Lovely stuff. I had a hand-me-down record player that did 78, 45 and 33 1/3, but I've never seen 16 RPM before! The three speeds were great because for every 45 you bought, you also got a dance remix and a depressing album version too. Nice restoration, educational, inspiring AND entertaining!
16 was for audiobooks, I think! There's also a few weird formats which use it, the Seeburg background music systems are at 16RPM using a standard LP groove width if I recall correctly, so an old turntable which supports that speed is a way of playing them without needing to find a rare and bulky genuine BMS unit.
Cute! And the record player's pretty nifty, too.🙂 FYI: the original Japanese-made Chuo Denshi CZ-800 cartridge has a recommended tracking force of 2 to 4 grams, but the Chinese knockoffs of it -- which is what you have -- recommend 4 to 6 grams. Don't worry, that's still not enough to damage your records. And yes, that knob was to flip the stylus over between a microgroove needle for playing LPs and 45s and the other side with a larger needle for playing 78s. The cartridge you took out also had a flipover stylus, but it used its own plastic tab, rather than the knob on the front.
Thanks for the info! This is all new to me. I might increase the tracking weight slightly but to be honest I haven't had any issues with skipping etc. - also that's what the penny is for 😉
This Antex soldering iron of yours brings me lots of memories. I had this same model since junior high until after I finished my (electronic engineering) studies!
That beige nob or nipple would have been used to turn the original cartrige around, to switch between two styluses (“styli”?). A rougher one for 78 (as indicated on the nob) and a finer one for vinyl records. Quite common on record players that could play both types.
Worth the click just for the silly intro alone 😆 Gotta love those old vacuum tube electronics, though I wouldn't be surprised if that's the cause of the hum.
2:30 oh that is wild to think the 60s really was 60 years ago. like that didn't even cross my mind when i read the date on the video but i mean wow Gilligan, twilight zone, get smart and other tv classics even rounding the big 60 in a year or so. or to think when i was watching the three stooges in the 90s as a kid, they were as old then as those 1960s shows are now. but anyway great work preserving something this old. funny timing too as i had just watched the rambles channel behind the scenes video from oct 2021 on this a couple weeks ago and was curious how it turned out.
Lovely. I still occasionally look out for a turntable that would sound a bit more "vintage"... mine is vintage but unfortunately far too much of a hi-fi device to actually give that nostalgic sound! As others have mentioned those are flip cartridges, there's one side to play the wider grooves of 78s and one side to play the narrow "microgroove" records we're more familiar with today.
I have acquired an old FIDELITY HF19 from a skip. Looks like they have a similar design to the Dansette. After much searching I found the model number on a vintage website, I would like to find and try replace the decals with the model number style. The valves are UL84 and UY85 same as yours (sadly the originals were both missing.) Would you by any chance know where I can get a spring clip for the tone arm and the twist popup centre boss for the 45's, please?
Nice one. My mum & dads mono player is stored in my old vacant bedroom at my mum's house still to this day. I was born in 1966 so it's around 60 years old now. Doubt if i will go there and play with it though as there are 37 stairs to the top of the Georgian house and i don't miss it THAT much😂
The amp for this has a half-wave rectified power supply (that's why there are so few components). The power supply beyond the transformer is essentially a single rectifier diode, a resistor and a capacitor (although the transformer has dual output windings, the other of which provides the heater for the valve and also the mains indicator) If I'm reading my copy of the schematic correctly (the primary output winding of the transformer is labelled 240V, so a 1:1 ratio with the input winding), the DC voltage output of the power supply will be around 100V, although there will be a really high ripple at about 25Hz, but there will probably be harmonics at 50 and 100Hz. It's going to hum quite badly even with the chassis disconnected from the Earth.
Oh, and another thing. Dansettes were never classed as "HiFi". There were some very specific specifications that need to be met to use the term HiFi (which is a contraction of "High Fidelity"), which included number of channels, power output, noise figures, wow and flutter values etc. Mono record players, by definition, would not fit in to the category. Garrard made this turntable so that it could be fitted into Stereograms (as did BSR, the other major manufacturers of turntables in the 50's and 60's), and the arm was wired up so it could take a stereo cartridge.
Nice, I've an old Philips reel to reel player in my attic from my parents, who in turn got it from my uncle when he was finished with it. I must dig it out and have a go.
Wow. Just noticed something, You're playing the records with the turntable in transport mode. Those two sticky-up screw heads are holding the suspension springs compressed. You should really screw them back in when playing records so that the turntable 'floats' on the springs. Of course, when you pack it up to move it with it's handle, you should screw them out again. Interestingly, the original Acos cartridge which had an LP stylus on one side and a 78 stylus on the other had a middle position between the two which meant that if the arm jumped out of it's transport clip when being carried, neither stylus would be damaged by the arm flopping about. Too many of these have scratches on the plastic or the enamel of the chassis where the stylus came in contact with them if they were not in the transport position. The grooves on a shellac 78 RPM record were a completely different profile from what was later adopted for LPs and 45s. They were much wider, so the stylus was also wider and a different profile. If you tried to play an LP with the 78 stylus, it would not sit in the groove properly, and would probably skip. Conversely, if you used the LP stylus on a 78, the stylus would drag across the bottom of the grove, and would probably sound terrible and quite quiet.
I grew up in the 60s and everything in our house that used vacuum tubes - TVs, radios, record players - buzzed. Not sure if it’s part of the deal with vacuum tubes.
We had a red Tempo. For what it was I thought it was pretty good. But taking it to Western Australia, due higher voltage the amplifier went into self-destruction. The cure was a 18 watt stereo Rambler amp and stereo ceramic pick up. Later swapped for Garrard Zero 100sb Kenwood amp and Jorgen speakers.
It's probably fine wiring the chassis to neutral for the UK since your plugs are polarized, just be aware that it might be very dangerous if it gets adapter to an ungrounded europlug, or even in the UK if it gets used in an outlet that's wired backwards, because then you will have a "hot chassis", where 230v is live on the metal parts.
The buzz/hum you mentioned could be because you mounted the pre-amp close to the power transformer (inducing hum into the sensitive pre-amp input) you are using to power it. a suggestion would be to move the pre-amp pcb further away from the transformer.
Hello, I have an English gramophone, I put a Chinese cartridge needle, the sound is thin, the Chinese cartridge is ceramic, the magnet cartridge is much better.
Some tonearms on these portable players didn't even have a counterbalance spring to adjust the tracking force. Folks would play a record 'til it craps out and go to the record store to get a replacement for 85 cents. Those were the days.
Can I get advice. My record player is called Electra it's missing ground wire. Will I need it if I use old receivers. Do i need to solder a new one or does it just screw in?
My Mum had a Dansette Junior. It had a double sided crystal cartridge that you would flip over with that knob on the front of the tone arm if you wanted to listen to any 78's The 16 RPM setting was for extended play records; usually talking books. We had a bunch of 78's but no 16 and 2/3's talking books.
Haha, for some reason I missed the 16 RPM setting when I was scripting the voiceover. Very interesting indeed, I've never come across any 16 RPM records.
My parents bought one in 1960 and one 45 to add to the 78s they already had. The 45 was Tell Laura I love her by Ricky Valance which we played over and over again. Until the second a few weeks later The Drifters:- Save the Last Dance, which got played many times. Then we began buying Woolworths own which were cheaper. When I got older we would take our 45s to parties and often they would have a Dansette, or slightly louder, but not much. The Dansette I remember was 1 watt output. Thanks for sharing.
