$2 Vintage Yard Sale Turntable - Can We Fix It? 

I dunno why but all these videos are so satisfying. I love watching people fix things. It's a lost skill.

Glad to see you got that to live on. It doesn't surprise me that it was seized up given how old it is. Garrard were a major employer round here (Swindon, UK) back when I was a kid and I remember the factory very well. There's a retail outlet on that site now. They were the upmarket brand back then if you could afford them (or knew somebody in the factory) and they were known as indestructible.

I brought a Gerrard 3500 back to life. Dried grease and bushings, corroded gears, etc. Totally broke it down and rebuilt it, new needle, new cartridge, phono wires... Sounds and runs like a dream.

I bought and fixed up a 1978 Panasonic/Technics turntable last year. Easily fixed with contact/pot cleaner, new lubricants, speed adjustment, new cartridge/needle. Now it's ready for another 30+ years. Brad, your videos give me ideas, tips, and inspiration to pursue my hobbies in music, electronics, and fixing things. It's what "Reality TV" should be. :-)

I can't believe I fixed ours!! It had grease completely locking it. I took the top off, cleaned it and relubed it, Along with the gears and such. Also, I relubed the mechanisms inside, like the changer and such. Works 100 percent like it did 30-40 years ago.

Fixing things like this is exactly the sort of thing my grandfather used to do. He worked for decades repairing various electronics for people and in his spare time he would look for anything tossed out or on sale for cheap that was broken so he could fix them up. He also loved classical music and thus hi-fi tech, so speakers, record players, radios were always being repaired at his home.

That was so gratifying! I now have hope again for my turntables that are collecting dust lol

Brother, you saved me. Bought a Sylvania fold up unit with Garrad turntable. Would not drop or return the needle. followed your method, lubricated everything and found the needle position adjustment screw on the base of the tone arm and Voila!. Working like a champ. not sure if 45 and 78 records will work on the automatic drop function but I'm happy where it is. Local Music Prof is going to use it in his History of Popular Music class to show how pop music was spread to the unwashed masses. Thanks again.

My dad bought a nice Garrard changer back in the late 60s or early 70s and I still use it today. It's had to have the usual work done over the years but it's a grand old machine and sounds great. My friends love it; vinyl is cool again but you don't see too many changers these days among all the Crosley garbage, plus the retro style of these things earns them extra cool points.

Thank you so much for the video man I have a 1974 realistic clarinette 104 that was my great uncles he bought new in 74 or 75 and it was the first record player that I ever heard as a kid and it hasn't worked in years but I held on to it just on the off hand chance that I might be able to fix it one day and sure enough today was the day!! I have never worked on a record player in my life but I had the confidence to do it just not the knowin and your video gave me a basic understanding of how the mechanical side of it worked and that was all I needed thanks for the help man really appreciate it because I got this thing running like it just came out of the box and it would have ended up in the trash sooner or later

Holy carp, that's EXACTLY my parents' turntable! So many chipmunks albums went through that thing. Also played my dad's 78-RPM collection. And last I checked (2017) that turntable and all the records are still in the living room.

Great to see it did not take more than a clean and lube. Vynl is making a come back here in NZ and new players are available but the old ones still do the job. Over in Australia there is a new factory pressing records with the new technology so old ways never die. All the best bro

Great repair. Those Garrards were so much better than the BSRs, which were all over the place in the 70s.

I had a Garrard just like that as a teenager. Now at 60, I have just bought another Garrard, a D 200 made in the 80s. I'm slowly collecting vinyl records again. Great to see you fixing this up.

You're like the Bob Ross of fixing electronic shit! I'm gonna fix this turntable but first here's a happy little tree with his little friend the hawk.

Great videos man! A few years ago I found an old bsr turntable next to a garbage can on the side of the road. Nothing fancy. Took it home, it didn't power up (just a bad fuse) but nothing else worked properly. Same thing... the grease on everything literally turned to concrete and seized everything up. So in all just needed a new fuse and good cleaning and re-greasing and a new needle and it was like new again. It was so rewarding restoring something to working condition which would have otherwise ended up in the garbage.

When we were kids, these were utter shit, but now we have Crosley who have redefined 'utter shit' to a new level.

Hot iron on the shaft makes it expand, more difficult to pull out. Propane torch slowly all around that gear will make the hole expand. A gear puller works really well.

Absolutely fascinating ! Brilliant fix and a quality deck for just 2 dollars and some tlc ! Well done sir !

Garrard, like Thorens, were market-leaders in the manufacture of high end disc players, supplying a range of units to cater for the basic pop record buyer to top of the range "separates", with the 301 and 401 turntables best known. They still fetch good prices with those who know their stuff in that area of sound reproduction, and it's good to see vinyl making something of a comeback too!

Great troubleshooting and fixing, and all with no unnecessary music added. Keep up the good work.

I FOUND THAT EXACT TURNTABLE AT A GARAGE SALE FOR 2 DOLLARS!!! WHAT THE BALLS!!!

I inherited a model 1000 from my grandmother and I am going to reform it to keep of memory. Thanks for your video!

Talk about a blast from the past I had an identical turntable built int a quadrophonic system in around 1983 and it was old then. Mine worked great for all the time I owned it. It was a shame I had to get rid of the system due to space restrictions when moving into a flat.

...the was a fine brand name for record players...good fix👌🏼

First time viewing. That $ 2.00 turntable turns out to be a 💎 gem. 4 speed turntable wow. Why can't models today have these features? The mystery of the 16 RPM is solved by watching other videos that played Easy Listening, Department store & elevator music it was 16 RPM records at that time from the 1960's & into the 1980's. What i observed there was no cueing device on the Gerrard model that came many years later. BSR were among the first ones on the turntable also 12', 10' & 7' record size device as well. I didn't forget 78 RPM. I use to repair turntables like these on console stereos & table models. Wish i had GERRARD again. Nice video enjoyed watching. 🎥📺👍✅

I had many Garrard turntables..One was built into a KLH combo system that really kicked ass. they were always reliable.!! All you need is more lube and patience

Simply amazed at your ability to diagnose and repair these things. If your interest and desire was in the medical field no telling what you could do.... I enjoy watching your talents......

I am thankful for this video, as I purchased a really mint condition Onkyo direct drive linear tracking turntable that didn't work, so I took it apart and found that there was two minor issues. One the ground wire was corroded and two the stylus belt was worn out. After cleaning the ground wire good, all the front panel lights started working and then I noticed the belt, common thing to go wrong. I just need to buy a belt now and I have a working vintage unit. I prefer to fix old electronics than to toss them out. They have value to someone that appreciates how things were made back in the 80's. Keep it up, I really like the vintage HiFi fixes, just cause that is what I am in to .

Great find, great video, and great job. I think the one thing you may need to add to your tools is a heat gun. It looks like a hair dryer, but it has a small airway at the end that puts out extremely concentrated heat, much more so than a hair dryer. You wouldn't be able to touch the cam when you were done, but it would do a fantastic job at freeing the cam wheel from the shaft. Thank you for posting.

I think those are the songs from the movie La Bamba. Man you did a good job on that turntable. Reminded me when I use to fix my VCR. On some of the rubber belts I use to use rubber revitalizer it use to make them new. Great video.

thanks for this relaxing and satisfying watch, shame i can barely rewire a plug or change a fuse! lol hope you have a great day =)

At 11:38 through 12:40 reminds me of the setup of my kids Mouse Trap game up that I had to put together a couple times a week for them.

Thank you for the video. It has helped me enormously. Now I'm just trying to get better sound out of it.

Gerrard made some decent tts back in the day. I've got a bizarre ADC Accutrac and a really old Rheem Caliphone TT. The Rheem was made for schools, for playing in gymnasiums, I guess, two 15" speakers and it uses two 6L6s in the output. I plugged my guitar into a mic input, and a 4x10 cab into the TTs aux output. Crazy, it sounded awesome.

Well done, I love vinyl and just yesterday picked up a suitcase player I am busy fixing it now.

Fixed 100's of those back in the day. By the way the Electrophonic brand was pretty low end. Mostly BSR turntables. Anyway... We called Garrard's "grease" glue. Shocked this one was kept this long without being fixed.

Yay, It works!!! Nice fix !!!

Before looking at the video I know that this needs the turntable bearing cleaning & re-greasing. The same goes for the trip & return cog with the shaped track on the underside. That you had to dismantle the motor and use heat to free the cam from it's spindle says it had been left somewhere & forgotten for quite a long while. The turntable looks rather like a Garrard 3000, but the tonearm is different

Admiration and Appreciation from across the POND in Boris Blightey Land.

Great save on this old turntable Brad,,,Landfill has enough of them.

Great video...really enjoyed it. Just a hint. Don't use normal lube oil. Only use the finest quality sewing machine oil for turntables. That's how they did it originally in the factory in England.

Can't beat $2 plus some elbow and lithium grease, and maybe a new RCA cable!

Great video Brad - really satisfying to watch.

I lost track oh how many of those I repaired in the mid-70's. I usually re-built the motor also.

Good stuff. I have an old Technics receiver and pioneer tape player that's been sitting for 30+ years. would love to know how to fix them.

five years ago he was lost , i hope he got it together now!!!!

this was cool but I can't tell you how stressed out I was watching you leave all of that white goop (presumably grease?) in the bowl of the changer mechanism, lol. Really cool though, I'd love to find an old record player and get it working!

Nice one !!\m/!! Funny how the high end turntables only play one disc at a time and range from $400.00 to 20K.

Thats a fricking Garrard! I have an old 301, the best turntable ever made. I have to have it specialy insured cos its worth thousands!! The one you have there might be worth something to a collector. I will sell you my 301 for $8000. 🙄📀

You showed us your bird. (Bevis and Butthead laugh) As an edit - When heating, you would probably get better mileage trying to heat the casting around the shaft vs the shaft itself. If yo heat the shaft, you're expanding the shaft size and going against your goal of removing the gear. If the gear casting were heated, it may help the cause.

Thanks for showing us the steps. Makes for good watching.

I like a product called Rubber Renue available on Amazon and many other chem supply stores. Cleans rubber parts great, and restores the rubbery-ness. Of course, you've got to have something decent to start with, no miracles here.

I love vintage tecnology, back then they Made thing to last and to work fine

It's a really good feeling to see something work that's been dead for many years.

My parents had this changer with their Morse Electrophonic AM/FM/ 8-track receiver and speakers.

Those were the best because they could play 16 speed as a kid that's how we learned a bunch of songs on guitar because it was exactly slow down but in the same key

Cool. I'm starting to think the old way is the easiest way.. Records, reel to reel, am/fm and lots of real wire. Always works. I'm just getting tied of digital wireless...

It's a Garrard, a British manufacturer (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrard_Engineering_and_Manufacturing_Company). My old man had one in the 60s as it was a fairly high spec unit for his jazz albums. Good job.

"The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language." Here in Limeyland we'd pronounce Garrard like a posh garage or Nigel Farage. Garrard are the jewellers to Her Majesty The Queen and they started a phonograph business in addition to the Queeny Jewelly business. Garrard made the classic 301 'transcription motor' turntable as used for BBC radio transmissions in the late 1960s and early 70's. (I have my dad's example from 1969.) I'm amazed and frankly quite touched by just how many of Brad's hi-fi finds have a British made turntable. Well done everyone. Oh and I like the new fast forward noise.

Great job. Great deal.

I remember stacking SEVERAL albums when spending some quality time with the girlfriend lol

Garrard. Hard G.

I am all for having a Garrard record changer, my only issue is that most record changers do not have a size selector and it assumes the size of the record. 33 1/3 speed is either 12 or 7 inch, 45rpm is only 7 inch, 78rpm is 10 inch. I have 12 inch 45rpm records and 78rpm, so the changer mechanism would be useless for me when playing those.

Stunned to realize that I have Trini Lopez Live at Basin Street East, which includes La Bamba , on Reprise records vinyl. A thrift store find as I'll bet this LP is which seems to be Live at PJ's. Reprise also brought us the guitar stylings of Jimi Hendrix of course. I like a lot of guitarists for example David Grissom from our 'ologist's vicinity but can you imagine not having heard Jimi Hendrix?

Good fix

No . Mag / Tape worked on sliding front door . Door worked for a few months . How ever if you hold door closed when you turn power on . everything works fine. this problem started just a couple of weeks ago. Last night when i tried it , it played one record both sides. so i put a second record in. it played about one minute on track one., then stops. i can run arm forward to end of of record. in cue mode. returns to start automatically.

I always use the soldering iron first, always works tho sometimes you have to apply the heat for maybe 5 minutes.

That turntable is selling for around $125.00 in todays market. Pretty good deal for just $2.00.

So was that Trini Lopez on the record? It almost sounded like Johnny Rivers, Live at the Whisky A-Go-Go. Hal Blain on drums and Joe Osborn on bass. They were part of the RCA "Wrecking Crew". Carol Kaye, the female guitarist and bassist said their real name was the Clique, or something like that. Yes Brad can and will fix anything! Hey, run for president. Thankz

Hands got in the way often but I did learn some. Thanks

I'm not sure what the British used for grease and oil but all of them, Garrard, BSR, Collaro/Magnavox used a grease that turned into bubble gum early then into concrete. I made my living working on record changers in the late 60's and 70's and some of them had to be torn down by the time they were a year old. My go to lubricants were Lubriplate (white lithium grease) and turbine oil, brand usually zoom spout. Beware of the clear 3 in 1 it will gum up if used in electric motors, turbine oil will not. 3 in 1 does make an oil specially designed for electric motors and it's good. Not a criticism just a suggestion it would be helpful to use the common names for the parts of the changer, such as, Cycling cam, "C" clip, trip link, velocity trip mechanism and pawl. If you need a service manual many turntable/changer manuals are available free at www.vinylengine.com requires registration but its free....

looks like the standard BSR changer / suspension unit, found in everything from low end off name products to full cabinet setups and even a few Panasonic models. they got a lot of hate back in the day for not targeting the high end and not following the established format. in my experience, they tend to be very robust, have a lot of mechanical parts that like to get stuck, and tend to sound pretty dang good given a well matched cart (they seem to favor Shure). typical for one channel, usually the left, to go out for some reason. all in all, cool find.

Not sure if memory is serving me OK but I think when the small spindle is in place, the motor only kicks in AFTER you lift the arm up to put on the record. Seem to recall it as a quirk of these turntables.

Bought a kenwood 3100 turntable is it good turntable

Direct drive tables were the best.Fisher made a few good ones.Technics also..Bsr was a good brand..The best were turntables with a stroboscope and definitely weighted arms.

That screwdriver is pleading 4 it's life! you're teachin my kid bad habit's! lol thx brad HAVE A GREAT DAY!! DID U ENJOY THE ECLIPSE? WE HAD 96% HERE IN SOUTHWEST VA.

Pounding on the cast iron cog wheel had me shitting my pants

I still have my old turntable from 1982

The Poor Ol' Dear needed some Guinness, she was Dehydrated. Was Surprised to see no Cueing Lever on it. The one I had so long ago, had one. Are U going to put New Jacks on it?

i found lighter works to loosen stuck parts

If that has stereo/AV out jacks I would like it...although I see a couple of problems. Your short and the changer while it works it runs it roughly. But totally worth $2.00

Looks like you need a tool for pulling brake rotors off an axle. It has three hooks for the rotor and a threaded center rod that snugs up on the axle. You tighten a nut on the rod and it pulls the rotor or gears off a shaft. Or a bigger hammer.

Okay, a fix it video/channel and find a raptor. Off to a great start for a new watcher.

I attest that they could be fixed Al right...and I know who can do that best. This man showed (on social media) His way ,; which is the Only way to get them to play heavenly, for the pleasure of ALL ,who want to listen now...Shema...

Every record collection needs at least one Trini Lopez album

That soldering iron could be used to solder the RMS Titanic back together!!!

we say it in England with a hard G Garrard.i have garrard clocks, some of the best ever made.

YES WE CAN!

Heat gun work for auto changer too

We need speakers for our Garrard 6-200 C Electrophonic stereo system

I'm pretty sure you can fix anything. Saved that one from the the dump🖒

Excellent job

the motor in the X-10 I bought a few fears ago was like that too,among all the other things that were wrong

Can you use denatured alcohol to clean off the old grease and oil.?

I have a Dual 1965 with the same problem . 1 dollar at a garage sale .Sold it for 10 bucks

Great video! I got the cam gear off my bsr using a little craft heat gun .was realy stuck. Did you not clean and lube centre bearing?

I liked the nature footage at the beginning at no extra cost ...

So. We have the tone arm... and we have that other bar that's alil higher up... what is that for??

Garrard was the better of the two British brands, (BSR being the other) Olympic stereos used this one primarily, BSR was the one with all the issues as I recall.