the fisher gramophone, series 101

madwing

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i bought this the other day from a local gent whose father used it back in the day in asbury park, nj as the "jukebox" for his roller rink...so goes the story, anyway.

it has a "chassis 50" push-pull el84 mono amp, with a 5y3gt rectifier, and 12ax7 and 6sc7 preamp tubes. it also has a garrard 121 D turntable, and three jensen p8rx speakers in the bottom (two facing forward, one backwards; there is also a connector bar for an "extension speaker"). note the ad from 1954 reads "dual speakers", while the 1955 catalog references a "triple speaker system"...mine is the latter. the el84 tubes are very, very early valvo (hamburg) tubes with the solid elliptical getter, and as such are apparently rather rare :D

can anyone tell me anything about this amp? it does not appear in any catalogs i can find, and it's NOT the "model 50-A" that is referenced in other places.

the amp has four phono settings: WORN, RIAA, AES, and EUR, plus two aux settings. i plan to set it up so i can listen to both records and ipod (all songs ripped w/apple lossless; not perfect, but should sound great). i couldn't get the ipod to put signal through the aux ports. i ran the single mini rca out into a stereo split, then rejoined the stereo into a single mini input. most likely the format of the plugs prevented the signal from getting out. sixcats, you said you'd set up a plug from an ipod for mono...care to share your method?

while i typed and took pictures of the console i had the pleasure of listening to my own first spun vinyl since about 1988...i cannot WAIT to hear more, especially through my pilot console. it sounded nice through this, though there is some hum, and scratch in the pots, and the turntable rumbles. i'll leave it as is, until my pilot is done, then get to this to make it work cleanly.

btw, the catalog scan and ad are courtesy of thered1 (the catalog scan originated with duffinator). my console is the model 101-B, in limed oak. you can find more of the catalog in this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154781
 

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Looks exactly like the model 51 amp that I have... haven't found any information on it myself. I'd like to see a close-up of the knobs and panel markings, since I don't even know what the switch settings are...
 
i'll take another picture tonight, tom, with the panel in place and the knobs set up.

does yours have the two aux inputs on the top, one next to each el84?
 
I ran across a few more ads for the 101. The earliest ones are from Sept. 1954 which is probably for the '55 model year. No information on the 50 amp except that Fisher claimed 10 watts for it. Now all you need is a matching SS speaker unit.

Sept. 54
101Sept54.jpg

Feb. 55
Model101Feb1955.jpg

Apr. 56
Model101Model55Apr1956.jpg
 
i think mine is late '56, at the earliest. the speakers are the 45th week of '56 (thus november); the tubes are january of '56. maybe they bought it for the roller rink just in time for the skating season of '56? :scratch2:
 
tom, here is the picture of the knobs/labels. the "automatic shutoff" knob (leftmost) is at the 5y3gt end of the amp, the "selector" knob is at the same end as the 6sc7.
 

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