1955 Fisher Custom Electra

[Duffinator]

Below are pictures of my Fisher Custom Electra "The Normandy" model NK-14 with the fruitwood finish. My grandfather purchased this for my grandmother on December 15, 1955 from Birkel-Richardson Co in Los Angeles. I have the original delivery invoice but not the receipt. My grandmother claims it cost $1,000 which was a lot of cash back then. I have the original brochure, operating instructions, operating instructions for the phonograph, and a couple of misc. documents to go with it. I also have an original color brochure for the Coronet Model. It still works although I haven't powered it up in three years. It has a massive 15" woofer and a cool looking fish eye tuning lamp for the tuner.

Does anybody have any information on this unit? Did it really cost that much back then? Any idea what it's worth today? I'm keeping the unit but just curious.

When we moved my grandmother into senior living five years ago I though of gutting it and making it a CD/DVD storage unit. The cabinet is in almost new condition and is a beautiful piece of furniture. But once I got it home the audio enthusiast in me took over and I decided to keep in together. Anybody else got one of these?

[tcdriver]

Way cool. Keep it together. Is the amplifier on the same chassis as the tuner or is it seperate?

[Duffinator]

It's all one unit, why do you ask? The little fish eye signal strength meter is very cool, it's got this fluorsecent green color to it. It would look good even on today's equipment. Don't worry it's staying together.

[tcdriver]

I asked if it was all one unit because it looks a lot like the front of the stand alone Fisher 500 (the original mono receiver). It could be that Fisher used the 500 chassis as the heart of the unit. I used to own a Fisher 500 and it was a very good unit.

[Duffinator]

I don't know if it is or not but the brochure states it has 19 tubes and 20 watts of power. Is that the same as the 500? It also mentions the Z matic circuit if that relates to the 500.

[vintagecollect]

Great retro design and doors to hide when not in use. A very old FM radio such as this is rare, large speaker grill is unusual and beautiful. Will no go obsolete as FM always dedicated for music. Certainly a rare set if expensive originally.

[tcdriver]

After my post last night, I decided to do a little research. It seems that the Fisher 500 came a little later about mid 1957. The 500 had a signal strength meter instead of a tuning eye tube and the dial glass marking were somewhat different.

The unit you have seems to be more closely related to the Fisher Model 70-RT which was current in 1955. The 70-RT has the same tuning eye tube with the Fisher symbol on either side just as your unit does. Whereas your Fisher has six knobs on the front the 70-RT only has five. The 70-RT was a FM-AM Tuner / preamp. The logical mate to the 70-RT would have been the Fisher Model 70-AZ a twenty-five watt basic amplifier that used 5881 output tubes.

In any case, it looks as though you have a pretty rare unit in unusually good condition.

[Duffinator]

Thanks for checking, I haven't had much luck finding any information on this radio and was hoping a member of AK would have some information on it.

Here's one that sounds very similar expect for the speakers and I'm not sure what brand turntable is in it, it's a bit down the page:

http://homepage.mac.com/urbanradio/V...tage.HiFi.html

I have my doubts that it's worth anything close to what they are asking for that radio.

[wa2ise]

That set might need wax coupling capacitors replaced. See http://www.geocities.com/wa2ise/radios/repair.htm and http://www.antiqueradio.org/recap.htm though I would not try to remove all of the old cap's leads froom terminals, as they tend to be fragile.

[Sandy G]

HYeah, I'd have the old caps replaced, have the tubes checked, go over it w/a good furniture polish, attach a decent antenna, sit back, & enjoy the hell outa it-You have a REAL prize, there, pal !-Sandy G.