This was my first turntable, purchased in 1975. I still have it, but I went to CDs in the mid 1980s. I purchased it with a Sansui 771 receiver and a pair of Heil air motion speakers.
I still have mine, which I purchased new. The right channel now hums, and a local repair guy says the wiring is too brittle to try and repair, but I should keep it to show it off. Great Shure V15 type 3 as well.
I have 2 of these, originally back in the day I owned one second hand from a good friend. While serving overseas my family sold off my system and record collection, one I had worked on for almost 20 years at the time. I recently acquired a couple non-running examples and managed to assemble one good table from the parts, I still need to get a replacement idler wheel and set it up properly. Cool that you have the 45 changer part, I never had that but would love to get one, always a bit of a completist when collecting things.
I'm the same. Luckily the Garrard 45 spindles are not terribly expensive and many were barely used and are still practically new. Get a redone idler from VM Enthusiasts or Terry's Rubber Rollers. It's worth it and will improve the automatic operation and as well as lower the rumble and W/F.
WOW they sold it all off and you worked on your collection for 20 years I would have been pissed. They could have sent you a latter asking about it before hand.
I`ve had several of these...the first I bought in 1974....the one I have now I bought off of EBay about 2 years ago...was a one owner....have tried everything I can think of...cannot get it to work correctly.
The key with these, and really any of the mechanical changers (Dual, Garrard, Collaro, etc) is to thoroughly clean out the dried grease between the mechanical parts and relube with a synthetic lubricant. Isopropyl alcohol works well for cleaning. The challenge is that this is best done by removing parts. Take lots of pictures, study the service manuals, watch some youtube videos and start slowly. Take off a part, clean the mating surfaces and then learn how to reinstall that part correctly. Then take off two parts, reinstall, three parts, etc. It is possible to get them to "work" without disassembly and lots of cleaning, but they will begin to give trouble again. This is where the Duals and Garrards get the reputation of needing maintenance every two years. Good luck!
I Love garrard turntables, but I gave up about them because often they play great until the middle of the disc but from middle to end the sound quality become no more good.
That is inner groove distortion. If everything is not perfect the distortion shows up on the inner grooves because the stylus is tracking much slower there. Possibly the horizontal bearing of the tonearm is not as free as it should be. On an early Garrard like a Type A I suggest a lower compliance cart, something that tracks 3 to 5 grams. Later Garrards like the Zero 100 should be possible of tracking well at 1.5 to 3 grams.
