TheRed1
Console Conservationist
My second in as many weeks. A Custom Electra III:
I'm not really trying to amass a Fisher console collection...in fact I have placed the one from last week into a good home. I'll just need some help getting it up a flight of stairs.
This weeks' find is very interesting. When I went to look at it the owner happily turned it on to show me it still worked, while; at the same time, handing me two EL-84s she had found loose in the back. Looking inside I saw a 30A monoblock which was missing its output tubes. All this while the radio was playing. I explained how this shouldn't be happening and the owner just smiled a said it must be a miracle.
This console had been sitting in their basement since the 70's and had apparently been a hiding place for their children's (now in their late 30s) toys and various other pieces of debris I pulled out of the access hole in the back. There was an ancient flea collar around the big power supply capacitor and several hundred puzzle pieces floating around inside there. Basically a fire just begging to happan.
When I couldn't find anyone to help me get it up their steep and narrow basement stairs I figured I could take it apart and carry it out piece by piece. I solved the mystery of the miraculous 30A when I pulled the 610-ST control amp/tuner and saw the two EL-84s and the output transformer in that jumble of tubes.
Once I got the console broken down, the owner's husband and I managed to get the woodwork out to my van and the rest was easy. I should probably mount a flashing light and paint "Console Rescue" on the side of my van with the amount that keep cropping up here in Northern Virginia. This one will be a Christmas present if I can get it fixed up in time.
I'm not really trying to amass a Fisher console collection...in fact I have placed the one from last week into a good home. I'll just need some help getting it up a flight of stairs.
This weeks' find is very interesting. When I went to look at it the owner happily turned it on to show me it still worked, while; at the same time, handing me two EL-84s she had found loose in the back. Looking inside I saw a 30A monoblock which was missing its output tubes. All this while the radio was playing. I explained how this shouldn't be happening and the owner just smiled a said it must be a miracle.
This console had been sitting in their basement since the 70's and had apparently been a hiding place for their children's (now in their late 30s) toys and various other pieces of debris I pulled out of the access hole in the back. There was an ancient flea collar around the big power supply capacitor and several hundred puzzle pieces floating around inside there. Basically a fire just begging to happan.
When I couldn't find anyone to help me get it up their steep and narrow basement stairs I figured I could take it apart and carry it out piece by piece. I solved the mystery of the miraculous 30A when I pulled the 610-ST control amp/tuner and saw the two EL-84s and the output transformer in that jumble of tubes.
Once I got the console broken down, the owner's husband and I managed to get the woodwork out to my van and the rest was easy. I should probably mount a flashing light and paint "Console Rescue" on the side of my van with the amount that keep cropping up here in Northern Virginia. This one will be a Christmas present if I can get it fixed up in time.