Garrard 401 update

[Finyl Vinyl]

Gentlemen, start your motors. No, it's not the Indy 500, but the Garrard 401.

At the outset, thanks are due (again) to Rajiv, G401fan and stevieboy. I am attaching pictures of the "oil change" and "servicing" of the TD. (I say "Transcription Deck" as opposed to turntable).

Using a small wooden cutting board from the Mrs' kitchen, I tapped on the spindle to get the platter off. At the point where the spindle meets the plate, were roach egg remains. Sorry to gross you guys out!

Wiping the plate and the rim of the platter and table, lots of black stuff (carbon???) transferred on to my Levi's (r) t-shirt. Going to have a really pissed off wife throwing that into the wash. But I think it was worth it. Oiled the three major parts. The felt was as dry as a "[email protected]#*!s p*$$y" and totally got it "wet".

Wiped the inner rim of the platter and plonked it back on the plate. Taking from Rajiv's input, there are four circular grooves that have been machined on to the bottom of the plinth and the resting teak supports. These were obviously made 35 years ago by my father. God bless his soul, he knew what he was doing. Tomorrow, Planet Sports will have a customer buying four squash balls which will not be banged around. I hope they have an "end-of-season" sale going!

The 3009 arm comes back Saturday evening with new wiring, Shure V15 (Mk III) cartridge (thanks to Malvai) and an aluminium base plate, but minus a stylus. A VN35E has been ordered over ebay, which I hope will be delivered soon. My first buy on that site. I hope it works out.

BTW, I discovered that the plinth is 20mm ply cradled in an all teak frame and enclosure. I now only need to sort out a curved plexi glass hood for the top as opposed to the current vinyl (?) cover.

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

My good friends Mr Dewars (12 years old) and Gold Flake Lights who helped me get the platter on and off.

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

And Mr. Miles Davis too!

 

[hemantwaghe]

Deawars 12 years!!!! Never tasted this?

You too have your scotch without any contamination like cola( Insult of scotch) ,water or even ice?????

 

[G401fan]

Hey, that looks pretty good, except that the ply top does not extend to the corners of the teak. You could retain the base (four sides), and merely replace the top surface with fresh ply (or slate).

You also have the flush mounted strobe light version which looks much cooler than the raised light version. What is the serial number of your transcription table? (I agree, that sounds much more descriptive, very pro-audio)

You could also polish the outer rim of the platter with Brasso, it makes the entire thing shine like new.

Cheers!

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

Hey, that looks pretty good, except that the ply top does not extend to the corners of the teak. You could retain the base (four sides), and merely replace the top surface with fresh ply (or slate).

You also have the flush mounted strobe light version which looks much cooler than the raised light version. What is the serial number of your transcription table? (I agree, that sounds much more descriptive, very pro-audio)

You could also polish the outer rim of the platter with Brasso, it makes the entire thing shine like new.

Cheers!

It does extend. I'd just raised it to sit on the edge of the case to highlight the scoops for the squash balls. Will a membrane or paper laminate affect performance? Or should I consider veneer. Look good and sound good like Aziza Mustafa Zadeh

I'll check on the serial number tonight. Brasso huh?

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

Deawars 12 years!!!! Never tasted this?

You too have your scotch without any contamination like cola( Insult of scotch) ,water or even ice?????

I personally prefer the Auchentoshan. A 21 year old single. Two drops of water or maybe one cube of ice if the weather isn't cool enough. But then a whiskey like that is only for really special occasions.

 

[anilva]

Gentlemen, start your motors. No, it's not the Indy 500, but the Garrard 401.

At the outset, thanks are due (again) to Rajiv, G401fan and stevieboy. I am attaching pictures of the "oil change" and "servicing" of the TD. (I say "Transcription Deck" as opposed to turntable).

Using a small wooden cutting board from the Mrs' kitchen, I tapped on the spindle to get the platter off. At the point where the spindle meets the plate, were roach egg remains. Sorry to gross you guys out!

Wiping the plate and the rim of the platter and table, lots of black stuff (carbon???) transferred on to my Levi's (r) t-shirt. Going to have a really pissed off wife throwing that into the wash. But I think it was worth it. Oiled the three major parts. The felt was as dry as a "[email protected]#*!s p*$$y" and totally got it "wet".

Wiped the inner rim of the platter and plonked it back on the plate. Taking from Rajiv's input, there are four circular grooves that have been machined on to the bottom of the plinth and the resting teak supports. These were obviously made 35 years ago by my father. God bless his soul, he knew what he was doing. Tomorrow, Planet Sports will have a customer buying four squash balls which will not be banged around. I hope they have an "end-of-season" sale going!

The 3009 arm comes back Saturday evening with new wiring, Shure V15 (Mk III) cartridge (thanks to Malvai) and an aluminium base plate, but minus a stylus. A VN35E has been ordered over ebay, which I hope will be delivered soon. My first buy on that site. I hope it works out.

BTW, I discovered that the plinth is 20mm ply cradled in an all teak frame and enclosure. I now only need to sort out a curved plexi glass hood for the top as opposed to the current vinyl (?) cover.

What kind of rewiring are you getting for SME 3009? Is it Cardas? When you replace the cartridge (Shure V15 is perfect) make sure you buy a cartridge which has a compliance rating of alteast 25 or more. SME 3009 is very light and needs high compliance cartridges. Ortofon OM series or the new 2M series have high compliances.

Cheers.

 

[G401fan]

Will a membrane or paper laminate affect performance? Or should I consider veneer. Look good and sound good like Aziza Mustafa Zadeh

I

laminate or veneer should do just fine. Get the best cosmetics possible. You'll be glad for it later.
rgds

 

[hemantwaghe]

I personally prefer the Auchentoshan. A 21 year old single. Two drops of water or maybe one cube of ice if the weather isn't cool enough. But then a whiskey like that is only for really special occasions.

Nice....you must respecyt Scotch!
In hot n humid mumbai weather I sometimes take glass full of ice and scotch over it!
In fact me and my friend envisaged a drink called Scotch Slush ( Scotch over finely crushed ice!)

Anyway you do not prefer American ( My experience is limited to Jack Daniels and Jim Bean!)

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

Nice....you must respecyt Scotch!
In hot n humid mumbai weather I sometimes take glass full of ice and scotch over it!
In fact me and my friend envisaged a drink called Scotch Slush ( Scotch over finely crushed ice!)

Anyway you do not prefer American ( My experience is limited to Jack Daniels and Jim Bean!)

Try Ten High or Old Crow. Pretty decent Yank whiskeys

 

[stevieboy]

I personally prefer the Auchentoshan. A 21 year old single. Two drops of water or maybe one cube of ice if the weather isn't cool enough. But then a whiskey like that is only for really special occasions.

special occasions like when i come over

just joking practically given up drinking.

congratsl finyl! will wait your review on how it sounds now

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

special occasions like when i come over

just joking practically given up drinking.

congratsl finyl! will wait your review on how it sounds now

Orange juice it is then. Freshly squeezed out of a carton!!! We'll do a listen and soon.

I'll post pics of the re-assembly later but here's the gyan on the proceedings. Braved Saturday traffic on Commercial Street to get to Murthy's store. Rewired arm was present and accounted for with new signal cable. Bought four squash balls at a sports shop.

What wasn't done was a) the tonearm's support base that was to be made in aluminium, b) no new stylus.

Re-soldered the earth connection, re-balanced the arm using the same old Classic 700 cart and stylus and was good (?) to go.

Now here are a few problems. The amp itself also needs servicing. All the control knobs are dirty. So I now need tape head cleaning fluid (a rare commodity these days, considering the gallons of the stuff we used not too long ago) for the knobs and input terminals. Anti static lubricating oil thence.

Problem # 2. Need an isolation transformer/stabiliser or whatchoomaycallit. There's a buzz in the speakers when switched on. Select the phono switch and put the TT on. A little more buzz. As I moved the arm from the outside of the rim towards the spindle, I could also hear a hum in addition to the buzz. Now that could either mean that I positively need this isolation thingie or I'm completely rogered. Anyway, I whacked on Tony Bennet; All The Things You Are, when I encountered problem # 3.

As it transpired, my daughter was watching one of them Disney movies earlier in the day and managed to blow my left woofer and midrange. Not to be cowed down, I pulled out my headphones and to my surprise I found that my Philips sound better that the Sony.

Now I know that this entire burn-in process has to happen, but there was a distinct improvement from the earlier listenings.

Here's a synopsis of albums I heard that night. Miles Davis-Working-The overall attack was much more pronounced on the piano. The percussive qualities of the instrument was like silver clinking on a fine crystal glass. The brushes on the snare shimmered and the snare rim shots were crisp like a small pistol on a cold morning and the hi-hat and cymbals were a tad disappointing. This I attribute more to the cartridge and stylus I am using. The upright bass crept up from the solar plexus, and the bass drum was also coming through from there. The horns were warm and round and sharp depending on the notes hit.

The most obvious improvement was that there wasn't the earlier rumble. This is thanks to G401's directions on the service manual and Rajiv's "Ball Theory"

I've ordered a new Shure M97XE. Waiting for it. Now I'm on the more arduous task of lugging the amp to service and looking for new speakers. One joker wants 6k for Arphi Aquarius and another wants 16k for Acoustic Research TSW610. Ah well, have to be patient, I guess

 

[anm]

Hi FV, where did you order the shure cart and for how much?

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

Hi FV, where did you order the shure cart and for how much?

Amazon.com: Shure M97xE High-Performance Magnetic Phono Cartridge: Electronics

 

[anm]

are they delivering to India?

Amazon.com: Shure M97xE High-Performance Magnetic Phono Cartridge: Electronics

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

are they delivering to India?

Amazon.com Help: Asia & Pacific Islands

 

[anm]

Thanks for the link. My understanding is that they don't deliver electronics to India. Has it changed?
OK - I tried checkout - it doesn't ship antistatic brush to India, but does deliver the cart! Only if I knew this before I could have avoided bothering a friend!

 

[Finyl Vinyl]

Thanks for the link. My understanding is that they don't deliver electronics to India. Has it changed?
OK - I tried checkout - it doesn't ship antistatic brush to India, but does deliver the cart! Only if I knew this before I could have avoided bothering a friend!

I guess even I'll find out soon enough

 

[Rajiv]

As I moved the arm from the outside of the rim towards the spindle, I could also hear a hum in addition to the buzz. Now that could either mean that I positively need this isolation thingie or I'm completely rogered.

Hi,

It looks like your cartridge is picking up hum from the AC motor of the Garrard.The field is always there on TT's with AC motors, but not all cartridges pick it up. Sometimes it's from a nearby transformer - for example an amp next to your turntable on the arm side, or underneath it. Try moving things around to see if it helps.

Try placing an aluminum foil on the platter below the rubber mat and see if it helps.

Regards
Rajiv