Back in 1982 I saw one of these & fell in love! The build & sound quality were (& Still are) second to none - Add to that a feature list to put many others to shame........Manual Record Level Controls, Dolby B, Metal tape etc! A absolutely rock solid cassette deck mechanism with just one huge flat belt, everything else is gear driven apart from the counter!! Full autostop, cue & review paired with a digital display for the tuner with plenty of lovely Led's to indicate just about everything that it's doing........ No surprise then that this 15 year old lad was hooked & really wanted one of these! The tuner & tape door 'Glass' is actually green tinted acrylic & this add's real class to an already gorgeous looking stereo! Fast forward to 2016 & my 1'st 3T18!! It was in simple terms fucked!! The cassette deck had been seriously 'Got At' rendering it a write off along with the woofers which were so rotten they disintegrated on touch - Not seen that sort of rot before!! The tuner worked - The display didn't so: into the spares cupboard until late last year when I bought another knowing that the cassette part was duff but the digital display was good!! Halfway there? I was optimistic........ January 2018 I spotted another one lol & over priced at that, being dead & indeed, after posting in a box with nothing but screwed up wrapping paper, arrived smashed up badly BUT: the cassette deck was intact & after a new belt & clean up including a drop of fine oil down the capstan bearing & shaft, demagging & polishing the heads - We had a 100% working & stable reliable deck The woofers survived too & were just fine!! So..........we have a dismantled 3T18 that works flawlessly, but what of the damaged dented & rusty woofer & tweeter grilles?? They looked terrible Some 20 years in the car trade repairing panels etc meant that making 4 grilles out of the 12 I now had wasn't too trying & 3 coats of silver metallic paint I sprayed them with resulted in..........well see for yourself The cassette decks on these are nothing short of stunning, very stable with tons of detail & a wide dynamic range delivered to the replaced speakers! I will upload a challenging audio track tomorrow to demonstrate just how good the mechanism really is For now though, here's my beautiful Fergy today - I love this machine & if you can track down a minty one that works properly, just do yourself a favour & get it bought........these really are something special A Few images of the various stages of repair starting 2 years ago: https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1!29848&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1
It looks perfect now. It sounds like you were buying that box in instalments. p.s I thought you used to do VCR repairs etc. Was that before or after cars ?
Very nice, the digital tuning and old school look must have been pretty cool for a young kid. I think I only have one, maybe two boxes with digital tuning, it seems to be a feature more associated with the egg boxes.
Beautiful creature!!! Looks (to my eyes) like Panasonic RX-5500 I am ogling at Yahoo-Japan auctions right now.
It wouldn’t have been Old School back in 1982. Digital tuning was still quite High-Tech back then having first appeared on top of the range boxes in about 1979. By the time of Eggs it was probably cheaper to implement than a decent tuning cord. Jorge. It would interesting to know if this has an AKA. In 1982 Fergusson was stil a major producer of TVs in the UK but most of their other products were made by other companies e.g their VCRs were all made by JVC. Having looked at pictures of the RX 5500 it does look to be very similar.
@Reli posted at boomboxery that it is made by GE: "I'm assuming GE is the one who built all of them, since they are a real manufacturer while the others are just brand names" wonder if these were "made in USA" or "made in Japan"? What does the label says?
Oh, definitely not made in America. The GE version of this box (model 3-5286A) was made in Taiwan. The Ferguson is identical, but has a digital tuner instead of analog. The question is who installed the digital tuner? GE, or a third party?
Salora produced a version with digital tuner display but not as nice looking as the fergy version! I wondered JVC?? but really don't know who made these......... As I said, over engineered & a modular design with a really decent cassette deck - I love em
GE made them, it's the GE 3-5286A.…...I had one, it sucked......then I had another, it was much better. GE switched to different woofers midway in the production cycle.
I should stop talking to you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bought that Panny RX-550, now arguing with Buyee about shipping costs: not fun at all!!! My main hobby of hi-end audio is so much less complicated: you pay, you get, you upgrade,,,
Hello, My parents bought one of these back in the 80's and I loved it, looked so hi-tech for a portable! Anyway I have got another one but there are problems. The main one being the digital display. The radio works and tunes, but the display shows random numbers and does not change in proportion to the dial movements. I have looked inside and notice that what appears to be the power and signal input wires for the digital display module, use the same type and size of 2-pin connectors, and so could be easily switched over by mistake by someone who did not know what they were doing. I've seen several of these discussions where the digital display is bad, wonder if this is the cause of many of these faults. Anyway purpose of the message was to ask if anyone has a repair guide for the module? There is only one main IC in the module and so I guess it could be that but wanted to check with some people who had been through this before. Many thanks Ant.
Common fault with these I'm afraid! I may have a spare display module though, I have enough of these but just one fully working restored one!!
I have a circuit diagram for the module so will try to repair first. When the displays fail do they all show the same issue (random numbers on display)? If you have a working one let me know how much you'd sell for please.
Some early amateur radio rigs with digital displays sometimes exhibited the random display fault. It can be caused by the display module not getting enough signal from the main board for it to operate correctly.
