[Eric T]

My daughter wanted an old-school record player for her birthday next weekend, so I found this radio/record player in decent condition at the flea market the other day. It's black plastic with a cool gold grill, straight out of 1954. It was working, but just barely. So I re-capped it and got new belts for the record changer, and cleaned a half century worth of tobacco smoke grime out of it.

The radio works very well without any alignment, however the record player has super low volume and skips. I don't know much about phonographs. I'm not even sure if this thing can play modern records, which is what my daughter wants it for. Does anyone have any suggestions to make this work without destroying her vinyl LP collection?

[Radioroslyn]

Well the low volume issue is probably a bad phono cartridge. It could be a out of spec plate resistor on the 12AT/V6 but I doubt it. They are somewhat hard to find. This set more than likely uses one with two needles one for the 78's and the other for 45's and LP's. Make sure that you use the proper needle for the record you are playing. It may have an adjmt for the tracking weigh. This sets how much pressure the tip of the needle presses onto the record. Too much will cause premature wear to the record. This adjmt is located at the far end of the tone arm. Modern Records?????
Terry

[codefox1]

You can probably score a replacement record changer on trash night. Still a couple of 'em new manufacture on ebay.

[Radioroslyn]

I'll also add that generally the crystal cartridges are all about the same electrically so you wouldn't have to find an exact match. You may have to engineer a mounting system for it. On trash nite you'll probably find some stereo cartridges.
Terry

[Eric T]

After much research, and keeping in mind this is for my 20 year old daughter, I have settled on buying a new MM cartridge and stylus and adapting it via a solid state preamp to get enough input voltage for the tube amplifier. The original cartridge specs say it is 1.0 v output, new cartridges put out a few millivolts. Mounting is not a big deal since it is standard 1/2" mount.

I should be able to whip up a fairly simple RIAA equalized pre-amp from one of the designs I've found on the intarwebz that use op amps. I also hope to supply a stereo out jack so that she can connect it to her iPod dock if she wants to.

[Eric T]

After careful examination of all the preamp designs I could find and buying way more components than I'll ever need or use, I discovered that I can buy a better phono preamp already built for less than it would cost to make. So one is on order. It will be too late to make it before her birthday, but I think she'll be OK with it. At least I'll be home for this one.

I wonder if RatShack will do returns.

[Eric T]

[Image: http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-fr...2675_n.jpg]

[Image: http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-as...0997_n.jpg]

Well, she loves it.

She threw an old beat up James Brown 45 on it and heard it kinda play. It tracked perfectly, just very low volume. She wants to wait for me to get the retrofit cartridge and stylus set up before playing any of her LP's on it. If it was for me, it would stay bone stock. I'm just happy to have a 20 year old who appreciates things like this.

Since she's done with the old cartridge, I opened it up and removed the crusty old rubber fittings. Then I put some RTV in it's place just to see if it makes a difference. I will know in the morning.

BTW, does anyone know what "CD" means on the radio dial?

[codefox1]

CD stands for Civil Defense, 640 and 1240 AM. I knew a tech who worked at the 1240 leg of the system just before it was dismantled, and their stuff dwarfed his little AM station. If needed it would blow a hole through the commercial stuff and blast out a cold war message that would send all the school kids kneeling in the halls.

No, we really didn't believe it. Anyway it's really nice that you can share a restoration of such a nice old antique with a kid. Treasure the moments for they will not last forever.

Let us know if there is anything you still need. Most of us have piles of s**t we will never use.

[Eric T]

Thanks a bunch for the info, codefox1. That adds a whole new layer of retro cool to this set.

My experiment with the RTV in the cartridge added no appreciable output gain. The innards of that thing are extremely delicate, and I had to solder some super thin foil back together. All in all, a waste of time.

[Eric T]

Got the new cartridge and pre-amp connected today. It sounds good, considering the size of the speaker.

One big problem though: it plays a bit too fast-- Dan Auerbach has gone from baritone to tenor.

The label on it says 117VAC. My house power runs at 126VAC. Is the higher voltage to blame? If so, does anyone have a suggestion to fix this problem?

[codefox1]

You could run the set on a variac (and meter the output voltge) as a test to see if 117 volts would right things. If it does, you would want to install a dropping resistor. Tubes will last longer too.

[Eric T]

A few weeks ago, I installed a 40 watt resistor to knock some line voltage off of this thing. Yes, it drops it down to about 118V. Good thing for the tubes, but it does not affect the turntable speed much at all. So I ordered a little hobby triac motor speed control kit (about $6) and installed it on the feed to the motor.

The good news: the speed is adjustable and records now play at the proper speed.

The bad news: you have to give the turntable a little push to get it started and it will not turn with more than one record on it

[BrendaAnnD]

Sounds like you need a new idler wheel. These can be found on the Voice of Music website.

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/p...urrets.asp

[GarySP]

The one record issue is no issue at all. You don't want to ruin good vinyl by letting it get "traction" off another album underneath it. The tonearm may be spring loaded to adjust tracking weight. Set it for the minimum and see how the cartrige works. The less weight the better for both the cartridge and the albums. Take care. Gary

[Eric T]

OK, I've got the speed dialed in, and it runs dead on at both 33 1/3 and 45 rpm.

It will eventually start turning by itself at 33, and starts right up at 45. The triac controller cuts off portions of the AC sinewave to the motor, so the actual speed control is just loss of pushing power.

I asked my daughter if she wanted the speed control mounted where she could adjust it, just in case she did. She was horrified at the idea. "Keep it looking original, Dad!" 8) That made me smile. Yes, I've made some alterations to it "under the hood," but it still looks like it came on a time machine from 1954 and works better than it ever has before.