I have a 800C with the wood enclosure I bought used for 45 dollars in the 1980’s. I have done a alignment and cleaning over the years. It still has the original caps and new brass knob covers. I keep a towel over it for dust when not in use. Just a fantastic stereo receiver. You have one of the best informative restorations I have ever seen. Nice work.
Thank You for this video. Learned a lot. In 1964 ish I remember going with Dad when he bought the Fisher 800 C. It was our family Stereo for 10 years, then it went to University with me. A sound quality problem started. Was ready to try to get it fixed. Saw your video. The tip about the two “Preamp Jumpers” being pushed in too far was great. Unseated the Jumpers. The Fisher 800 C works great now. Thank You.
The Fisher bird logo is a work of art. Does anyone know the history of the logo design?A true labor of love - thank you Al ! I sure hope we can keep these beautiful machines functional and enjoyed by the people who care about them.
Many years ago Avery Fisher sent me a letter and in that letter he told me how the logo came to be. He said that when he was a young man one of his first jobs was a graphic designer for Dodd, Mead & co. in Manhattan. For some perspective this was probably in the 1920's. He said he was assigned to design the Spring edition book catalog cover and used a bird with a twig in its mouth en route to make its nest as the central part of the design. When he went into the Hi-Fi business he liked it so much he substituted a music note for the twig and the logo was born! Good story, eh? I still have the letter!
Excellent video! My father passed in 2015, and left me his beloved 500C, housed in one of those huge wooden furniture consoles. When my mom sold the house a year later, I carefully removed the unit, but have never turned it on since his passing. The unit is in 'like new' condition, since he only used it on Sundays and/or holiday family get togethers. It worked perfectly before he passed, but i've been scared to turn it on all these years, since I read that these old units need to be restored and brought up to speed, in order to be safe and functional. The serial number is 41 thousand something. Many years ago, I even hooked up Magnepan planar speakers to it, and the sound was beyond amazing! Can't wait to get this thing restored and brought up to safety standards!
Everything is nice and calm then some knuckle head messes up the Doc's patient. Now that's passion! Good video, It's been a long time since I've been inside a jukebox amp, they were a lot simpler than this, even the stereo ones. My thought when you first turned it over was Ooofah!
This video is very helpful! Thank you for sharing your decades of experience on how to restore this classic hifi radio 👍 this video is a keeper! I am slowly restoring a 500c using your kit I bought awhile ago. The video is an excellent compliment to the written instructions.
Mind pointing toward more information about your restoration kit? I have a 500c that I'd love to clean up but I'm more than a little gun shy about jumping into it without a good set of training wheels.
@@lanebrinson455 At least SOME soldering experience is recommended. This is really not the place to do your first soldering. You will also need to be able to follow a schematic to locate proper parts. I will be doing another receiver soon and will make another video getting deeper into it.
Fantastic !!! Great video !!! I have a 800c that started to crackle on the left channel then the left channel went out completely. This video is a great start to what not to do . Thank you
Great stuff. Thank you.So glad to have that info on the cap in the MPX. I would say that it would be better to mount the camera on a tripod as the hand held is quite hard to watch.
Amazing work! I got a refurbished 500C last year and am just putting it into a new custom wood case to make it look the part too. I was wondering if and how it would be possible to make the light behind the face panel shine just a tiny bit brighter than it does on ma unit. Is this possible at all? Thanks a lot and greetings from Berlin!
good vid. i have a few pieces i ha e gotten back online. I find it pretty rewarding to get them ba k in the gane. have two 500c and a 400 plus some others,sa 100 sa 300 x202 and some of the earlier mono tuner pre jobs but i couldn't help but notice in the vid is that a luonel chassis on your bench?? looks like either 2020 or 671. I do that too.
Great video! I have the same 500C which I just pulled out after 30 years of storage. When I got it, the string line for the FM tuning capacitor was not connected to the drum at all and the small spring was missing also; it is different from the one in your video as I'm sure you know, the earlier version like mine, has the drum with only one grove and uses that spring on one end of the string line. My problem is I'm having a hard time figuring out how to string /attach it to the drum, (I have a spring ordered) the correct way as to have the tuning capacitor synced with the dial indicator; the string line is not broken. Any pictures or videos you have related to doing this would be a great help!,,,
It took a lot of pain shaking research,,, and the old man told me he got it or bought it in 1967 in Toronto Canada,.. it said on the StereoOVoice,. Turns out it's a Kenwood kw-55, it's got 22 tubes, he threw out the old speakers in perfect condition also and they are 12-in 4-way, tournament magnet made in Denmark, by peerless,, they got some octagon shaped cabinets very large,, it had a dual 1009 integrated phono player
Thanks for the excellent video! I inherited my dad's 500C and had it fully restored 20 years ago. The tube audio guy who rebuilt it said its output was around 35 watts rms as "tested on the scope." Another video similar to yours (presenter was rebuilding a 800B unit) says the 7591 tubes can only output around 25-30 watts, so I'm a bit confused. Are there two variants of the tubes: 7591 and 7591A? When my dad brought it home in 1967 it had a sticker on it that read "75 watts," which I assume was peak power output? Sadly, my capacitors were fried so needed to be replaced with axial caps under the board. Old ones were left in pace for aesthetics. And which brand do you recommend for tube replacement? Best, Fred
We use ammonia with a clean rag followed by another wipe with plain water. Make rag damp but not dripping wet. For tough spots uou can try Goo Gone. This should never hurt the.lteering unless it is already fragile.
Do you thinks it’s possible to add an external phono preamp into my 800C aux input. I did this past week and sound I got was terrible…. I’m try to get a little my boost to my system especially for some of my older records.
Hi, I have Fisher 500B, I have 2 questions : 1- My Tuner does not have any sound at all, Do you think what's the Problem? 2- About the Channel A and B phase Inverter, How To adjust it ? You Told that, Close to Clockwise is OK? Thanks
Re. soldering the gimmick to ground and other BS. Do you remember in the late 60's early 70's when some wag was selling calibrated bricks to place on transformers to "tighten up the sound"? Thanks for dispelling a lot of nonsense. Karl
why stripping caps before actually testing them? the larger caps (placed into banks of 50uF) are much more vulnerable to fail, but they're not tested either. the argument of making hundreds of these units doesn't seem enough to me till i know if they're actually-actually bad-bad. also most of the power strips in the amp are riveted vs. soldered.
@@RenaissancePeopleNYC all i'm asking if you've tested caps; resistors you've replaced if not with this unit on the video then perhaps with the other unit... What if this unit doesn't power up at all or one channel out? Will it solve all the issues at once?
I have a 800C with the wood enclosure I bought used for 45 dollars in the 1980’s. I have done a alignment and cleaning over the years. It still has the original caps and new brass knob covers. I keep a towel over it for dust when not in use. Just a fantastic stereo receiver. You have one of the best informative restorations I have ever seen. Nice work.
Thank You for this video.
Learned a lot.
In 1964 ish I remember going with Dad when he bought the Fisher 800 C.
It was our family Stereo for 10 years, then it went to University with me.
A sound quality problem started. Was ready to try to get it fixed. Saw your video. The tip about the two “Preamp Jumpers” being pushed in too far was great.
Unseated the Jumpers.
The Fisher 800 C works great now.
Thank You.
Fantastic!
The Fisher bird logo is a work of art. Does anyone know the history of the logo design?A true labor of love - thank you Al !
I sure hope we can keep these beautiful machines functional and enjoyed by the people who care about them.
Many years ago Avery Fisher sent me a letter and in that letter he told me how the logo came to be. He said that when he was a young man one of his first jobs was a graphic designer for Dodd, Mead & co. in Manhattan. For some perspective this was probably in the 1920's. He said he was assigned to design the Spring edition book catalog cover and used a bird with a twig in its mouth en route to make its nest as the central part of the design. When he went into the Hi-Fi business he liked it so much he substituted a music note for the twig and the logo was born! Good story, eh? I still have the letter!
Excellent video! My father passed in 2015, and left me his beloved 500C, housed in one of those huge wooden furniture consoles. When my mom sold the house a year later, I carefully removed the unit, but have never turned it on since his passing. The unit is in 'like new' condition, since he only used it on Sundays and/or holiday family get togethers. It worked perfectly before he passed, but i've been scared to turn it on all these years, since I read that these old units need to be restored and brought up to speed, in order to be safe and functional. The serial number is 41 thousand something. Many years ago, I even hooked up Magnepan planar speakers to it, and the sound was beyond amazing! Can't wait to get this thing restored and brought up to safety standards!
Everything is nice and calm then some knuckle head messes up the Doc's patient. Now that's passion! Good video, It's been a long time since I've been inside a jukebox amp, they were a lot simpler than this, even the stereo ones. My thought when you first turned it over was Ooofah!
U are best man to help with my old Fisher 800 F
Thanks for the video. I'm about to restore one and just started watching and I'm sure I'll learn something helpful.
This video is very helpful! Thank you for sharing your decades of experience on how to restore this classic hifi radio 👍 this video is a keeper! I am slowly restoring a 500c using your kit I bought awhile ago. The video is an excellent compliment to the written instructions.
Oh wow that is great! Please let me know if you have any questions. I plan to do more on this unit in the future as well as other units. Thank you!
You may note there are a few steps here not covered in the kit literature due to the complexity but in a video it is much better to demonstrate
Mind pointing toward more information about your restoration kit? I have a 500c that I'd love to clean up but I'm more than a little gun shy about jumping into it without a good set of training wheels.
@@lanebrinson455 At least SOME soldering experience is recommended. This is really not the place to do your first soldering. You will also need to be able to follow a schematic to locate proper parts. I will be doing another receiver soon and will make another video getting deeper into it.
Fantastic !!! Great video !!! I have a 800c that started to crackle on the left channel then the left channel went out completely. This video is a great start to what not to do . Thank you
Great stuff. Thank you.So glad to have that info on the cap in the MPX.
I would say that it would be better to mount the camera on a tripod as the hand held is quite hard to watch.
thank you - yes I am learning hopefully the videos will improve - thanks - AL
Such a Pro !!!! You are the Man !!!
Amazing work! I got a refurbished 500C last year and am just putting it into a new custom wood case to make it look the part too. I was wondering if and how it would be possible to make the light behind the face panel shine just a tiny bit brighter than it does on ma unit. Is this possible at all? Thanks a lot and greetings from Berlin!
good vid. i have a few pieces i ha e gotten back online. I find it pretty rewarding to get them ba k in the gane. have two 500c and a 400 plus some others,sa 100 sa 300 x202 and some of the earlier mono tuner pre jobs but i couldn't help but notice in the vid is that a luonel chassis on your bench?? looks like either 2020 or 671. I do that too.
Yes sir tons of Lionel!
Great video! I have the same 500C which I just pulled out after 30 years of storage. When I got it, the string line for the FM tuning capacitor was not connected to the drum at all and the small spring was missing also; it is different from the one in your video as I'm sure you know, the earlier version like mine, has the drum with only one grove and uses that spring on one end of the string line. My problem is I'm having a hard time figuring out how to string /attach it to the drum, (I have a spring ordered) the correct way as to have the tuning capacitor synced with the dial indicator; the string line is not broken. Any pictures or videos you have related to doing this would be a great help!,,,
It took a lot of pain shaking research,,, and the old man told me he got it or bought it in 1967 in Toronto Canada,.. it said on the StereoOVoice,. Turns out it's a Kenwood kw-55, it's got 22 tubes, he threw out the old speakers in perfect condition also and they are 12-in 4-way, tournament magnet made in Denmark, by peerless,, they got some octagon shaped cabinets very large,, it had a dual 1009 integrated phono player
Thanks for the excellent video! I inherited my dad's 500C and had it fully restored 20 years ago. The tube audio guy who rebuilt it said its output was around 35 watts rms as "tested on the scope." Another video similar to yours (presenter was rebuilding a 800B unit) says the 7591 tubes can only output around 25-30 watts, so I'm a bit confused. Are there two variants of the tubes: 7591 and 7591A? When my dad brought it home in 1967 it had a sticker on it that read "75 watts," which I assume was peak power output? Sadly, my capacitors were fried so needed to be replaced with axial caps under the board. Old ones were left in pace for aesthetics. And which brand do you recommend for tube replacement? Best, Fred
Excellent video, I have a Fisher 800-C never touch , would you restore it for me
I just got a 500c which was in a shed for 20yrs and am trying to figure out what is best for cleaning the chassis (dry climate thankfully)
We use ammonia with a clean rag followed by another wipe with plain water. Make rag damp but not dripping wet. For tough spots uou can try Goo Gone. This should never hurt the.lteering unless it is already fragile.
NEVER get the dial glass too wet! Just a cloth SLIGHTLY dampened with water! Nothing else or you will damage the writing!
@@RenaissancePeopleNYC Thank you time to clean it up and find out why it blows fuses When it was put up it worked
What do you charge to restore an 800-C
Do you thinks it’s possible to add an external phono preamp into my 800C aux input. I did this past week and sound I got was terrible…. I’m try to get a little my boost to my system especially for some of my older records.
Generally speaking there can only be so much gain in a tube preamp before noise becomes a real issue. That's about the best these receivers can do.
I live in Toronto Canada, I have an original older Fisher 800-C would restore it for me
Hi, I have Fisher 500B, I have 2 questions :
1- My Tuner does not have any sound at all, Do you think what's the Problem?
2- About the Channel A and B phase Inverter, How To adjust it ? You Told that, Close to Clockwise is OK?
Thanks
a man i kent help you and that sound problem is Iuf electrolytic in the mpx that part no is c210
What do cash to restore a fisher 800-C
Re. soldering the gimmick to ground and other BS. Do you remember in the late 60's early 70's when some wag was selling calibrated bricks to place on transformers to "tighten up the sound"? Thanks for dispelling a lot of nonsense.
Karl
Holy moly do I ever LOL! Lots of nonsense out there
Did you just replace the two blue bias caps? Some of those yellow caps look new too.
yes they are all new
Wish I could see u soldering and change out item not just videos before and after boring the way u e ping it .how do u get it out of the wood case
there should be 4 screws under the unit holding it in the case. I thought watching me solder would be boring!
Do you have a Fisher amp for sale? VERY intrested and willing to pay premium, thanks.
Send me an email fisherdoc@aol.com thanks
Where in NY are you? I'd be honored to have a Fisher serviced by you. I'm in sunnyside queens
What model? Please send me an email fisherdoc@aol.com thanks AL
How do I contact you sir ?
Fisherdoc@aol.com
why stripping caps before actually testing them? the larger caps (placed into banks of 50uF) are much more vulnerable to fail, but they're not tested either.
the argument of making hundreds of these units doesn't seem enough to me till i know if they're actually-actually bad-bad. also most of the power strips in the amp are riveted vs. soldered.
I'm not sure I understand your comment. Please elaborate
@@RenaissancePeopleNYC all i'm asking if you've tested caps; resistors you've replaced if not with this unit on the video then perhaps with the other unit... What if this unit doesn't power up at all or one channel out? Will it solve all the issues at once?