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Record Player Stylus
ThePenkethPedan
Posts: 347 Forum Member
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I still have a Bush record player, made by Garrard, and am wondering if it is possible to buy a replacement stylus cartridge; I have no manual or instructions, the player was passed on to me many years ago by a cousin, but I use it regularly. In attempting to remove the existing cartridge I broke off a small piece of plastic which probably was holding the cartridge in position on the arm. It is now held in place by sellotape, still working, but the sound through the linked speaker declines in volume for long periods, bursting back to full volume from time to time- this happened before the sellotape job as well. Does this muted sound confirm that a replacement is required for the stylus? It is a stereo needle, although one of the speakers is out of action anywayI, so the sound comes from only one speaker.
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Is it part of the tonearm - the head shell, perhaps?
Is it the lift or a spacer?
Or have you damaged the stylus? the removable plastic piece housing the needle.
Buying a replacement cartridge or stylus won't cost a lot.
What's the model of the turntable and could you share a pic of the damage?
If it's a Garrard it was a decent turntable in it's day - they're still sought after as e-Bay shows.
Having said that even more decent turntables are have now dropped in price on the second hand market - something like a Dual CS 505 or similar would be worth a look from e-bay - but you'd need to find an amp and speakers to go with it - again, second hand you should be able to find something like a NAD 3020 amp and some Wharefedale Diamond, JPW Sonata or Heybrook HB1 speakers.
The plastic bit is a bit like a tiny football goalpost set, (now that it's broken off-);
it came off the front of where the cartridge was held in place, I thought it would bend open slightly to allow the cartridge to drop down so as to disconnect the rear of the cartridge from the connecting leads, but probably the plastic had become brittle with age and so snapped away completely. The problem is that I can't replace the existing cartridge back into the arm, although holding it in place with sellotape hasn't affected it's use at all. Sorry, can't provide a pic.
The model no. Is 2025 TC, Bush Transistor Stereo, with a ' cueing device' for the arm.
Thank you for your reply and to the other respondents, all points noted with thanks.
Going from a vague old memory (I repaired hundreds of record players back in the day), it 'might' be a Sonatone 9TA cartridge - which was a common one. Various BSR cartridges were also used.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Sonotone+9TA+cartridge&tbm=isch&imgil=G42yGSWvglQPbM%253A%253BPrEQFy9Y3EPcvM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.lencoheaven.net%25252Fforum%25252Findex.php%25253Ftopic%2525253D1316.0&source=iu&pf=m&fir=G42yGSWvglQPbM%253A%252CPrEQFy9Y3EPcvM%252C_&biw=1920&bih=969&usg=__OvlPK6t8c4t3zFX1X1lxpUu3DBg%3D&ved=0CD8Qyjc&ei=-76aVcKKKu2R7Aak8K-IBA#imgrc=rA77ha3w-hQBbM%3A&usg=__OvlPK6t8c4t3zFX1X1lxpUu3DBg%3D
http://www.vinylengine.com/
Here's the manual for your turntable;
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/garrard/2025tc.shtml
It's not the casing that's ceramic! Whether the cartridge is Magnetic, Crystal or Ceramic the outer casing will nearly always be plastic! (Some may actually be metal)
The "Ceramic" term refers to the element which is contained inside the plastic casing of the cartridge which generates a small electrical voltage when the stylus is moved along the grooves of a record.
It's also a pretty small ceramic element, as well as ceramic other cartridges used piezo crystal instead - in practice there seemed little difference, but ceramic were generally considered 'better' than crystal.
We always used ceramic cartridges for discos, for a number of reasons:
1) Cost - they were far cheaper than magnetic.
2) Tracking weight - they track far higher than magnetic, important for bouncy disco floors.
3) For a disco you couldn't tell any difference from magnetic.
<shudder>
To think that BSR were once "world leaders".
There was never a more compelling reason to switch to CD. BSR turntables and cartridges were utter, utter sh!te. Even their attempts at "hi-fi" products (such as the cheap, nasty copies of the Japanese direct-drive decks made in the late 1970s) were completely lame.
I've never understood why there is such nostalgia for players of this type.
There was a TV programme about old names that have faded away and there was a section on the BSR factory which I think was in Birmingham. BSR died because of the rapid rise in imported music centres causing there to be a lack of demand for UK produced turntable mechanisms. Garrard turntables were better but with the exception of the up market 301 and 401 they were still pretty poor. Most turntables of that era were auto changers full of complex mechanical parts coated in grease that dried out and caused all sorts of problems resulting in a trip to the local repairer for a clean and lube.
There's usually either one screw through down from the top, or two screws up from the bottom - it's really very simple. Some cartridges clip in to plastic (or metal) holders, and you fasten the holder to the PU head with the aforementioned one or two screws, then clip the cartridge in place.
I replaced many hundreds of cartridges back in the day
People seem to think there's this voodoo art to replacing cartridges.
Fact is that on any traditional (i.e. non-linear) turntable the cartridge will never be properly aligned on more than two spots on the record...
No screw down , but I did want to raise the arm enough to look at the underside of the cartridge before I sort of forced it away from its mounting, but the arm doesn't raise sufficiently to do so. I suppose that the manuals will show how to release the arm, so will have another look. However, as the cartridge came away from the arm as soon as that pesky bit of plastic snapped off, I can only assume that no screws at all were involved, and that it was attached/held in position by other means.
You need a tiny short screwdriver
In fact the one I used for MANY years (lost it now
If there's no screw down through the top, then it will have two screws going upwards, as I said before I've changed many hundreds of them, plenty in Garrard decks, including the 2025. The 'better' decks, such as the SP25 etc. (in it's various versions) had a removable head shell which made it simple to change the cartridge - the early ones had a knurled nut which released the entire head, and the later ones had a plate that slid out forwards.
Can you take a picture of it?.
So I suppose my problem now is how to instal properly any replacement stylus cartridge, rather than using sticky tape! Thanks for info, never thought there'd be so many responses; good show.
While you can't post pictures directly in DS you can upload a photo to any of the many free image hosting sites that takes your fancy and post a link to the image here