Hi Chaps,

HAPPY NEW YEAR.  

A question which ive been meaning to ask..  What was the difference between a Garrard SP25 and a Garrard SP25 disco driver 80?  

Im guessing they are both belt driven.  Was the platter / motor more beefier in the disco driver 80?  Im a right in saying the disco driver 80 is called an 80 because it was released 1979/80?

Thanks!  

I used to have two SP25 mk4 built into a custom console.  One of the sp25s came from a dynatron music centre.. The other one was sourced from a single deck seperate.

haha yes the semi auto function, even at a young age I used to place the stylus manually on the record!   

So I guess Garrard entered the disco market propery with the disco driver 80

Will love to see the pics too.  Thanks a billion 

Br great to see those catalogs!  It funny, whilst growing up all the turntables I was exposed to were Garrard SP25s!  My dads Dynatron music centre (MK4), my first FAL disco console (MKIIIs), and custom console MK4 from the Dynatron and another MK4 from a separtes deck

Are you cueing up the tape deck there John?  

There's an interesting article here:-

 

http://radiohistoria.jvnf.org/spotmaster.htm" rel="nofollow - http://radiohistoria.jvnf.org/spotmaster.htm

Hi John! Did you have them specially recorded for you?  ie your name check etc?

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Twin-Turntable-Disco-console-/281048983452?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item416fd3279c" rel="nofollow - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Twin-Turntable-Disco-console-/281048983452?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item416fd3279c

 

Nope, I have to say thats a totally new one to me......

 

 I am smiling at having become part of the 'vintage crew' though... , us vintage guys need a proper get together somehow! - although I see we are dotted in pretty much every corner of the UK....

 

Greg

 

Long gap in between question and answer, but I've found some of the old jingles and I'm trying to find a way to make them audible, but you can't include audio files, trying to post a link to my website is also causing a problem. 

try http://www.funkyparrot.co.uk/page8.html" rel="nofollow - www.funkyparrot.co.uk/page8.html   ignore the state of the page and click the blue note. It works!

 

Unsound used SP25mk1s with Deram cartridges and a custom-built mixer.  The best bit was the amp - Radford SC22P preamp and Radford STA100 power amp (2*KT88s per channel).  First speakers were 4 Baker Group 50s but we got fed up of blowing them up, then we tried Celestion G18Cs, then Goodmans 12Ps (in two 4*12 columns).  

Universal joint used a de-auto'd AT60 and a 2025 with 9TAHCs, a virtual earth mixer I built that was never quite right, and an old Geloso 30 and a Linear 50 (both with 2*EL34s) and speakers were on each side a random 15" and a random 12" that I happened to have lying about - in cabinets made of inch mahogany ply that I got for the price of chipboard when someone ordered it in a local woodyard and then vanished.  

Anyway, I'm here about the disco driver 80s.  I just bought on ebay a sort of console - no mixer in it - with two disco driver 80s.  Alas with 9TAHCs in.  Anyway - how do I set up the tracking weight, and how do I get at the cartridge securig screws  to change the whole cartridge - the headshell seems not to come off?  

Many thanks.  I'd love to get a pair of the white round Derams in there but they are as rare as rockinhorsepoo.  Into a really high impedance they sounded quite good and the big thing was the tip mass was really low and the tracking weight quite low (we ran about 2 grams) so when oafs jogged the console the damage to the vinyl was relatively slight!  But as I said, it looks as if getting at the cartridge securing screws could be tricky.  My other option would be some cheap magnetics and a pair of phono preamps.  

I did once see a sort of "gallows" arrangement.  The mobile operator had a frame about 7 feet high that was bigger than the console, and the console was suspended on string from teh frame.  Result - when oafs jumped about there was no lateral displacement so no jumping.  But changing the records and switching teh switches was tricky!  

I had the SL1700 for many years - pretty much a SL1300  but with no control knobs above the Start contol on the RHS. Gave me stirling service for 20 odd years.

It appears to be a design function that the arms are stiff to move in and out when on FULL lift.  The SP25s did not do that.  

One Sonotone 9TAHC is mullered (fork broken).  I have sourced a secondhand one after some hunting but I think I will put two magnetics in in stead, really cheap rubbish for now.  I no longer appear to own any really high input impedance preamps and trying the surviving 9TAHC into the nearest disco mixer's aux in gave the right level but a truly horrid squawking high-mid.   I mean I could run into a 1meg DI box and use the +20DB boost and indeed I have a 4-channel one but it would be a bit Heath Robinson.  

I hope that that will not too greatly aggravate the switch-on-and-off-spark-crack from the DPDT (why?) switches the original builder put in.  I have got a couple of 0.1muff spark quenchers off ebay, and will bypass the negative side of the DPDT switches and use the quenchers on the positive side.

Original builder also for some eccentric reason wired the DIN output sockets earth 2, left 1, right 5.  But the twerp on ebay who sold me some DIN to phonos failed to tell me they were non-standard - let to 1&4 commoned and right to 3&5 commoned, so actually they work with it!  

I probably need to source a graphic EQ as well - both of mine are built into PA rigs.

A couple of spare drive belts would probably be prudent, too.  

But the arm still gets stiff with the screws taken right out.  So it's not that.  

A puzzle is that there is a plastic white screw (even smaller) that goes in horizontally.  It looks as if it might adjust the lift-off point or the parking point for the arm if ther was an auto-return.  But there isn't an autoreturn.  Perhaps a hangover from the SP25 that never got taken off but the screw has clearly been used because the head is slightly gulled.   But it's clearly noting to do with this stiffness problem.  

Next step remove arm from gimbals.  This reveals a larger screw that secures the gimbal assembly to a metal arm underneath - and a VERY thin rod that pokes up through the gimbal assembly.  Damned if I know why.  

Now here's a funny thing.  There's a bit of spring-loaded twist between the gimbal assembly and the metal plate.  

Remove bigger screw and put parts CAREFULLY in order so I can put them back again (I hope).  There's another washer and a funny plate sort of kidneyshaped that looks as if it might be part of the autoreturn mechanism that isn't there.

Lift off gimbal assembly - and lo! and behold there is the culprit, but I don't know what it does!  Going up and down with the plate that the lift arm lifts is a rod or screw with a rubber dum on the top, and a tiny torsion spring round it.  That's GOT to be the source of teh spring-loaded twist, but I'm damned if I can see what it does.

And the friction comes because the rubber dum contacts the underside of the gimbal assembly, when the plate that the lift arm lifts lifts.  Obviously a design feature.  Nothing adjustable about it at all.  Lubrication would last about 10 minutes, not a sensible thought.  The only guess I can make is that it's designed to let you leave the arm securely positioned when you lift it, for cueing purposes.  But since, like the SP25s, the arm comes down sideways when you lower the lift, that's useless as a function.  Second thought - could it be something to do with damping when lowering the arm?  I think I'll have a closer look at that.

Off at a random tangent - are the headshells the same as Mk IV or V SP25s?  It'd be nice to carry a spare headshell with cartridge already mounted.  

Great to know you've sorted it, on reflection, over the allen screws, was I thinking of my AP 76s.....or has my memory been taken over with servicing juke boxes? 

Having just re-read your post..."Could it be something to do with damping?"No matter how quickly you released those lifts, the arm would always give a steady descent.

The very thin thing is a spring.  The gimbals are not rigid to the metal plate underneath that the big screw goes in to.   Nope, there is spring loaded twist between the two.  

Anyway, it's all back together.  

And flattery will get you absolutely-----------------------------------------everywhere!  

Now for food and a small libation while I cogitate how lucky I am not to have killed myself by playing the thing without ripping it to bits first.   Several of the mains wires underneath seem to have been accidentally hit with a soldering iron while the user was soldering something else, and there are a number of live and neutral wires with bare patches due to melted insulation - in close proximity to each other.  On Sunday I might rewire it completely  - fiddling with the underneath of record decks rather than underneath of girlfriend, much to her annoyance, no doubt.  

Other watchers, a commercially built twin deck also with Disco Driver 80s in just sold on ebay for £58 (I dropped out at £57) and it was fully working with a 100 watt amp in - collect only from Brighton.  

Step 1 - switch the channel inputs round.  If I then have right channel only, it's not a mixer fault. 

Step 2 - use a different input lead.

Step 3 SHOULD logically to be to switch the wires in the DIN sockets that are the out of the deck.  but that's a pfaff.

Step 4 - put the cartridge carrier in the other deck - if it's still left channel only it's either a high resistance on one of the sliding contacts - or the 9TAHC (more probable than the stylus).    Grrr, since although I know a man who has some he wants £25 each used and £50 each NOS.  Daft since a modern magnetic cartridge is less - but then I'd have to put RIAA preamps in the deck, and those cost money.