First Console Rescue

I didn't seek this one out, it found me. I don't have room for another but there it sits in the basement.

I have been forwarding interesting Craiglist posts to a friend in a half-joking attempt at winning her over to the dark side of dusty old tubes and the warm smell (and sound) of old circuitry....without any success....until the other day when she e-mailed me that she had replied to an add for an interesting Fisher console in DC. But then I didn't hear any more about that and I figured that was the end of it....until she forwarded a reply she received from the seller saying he just wanted to find a good home for it and not to worry about the money.

So I contacted him and went through the story of who I was and how I came to hear he wanted to give away his old console and he replied that I should come and get it. And so I did. Very nice guy, told me the console's history and how they were moving to a small apartment from the now almost empty large row house they had been renting. I offered to pay something for it but he wouldn't take anything and helped me wrestle it out to and into my vehicle - no small feat.

I haven't attempted to turn it on but I did notice the disapointing lack of output tubes and the transistors in their place. Still, it appears the preamp is tube based, though I am not sure if it is completely silicon free or some kind of transitional hybrid. Maybe someone could help with that. But the cabinet itself is in very good condition with a Dual 1010. The guy said it works but I'm not sure how well.

Now I already have several candidates for its next owner but, if they should fall through; I will certainly canvas the local AKers to see if anyone is intrigued.

I dig it!

Looks very clean and nice looking piece of furniture. I am sure it would make someone very happy.

That's an above-average quality piece. Curious how it sounds....

Thats a piece I would consider bringing home.I look at all the consoles in the thrifts but they are early 70's ss or plastic coffin looking jobs.

This bit of good fortune has been balanced by the long awaited arrival of my Fisher 400 back from a NOSValves overhaul. FEX EX beat it up pretty good. Tubes were knocked loose and rattling around the box, two switches sheared off, the mount and window for the cool Stereo Beam tuning indicator knocked loose and who knows what else. I am so bummed!

That's a heckuva nice first console there. I sold Scott and Fisher consoles for a short time in the 60's and they were well above the mass market consoles of their day.

If I had the room I'd love to have one myself.

What kiind of changer does this one have? IIRC, soneme had Duals and others had Garrards. Who kows what else they stuffed in there because from what I can see in the picture, it's neither of the above.

Markw said:

What kiind of changer does this one have? IIRC, soneme had Duals and others had Garrards. Who kows what else they stuffed in there because from what I can see in the picture, it's neither of the above.

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Actually it's a Dual 1010, complete with all its accessories.

superdog said:

Thats a piece I would consider bringing home.I look at all the consoles in the thrifts but they are early 70's ss or plastic coffin looking jobs.

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I like consoles that look like coffins! All you need now is to have a fog machine to fill the bottom of the room and the console full of fog!

That would make a great idea for next Halloween! :bat:

Nice console. The Fisher tube units were some of the best sounding and there's nothing shabby about a Dual.
Sorry to hear about the shipping damage. I'm going to have to start crating if these idiots keep it up. At present, I make an enclosure of 1 1/2" pink styrene board to completely box the gear but these shippers can make physics seem irrelevant.

Kewl !

To cheer myself up I decided to see if it would work and...nothing. After a bit of fiddling with the controls I looked around the room and noticed the other end of the extension cord was not plugged in and...still nothing. Looks like the Dual needs some attention so I hand spin the platter through a start cycle and it starts to spin on its own but it's making some unhealthy noises and when I drop the needle...nothing.

Just on a whim I switched it over to FM and I got a nice little hum and then the outer edges of the "Staton Indicator" began to glow a raw electric blue, converging on the center as Santana's "She's Not There" started to eminate from behind the doors closed over the speakers. This really impressed me as my basement is below grade and I need an outside antenna to get decent reception with my other receivers down there.

Now the sound wasn't all that impressive with the doors closed but after opening them it wasn't all that bad either. The "Stereo Beacon" was pretty dim but a look inside the preamp compartment revealed the lamp had fallen out of it's little tube and pushing it back into place gave me a nice bright beacon. I tried my test station and it came in loud and clear - this thing has a first class tuner!

My friend, Sandi, who I forwarded the Craiglist ad for this console to; dropped by this evening and I showed it to her. She went home to check with her sister to see if they could figure out a good place to put it in their townhome. It doesn't look like I'll have a very hard time finding a good home for this orphan.

One really curious feature my fiancee noticed when I took her down to look at it: a small white light on the bottom of the front console that shines through a tiny hole drilled into the kickboard or whatever you'd call the bottom piece of trim. It looks original. Maybe it's so you know you left the stereo on when the lid's down.

Light

My grandmother's Magnavox has a red light like that. It's original to hers.

vinyldavid said:

My grandmother's Magnavox has a red light like that. It's original to hers.

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What do you think its purpose is?

Consoles usually sound pretty good, but they are huge, usually underpowered (the ones I've found anyway), and a few I've run across are ugly. They aren't ugly due to wear or abuse, they were just designed to look awful. IMO

The best console I've found and still have is a Magnavox console. It's in great cosmetic shape, and actually looks pretty nice.

It's to let people know that the stereo's on.

Fast forward to 2012 or so. I got a call from Red about possibly overhauling the 49A/ 49T on this Custom Electra. I took it on as I had just recently done my C.E. VIII and Futura VI (both hybrids). Turns out Sandi's C.E. is a '66 model (the DUAL was the KEY, my 65's have Miracords.) but the internals are identical to the '65's. The Surgery went well, and Sandi was very pleased. About mid 2014, apparently a wall hung painting fell off the wall, sliding down behind the CE and sheared off the Main Filter caps on the amp. I got called and the fix was in. As far as I know, it's still running strong, and it's placed in the same spot, which IMO is an ideal spot for the 1st floor and outside. It really does sound good, and aesthetically it blends in to the house furnishings very well.

Nice!