TheRed1
Console Conservationist
What a view! I'd take an artistically lit photo of the back, blow it up, frame it and hang it on the wall. Perhaps you could make such a hi-res photo file available to those of us who must be content merely to dream. I might also suggest that a video documentary of its restoration would be a very interesting side-project I would be very happy to help with if I were not on the wrong coast. Maybe somebody closer could jump in here?
Vendo, have you done an overall tube count (excluding the R2R)? I ask because the description in the 1956 catalog has it at "36 tubes on five separate chassis" and the '57 & '58 catalogs take it up to "38 tubes on six separate chassis." I looked at the service manual an was only able to find 33! However, that service manual - from Avery Fisher's own collection - appears to be of the very earliest version of the President. It does not mention the "President II" which I assume is the equivalent of the "Executive II" - i.e.: stereo phono version of the Executive I.
However, even after an exhaustive search through my files; I have yet to find any mention of the President II. I believe yours is either a President I which was updated or a President II - both were considered model 2000. There may be some confusion as to the designation of the 1958 President, (which is probably my fault.) I have a price list showing the model 3000 President which I have identified as being from the 1958 model year. Upon further consideration I now believe the price list is for the early 1959 model year. My current thinking is that, like the Executive I/II, the President (I) ran from 1956 through 1958 all under the model 2000 designation with the (II) version added sometime after its introduction as stereo records became available.
The existence of the President II is implied in the text of the catalog entry for the 1959 President III which reads, (in part):
"In all the world, there is no instrument that can be compared to THE FISHER PRESIDENT III. When its predecessor, THE PRESIDENT I, was introduced in 1956, it was the world's first truly stereophonic radio-phonograph and tape reproducer."
All other references to the '56-'58 Presidents lack any sort of roman numeral suffix. It is simply "The President". If anyone has a price list from 1956, 1957 or 1958, I would really like to see how the President models are listed!
Are your amps Z-matic? Avery's service manual for the President shows 80-A's but the 80-AZ's were out by 1956. I would be surprised if the President lacked a feature - however questionable - which Fisher was heavily promoting at that time. This is one of the things that makes me think Avery's SM was perhaps a pre-production copy. (That and the 3 missing tubes!)
Incidentally, among Avery's keepsakes was a photo of a President prototype, (open and closed,) which was labeled "The President Series - The Metropolitan". I believe this nomenclature was a holdover from Fisher's (and Philharmonic's) early days when you had the model - say: "The Coronet" and then the cabinet - say: "The Hampshire". So, as conceived, it was "The President" in "The Metropolitan" cabinet. The original photo is a professional 8X10 glossy B&W in perfect condition. My photo of that photo is good enough so that I can zoom in and read most of the writing on the Master Control Amp. Where yours has "The President" it has "El Dorado" which may have been another name Fisher contemplated. I think it would have been a much better name.
Vendo, have you done an overall tube count (excluding the R2R)? I ask because the description in the 1956 catalog has it at "36 tubes on five separate chassis" and the '57 & '58 catalogs take it up to "38 tubes on six separate chassis." I looked at the service manual an was only able to find 33! However, that service manual - from Avery Fisher's own collection - appears to be of the very earliest version of the President. It does not mention the "President II" which I assume is the equivalent of the "Executive II" - i.e.: stereo phono version of the Executive I.
However, even after an exhaustive search through my files; I have yet to find any mention of the President II. I believe yours is either a President I which was updated or a President II - both were considered model 2000. There may be some confusion as to the designation of the 1958 President, (which is probably my fault.) I have a price list showing the model 3000 President which I have identified as being from the 1958 model year. Upon further consideration I now believe the price list is for the early 1959 model year. My current thinking is that, like the Executive I/II, the President (I) ran from 1956 through 1958 all under the model 2000 designation with the (II) version added sometime after its introduction as stereo records became available.
The existence of the President II is implied in the text of the catalog entry for the 1959 President III which reads, (in part):
"In all the world, there is no instrument that can be compared to THE FISHER PRESIDENT III. When its predecessor, THE PRESIDENT I, was introduced in 1956, it was the world's first truly stereophonic radio-phonograph and tape reproducer."
All other references to the '56-'58 Presidents lack any sort of roman numeral suffix. It is simply "The President". If anyone has a price list from 1956, 1957 or 1958, I would really like to see how the President models are listed!
Are your amps Z-matic? Avery's service manual for the President shows 80-A's but the 80-AZ's were out by 1956. I would be surprised if the President lacked a feature - however questionable - which Fisher was heavily promoting at that time. This is one of the things that makes me think Avery's SM was perhaps a pre-production copy. (That and the 3 missing tubes!)
Incidentally, among Avery's keepsakes was a photo of a President prototype, (open and closed,) which was labeled "The President Series - The Metropolitan". I believe this nomenclature was a holdover from Fisher's (and Philharmonic's) early days when you had the model - say: "The Coronet" and then the cabinet - say: "The Hampshire". So, as conceived, it was "The President" in "The Metropolitan" cabinet. The original photo is a professional 8X10 glossy B&W in perfect condition. My photo of that photo is good enough so that I can zoom in and read most of the writing on the Master Control Amp. Where yours has "The President" it has "El Dorado" which may have been another name Fisher contemplated. I think it would have been a much better name.
