Getting turntables fixed

S

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
I have a Technics 1210 that has gone dysfunctional on me. It is giving off massive amounts of feedback that I'm almost positive is connected to the ground-wire being dodgy (if I fiddle with it, it provides me with a few minutes of less feedback).

Now I know I should get this serviced, but I've heard horror stories of people taking their gear into shops for what they thought was a minor problem and then getting billed far above what they thought it should have been worth.

Has anyone tried replacing a ground-wire? Is it a difficult procedure? Is it worth getting it serviced, or better to find someone good with a soldering iron to do it instead? I've never had to get any of my equipment serviced before.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
it does sound like a ground problem. my first thought would be to see if you can locate where it's happening. i.e. when you jiggle the ground wire, can you determine whether it might be a break somewhere along the length of the wire? or does it seem to be in the base? if it's a break in the external part of the wire it should be dead easy to snip above the break, solder on a new piece, and put a shrink tube over your work. you could get an iron, solder and wire at The Source for $20-25 and just practice on scraps of wire until you're ready. if the problem is inside it might not be much harder but those bases are not fun to take apart..
 
S

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
Thanks Paul, I'll see what I can do. I think the problem is closer to the base, probably where the ground wire actually connects to the rest of the turntable, although to find out whether I'm wrong or not I basically can only test the theory by cutting the wire, replacing the bit, then repeating further down the wire if the problem still occurs right?

I've used a soldering iron before which comforts me, but at the same time I know how easy it is to completely short circuit something if you fuck up, which deters me.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
just had a look underneath one of mine. so there's a large hole where the power cable and ground both go into part held on by two screws. it could be as simple as unscrewing that thing and replacing the ground wire if that's where it originates. at the same time, that's where the power supply so there's a shock risk. i wouldn't snip away at the wire too much. better to have one long piece of wire rather than one broken and re-soldered in several places because it would get brittle.

there must be a thread on a forum somewhere where people have talked about this. alternately, i guess you could take it into a shop and ask for a diagnosis and estimate before any work is done. good luck!
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
I still haven't fixed the speed control on my left deck. Paul Meme was incandescent with incredulity when he was round mine. :p
 
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