Exactly the same as mine, I thought the motor was kaput.Sounds like a great candidate for an overhaul/cleanup..
Mine was completely gummed up to the extent the motor would not even run. (Very low hours too)
I really wonder why these decks are so valued because most of the below deck engineering has no use if only LPs are played.
Some say the same of Triumph motorcycles of old and most American cars. They have Soul. What could be as awful as an American V8 or worse a UK double knocker that is more like a road drill. We used to call Japanese bikes Rice Grinders. I love the most primitive of V8's, the flat heads. Please watch the film. I guess a Harley is all the worse of both. It's not even 90 degrees, it's what fits the hole a single should fit into.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwmCl4939o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwmCl4939o
It's true I don't use either 16 or 78rpm, and don't currently have a cartridge suitable for playing vintage coarse groove 78s.
I do however play 33 rpm LPs, and 45 rpm LPs and an occasional single. There are oddly enough 78 rpm stereo recordings out there today (really expensive) that I can also play.
It's a fairly quiet machine when fully fettled, and does a good job, and it has certain performance attributes that vinylphiles find appealing. I've had more modern tables, but none that I liked better.. (I also have a Garrard 401 waiting in the wings, and also had an SME 20/2 at one point..)
I do however play 33 rpm LPs, and 45 rpm LPs and an occasional single. There are oddly enough 78 rpm stereo recordings out there today (really expensive) that I can also play.
It's a fairly quiet machine when fully fettled, and does a good job, and it has certain performance attributes that vinylphiles find appealing. I've had more modern tables, but none that I liked better.. (I also have a Garrard 401 waiting in the wings, and also had an SME 20/2 at one point..)
Nostalgia was also an illness. Glad we don't think like that now. For me it is respecting how well things were made up against the hyperbole of now. The Ford flathead was made to a high standard and the video says that and gives the measurements. The castings were a nighmare, Ford insisted and a way was found to do it. One only has to watch a Laurel and Hardy film to see how modern 1930's USA was despite the depression. The cars were of the time and TV was yet to come. Other than that it was truely modern, fridges and waste disposals all looked spot on. TD124 comes at the peak of wanting to do things correctly I feel. The Revox is the outstanding more modern thing that comes to mind. A Sony U-matic video later still, after that I get a bit unsure as so much is hard to repair. I seem to remember a friend saying he is most impressed by things that are complex that he might have a chance to make himself. Beyond that it all becomes of another world, made by robot and fixed by no one. That's not nostalgia, it the truth. When I fix or make things I'm a man, when I don't I'm a punter.
Flathead is not a recent usage over here, goes back to way before I was born, despite a common language there are some differences here and there..
As an aside Miller, and later Offenhauser made four valve twin OHC fours starting in the early 1930s for racing, a bit more advanced than the FH engines typical of the time.
(Inspiration apparently was a Peugeot racing engine)
http://www.onedirt.com/features/offenhauser-the-greatest-racing-engine-ever-built/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offenhauser
I have to admit I've always wanted one of these to stick in a simple street rod. Note the power output, it's not embarrassing even by today's standards..
Guess we should get back on topic fairly soon.
As an aside Miller, and later Offenhauser made four valve twin OHC fours starting in the early 1930s for racing, a bit more advanced than the FH engines typical of the time.
(Inspiration apparently was a Peugeot racing engine)
http://www.onedirt.com/features/offenhauser-the-greatest-racing-engine-ever-built/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offenhauser
I have to admit I've always wanted one of these to stick in a simple street rod. Note the power output, it's not embarrassing even by today's standards..
Guess we should get back on topic fairly soon.
Offy Street rod
One could always open a seperate a thread titled "Putting DIY audio into an Offy street rod"
One could always open a seperate a thread titled "Putting DIY audio into an Offy street rod"
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That's the point. Know your history as it can surprise you. Each generation feels it knows more than dad did. My dad built Germany's radar circa 1949 to 52. He tought me engineering aged 4. He wasn't much good at talking so stuck with things he knew. Age 19 I took apart his SU carb and had it back on the car in 15 minutes from on the car to back on the car. Looking back I should have let him do it. We used to rebuild his BSA C15/A10/A65. My job was cleaning bits aged 4 and keeping the 78 turntable going. It was an MC pick up with thorn needles. I still love 78's,1938 being the peak I feel. Dad tought me how an output transformer worked and TV flyback aged 5. At age of 7 I was on my own as mum says he was a bit jealous that I got on and made things. We made a crystal set together.
When CH went out of use about 1951 at RAF Dover they converted it to be a TV so as to watch Wimbledon in green and grey. The masts are preserved and seen as you enter the port.
Here is something about dad. He was to go into the army. The guy at selection told him to try the RAF instead as he was sure the army was not for him. Dad was chosen as someone who could see aircraft inside noise, even inside window foil ( chaff or dupple ) . Most people can not. Modern scopes do this. Sometimes at DIY Audio a subjective understanding is thought to have no value, almost like telling a lie. Well, the RAF needed people like my dad. He could see USSR aircraft earlier than other people. The Soviet pilots were testing Germany's borders, they even had pilots with English accents to fool dad and his ground staff! The weird bit is all love of music is subjective. Don't you just love it when some people still like to tell us preferring a LP over a CD is some defect in us. They are the same ones who will not study and list all the improvements to 16 bit since it came out. They always say it was mostly right from day one. Was it ( 11 usable bits if lucky )? Again no knowledge of engineering history. My other teacher was Michael Gurzon who would spend hours saying how digital could be made to work very very well. He and I said good digital will sound warm ( less jitter etc ). I think it is starting to.
When CH went out of use about 1951 at RAF Dover they converted it to be a TV so as to watch Wimbledon in green and grey. The masts are preserved and seen as you enter the port.
Here is something about dad. He was to go into the army. The guy at selection told him to try the RAF instead as he was sure the army was not for him. Dad was chosen as someone who could see aircraft inside noise, even inside window foil ( chaff or dupple ) . Most people can not. Modern scopes do this. Sometimes at DIY Audio a subjective understanding is thought to have no value, almost like telling a lie. Well, the RAF needed people like my dad. He could see USSR aircraft earlier than other people. The Soviet pilots were testing Germany's borders, they even had pilots with English accents to fool dad and his ground staff! The weird bit is all love of music is subjective. Don't you just love it when some people still like to tell us preferring a LP over a CD is some defect in us. They are the same ones who will not study and list all the improvements to 16 bit since it came out. They always say it was mostly right from day one. Was it ( 11 usable bits if lucky )? Again no knowledge of engineering history. My other teacher was Michael Gurzon who would spend hours saying how digital could be made to work very very well. He and I said good digital will sound warm ( less jitter etc ). I think it is starting to.
Hmm, maybe a td124 on gimbals?
I once saw a Garrard 301 gimbal mounted.
[It was in a luxury-fitted very large sailing boat...I saw it through a window when it was moored quayside near Dublin. It would have been in the early 1960s? I believe that the washing machine 'boom & bust' magnate John Bloom was the yacht's owner.]
John Bloom. I remember he even had stamps to collect at petrol stations ( mid blue with his face at the middle ). Some say his washing machines were OK. 79 Gns I seem to remember. 1Gns = £1.05. It was about 15% the price of a basic new car like a Mini. At the time it was a bargain. Rolls Razors brand?
Just was talking to Terry O'Sullivan of Loricraft about Phosphor Bronze and taking Brian Mortimer to meet a new company as they can trace their company back to Garrard when Brian was head of quality control. Both Brian and Terry will find the John Bloom's 301 very interesting. Edmund, Brian's father was the designer of the 301. Your post came in as we talked. Brian designed the later 401 domed bronze thrust.
" Terry what do you know about John Bloom" ? " Not a lot mate, he had a big yacht. Apart from that not much " !
" Terry what do you know about John Bloom" ? " Not a lot mate, he had a big yacht. Apart from that not much " !
When I think of those "well made cars" I think of pumping the gas pedal, manual chokes, distributors,rotor arms, points and Lucas electrics. The frequency of big end knock because of leaded gas plugging up the crankshaft oilways with lead paste.
I can remember back in the 70', noisy machines called "autos" that were purely mechanical, running with cams, slides and stops, reminding me of Thorens and their music box heritage.
How can we ever advance if we keep hanging on to the past?
I own a beautiful Ferrograph !5/7.5 2 track tape deck, weighs a ton, full of tubes and motors and sounds great but I will never use it, cd's to mp3 is so convenient.
Definitely not nostalgic about cars myself, modern cars are much more reliable and cheaper to own than the cars I was buying 40yrs ago.. They run a lot better and cleaner. (In this harsh climate they last a lot longer too..)
Love Montreal, up there every year for what is now know as Salon Audio at the Bonaventure.. This year's was good.
Love Montreal, up there every year for what is now know as Salon Audio at the Bonaventure.. This year's was good.
There were cars that had the very best of both worlds. The SU carb was so easy to understand. Honda had a version. The automatic choke worked OK. I prefer manual. Auto advance is a must. I had electronic igniton that could go back to standard if I wanted.
A lady knocked on my door saying my brother said I would be able to fix her Susuki mini jeep. The AA man had told her that the distributor was the problem ( it wasn't ). For some reason the distributor was removed and it's ignition pack. A scrap yard found her the same. She was desperate to move the car and get home. I removed spark plug No 1 and using my thumb determined the compression phase and set the correct firing segment on the distibutor. I then got a pencil and determined the stroke as best I could. From this I guess 8 degrees BTDC static ( viewing the spark ). We then found the real reason for the problem. It was a hidden switch ( she sort of knew ). It made me think she wasn't the real owner, she was very beautiful so I guess it was put to one side. I went 40 miles with her ( no, not a youthemism ) and all semed very OK. My brother following. Later the garage checked the timing and said it was book exact! That car was the right mix of old and new. Turns out she didn't have a licence! Good driver all the same. She was and is a " Green " type, seems laws don't bother her much.
A lady knocked on my door saying my brother said I would be able to fix her Susuki mini jeep. The AA man had told her that the distributor was the problem ( it wasn't ). For some reason the distributor was removed and it's ignition pack. A scrap yard found her the same. She was desperate to move the car and get home. I removed spark plug No 1 and using my thumb determined the compression phase and set the correct firing segment on the distibutor. I then got a pencil and determined the stroke as best I could. From this I guess 8 degrees BTDC static ( viewing the spark ). We then found the real reason for the problem. It was a hidden switch ( she sort of knew ). It made me think she wasn't the real owner, she was very beautiful so I guess it was put to one side. I went 40 miles with her ( no, not a youthemism ) and all semed very OK. My brother following. Later the garage checked the timing and said it was book exact! That car was the right mix of old and new. Turns out she didn't have a licence! Good driver all the same. She was and is a " Green " type, seems laws don't bother her much.