Due to the magnanimity of friends here on the forum, yesterday I became a proud owner of the legendary Garrard 301 idler drive transcription turntable.
It came mounted on a large - but battered - 3/4 inch thick plywood plank, the "regulation" plywood box plinth having been discarded long ago. The motor is in surprisingly good shape and runs silently, the paint on the cast aluminium chassis is mostly intact. The arm is a 12 inch SME 3012. It has the removable headshell. I need to look up the exact model number. The counterweight is the single piece type, and not split. Cosmetically, the arm has clearly seen sunnier days. It will need some serious work to bring it up to acceptable cosmetic state. However, mechanically it moves freely in its pivot. The counterweight stub is all floppy; the insert that connects the counterweight stub to the main arm tube will certainly need to be replaced with a new teflon number. It doesn't have anti-skate weight either. The cartridge, sans stylus, is a Shure M55. At the bottom, the arm has the propriatary SME connector (not 5 pin DIN, nor RCA). So I guess that is also a candidate for fitment of the Cardas RCA-type connector.
Some pictures follows.
1) Top View: notice the tacky light switch and the even tackier ON lamp next to it.
2) Bottom view of the Garrardus patheticus:lol:
3) Close up of the spindle bearing - note the grease and grime collected on the underside of the top plate. Notice the protrusion midway on the bearing - on grease bearing 301s, this is opened to allow topping up grease. Also note the connecting links are not rusted. On bad examples, the rust is cleaned and usually electroplated with zinc. The original plating is supposed to contain cadmium which is hazardous, and therefore must be handled with care.
4) Bottom connector of the tonearm - 2 + 2 wires + grounding
5) Schedule /2 - meaning oil bearing. /1 denotes grease bearing. Grease bearing owners will have you know that it is supposedly superior to the oil bearing variety that came later in the product life of the 301 (intro-ed in 1954, and I think brought to market in 1955, and had a production run upto 1965 when the 401 was introduced and superseded the 301)
6) A top view of the motor. The speed selector knob is capoot.
7) Serial number 46710. This makes the production year 1959 or '60. It is of the same vintage as my Thorens TD124/Mark I (give or take a year or two)
8) Below: With the platter removed to show the idler wheel mechanism. This is a "true" idler in the sense that the motor shaft directly couples with the idler which in turn drives the platter. In contrast, the Thorens TD124 has a belt being driven by the motor shaft, which in turn drives flywheel that drives the idler wheel, which in turn drives the platter - making it "pseudo-idler" drive by some reckonings. For some, this is all semantics. For purists, the "direct" drive of the 301 (or 401) produces more "thrust" in music reproduction.
9) Below: The platter is the non-strobe type. It was originally painted black, but the paint is falling off (as shown on the left portion of the picture). I scrapped off all the black paint. Notice the rubber mat. The genius of the previous owner had glued it to the platter:lol: But after about 54 years, it has become brittle and is prime candidate for replacement.
Being the third idler drive that I now have, and me being already neck-deep in unfinished projects, this is going to be a very longish-term project for me, to be done without hurry. The restoration will be part of the journey.
It came mounted on a large - but battered - 3/4 inch thick plywood plank, the "regulation" plywood box plinth having been discarded long ago. The motor is in surprisingly good shape and runs silently, the paint on the cast aluminium chassis is mostly intact. The arm is a 12 inch SME 3012. It has the removable headshell. I need to look up the exact model number. The counterweight is the single piece type, and not split. Cosmetically, the arm has clearly seen sunnier days. It will need some serious work to bring it up to acceptable cosmetic state. However, mechanically it moves freely in its pivot. The counterweight stub is all floppy; the insert that connects the counterweight stub to the main arm tube will certainly need to be replaced with a new teflon number. It doesn't have anti-skate weight either. The cartridge, sans stylus, is a Shure M55. At the bottom, the arm has the propriatary SME connector (not 5 pin DIN, nor RCA). So I guess that is also a candidate for fitment of the Cardas RCA-type connector.
Some pictures follows.
1) Top View: notice the tacky light switch and the even tackier ON lamp next to it.
2) Bottom view of the Garrardus patheticus:lol:
3) Close up of the spindle bearing - note the grease and grime collected on the underside of the top plate. Notice the protrusion midway on the bearing - on grease bearing 301s, this is opened to allow topping up grease. Also note the connecting links are not rusted. On bad examples, the rust is cleaned and usually electroplated with zinc. The original plating is supposed to contain cadmium which is hazardous, and therefore must be handled with care.
4) Bottom connector of the tonearm - 2 + 2 wires + grounding
5) Schedule /2 - meaning oil bearing. /1 denotes grease bearing. Grease bearing owners will have you know that it is supposedly superior to the oil bearing variety that came later in the product life of the 301 (intro-ed in 1954, and I think brought to market in 1955, and had a production run upto 1965 when the 401 was introduced and superseded the 301)
6) A top view of the motor. The speed selector knob is capoot.
7) Serial number 46710. This makes the production year 1959 or '60. It is of the same vintage as my Thorens TD124/Mark I (give or take a year or two)
8) Below: With the platter removed to show the idler wheel mechanism. This is a "true" idler in the sense that the motor shaft directly couples with the idler which in turn drives the platter. In contrast, the Thorens TD124 has a belt being driven by the motor shaft, which in turn drives flywheel that drives the idler wheel, which in turn drives the platter - making it "pseudo-idler" drive by some reckonings. For some, this is all semantics. For purists, the "direct" drive of the 301 (or 401) produces more "thrust" in music reproduction.
9) Below: The platter is the non-strobe type. It was originally painted black, but the paint is falling off (as shown on the left portion of the picture). I scrapped off all the black paint. Notice the rubber mat. The genius of the previous owner had glued it to the platter:lol: But after about 54 years, it has become brittle and is prime candidate for replacement.
Being the third idler drive that I now have, and me being already neck-deep in unfinished projects, this is going to be a very longish-term project for me, to be done without hurry. The restoration will be part of the journey.
