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A couple of questions about the Fisher 400

Rey1

Rey1

Super Member
Hello everyone,

I finally found a good local tube tech that provided a basic restoration for my Fisher 400 receiver, which has been sitting in my basement for 5 Years! It's working great now, but I have a couple of questions: first, I'd like to clean the chassis, with the unit powered down and unplugged, should I be aware of anything that can produce a serious shock to the touch?

My second question concerns the dial lights, these were replaced by my tech, but I notice that they do not highlight the dial lettering very well. Can the lamps be rotated to shine better on the letters or are they fixed in a set position?

Thanks
 
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Shouldn't be anything on the chassis TOP that will shock you unless the voltage doubler's cardboard cover is missing. I use blue magic metal polish as it has never hurt the lettering at all.
Did your tech use LED's? I know people have been very happy with them. The original festoon lamps had a coating on most of it to concentrate the light at the dial. I've never had problems with Fisher's but I've had to replace several McIntosh dial glasses to get a good lit dial. If original lamps were used they made need rotation.
 
Thanks Vendo!

I'll try the blue magic polish. My tech used regular lamps for replacement. Are the LEDs drop in or do they require a voltage fix?
 
With the LED's, the foam strips that seal the light beam behind the face plate has to be intact or the lamps will not illuminate the dial properly. The LED's make a big difference and are supposed to draw less voltage. They make drop in ones that require no changes.
 
Thanks, I'll see if turning the lamps makes a difference, if not, I'll look for the drop in LEDs.
 
If your lamps are painted white on one 1/2, that half should be on the side directly centered away from the lamp. The paint reflects the back light into the dial. If they are festoon or fuse types and NOT Painted, take some white Testors Gloss White Model Paint and paint 1/2 of the circumference of the bulb white for the whole length. A couple of light coats are sufficient. When dry, install them so they backlight the dial. You want the painted side AWAY from the DIAL Glass.
 
800C with original Festoons, a little blurry.Fisher dial 2.jpg They arent quite that bright , lousy camera operator....
 
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Thanks for the tip,
I'll look this weekend. I have a feeling that they are not painted white on the back. Mine is nowhere near as bright as the 800c in the photo! By facing "away" from the dial glass, do you mean the white side should face to the rear of the receiver or to the sides of the receiver?
 
Vendo and Larry are right..... for my 800C I've decided to go to LED if I can ever find correct fitting replacements.. Less current draw and Avery certainly did not have the newer led's back then. Not only that but the heat from incandescent bulbs fades the dial glass lettering. My 2 cents and good luck to the OP! Al
 
I can see the lowered current draw and slightly brighter response from an LED. But Fading the lettering is not a concern with Incandescent bulbs. 99.9999999&4/10's of the fading on any part of a unit is from sunlight, not the incandescents. 1" in from the lamps and the glass is cool.
 
The stock bulbs only produce visible light, which is UVA. UVB is the infrared content produced by the sun which wreaks havok on all of our car's dashboards and whatnot. The Sun puts out UVA too obviously, or we'd all be in the dark 24/7...

Personally I think LEDs are the way to go. They run cooler, draw less juice, and IMO look better too. I think if they were around in the 60's Avery would used 'em.
 
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This is a before and after on one of my units, LED's have a more soft white light compared to a slightly orange light from the originals.

Fisher 500-B stock lamps.jpg Fisher 500-B LED lamps.jpg
 
vendo81 said:
Big difference. The LED's look very nice! Where's the best place to buy them?
Click to expand...
After the outcome from installing them in the 500-B I purchased a bulk of them on the auction site. I am using them up by going back through all my receivers and installing them. Make sure to get the warm white though.

Also, the first picture shows what happens when the foam strips have rotted away, the light does not go through the glass like it should.
 
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Yes, I forgot about the importance of replacing the foam strips. I'll order some soft white LED's :)
 
RSSteve,
That first photo is exactly how the faceplate on mine looks. So now I,m all in with the LEDs. Can anyone recommend a vendor they have a positive experience with on that site? Also, is there a sticky on replacing the foam?

OK, never mind about the foam, I found the sticky!
 
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Rey1 said:
RSSteve,
That first photo is exactly how the faceplate on mine looks. So now I,m all in with the LEDs. Can anyone recommend a vendor they have a positive experience with on that site? Also, is there a sticky on replacing the foam?
Click to expand...
I ordered mine on ebay, warm white for certain Fisher models, they also have the small lamps that are for the stereo beacon and signal strength meter. Once you remove the face plate, you will see where the foam seal goes. I went with felt strips on mine thinking it might hold up better, and also because the foam type I found was too thick. I purchased a pack of felt pads from Home depot, then cut the strips I needed with a razor.
 
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Rey1 said:
RSSteve,
That first photo is exactly how the faceplate on mine looks. So now I,m all in with the LEDs. Can anyone recommend a vendor they have a positive experience with on that site? Also, is there a sticky on replacing the foam?

OK, never mind about the foam, I found the sticky!
Click to expand...
I bought mine from "qua-co" on eBay. Very fast delivery. Make sure to order "soft" white versus white if you want what Steve has.
 
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