered Larry's Executive but fortunately he caught it quick, shot me a PM and it's already corrected. Good thing, too, since I'm within a line's worth of characters from maxing out AK's 10K limit.

Did your Electra go to an AK'er? Or was it sold out of the fold?

TheRed1 said:

Did your Electra go to an AK'er? Or was it sold out of the fold?

Click to expand...

What can I say? They offered crazy money for it

They bought it for the MCM style and not for the audio

BEAUTIFUL! And the light cabinet is great. Autumn must be console season. And the fact that it was in regular use is a plus, plus, plus...

If I had a console in my office, I'd NEVER get any work done!

Very clean and well taken care of! You're one lucky guy!
Congrats to you on your find...

John

Pulled the receiver chassis and recapped it. All tubes test excellent. Did a De-oxit session on the sockets and controls. Put in LED festoon lamps (meh), measured all the resistors and remaining caps and made sure it had the correct fuse in the holder

Pulled the sweet, sweet 660A amp and used my tears of joy to gently clear away the little dust that had accumulated. I changed what caps I could get to and cleaned the tube sockets and adjustment controls

Powers up and sounds very silky smooth. Rare unobtainum Eye tube works. Pulls in stations nice

7591's sound different than EL84's

There are issues though..

The balance has to be all the way to the right to hear the right channel, but it sounds fine and I just back off the balance a little till I get both channels equal sound. Sounds great with plenty of volume and tone control

If I then increase the volume, the balance shifts back to the left side and I have to modify the balance setting to get matched volume per channel

I ohm'ed the volume pot and it does not track well and drops out in places on the right channel. The balance pot did ohm out reasonable. So the volume pot needs to be rebuilt

The changer operates as new and the Pickering stylus and cartridge appear to be original. Sounds quiet

I do need to apply damper fluid because the tone arm drops too fast...after I stupidly lubed the spindle

It's full of Stars...


I am just going to use it in its present condition until I can get the control rebuilt

Omegaman said:

Pulled the sweet, sweet 660A amp and used my tears of joy to gently clear away the little dust that had accumulated.

Click to expand...

I thought I had it pretty bad . . . it seems there are some even worse afflicted than I.

TheRed1 said:

I thought I had it pretty bad . . . it seems there are some even worse afflicted than I.

Click to expand...

Hmm, I wonder if I can get on disability with my "affliction"

In my experience, I am very likely to be the last person who IS enthusiastic about this console