Best setup for Technics SL1200?

milltown

I picked up a pair of 1200s a few weeks back that looked like they had a hard life but apart from a broken phono wire and some corrosion on the platters, everything else looked in good order. I soldered in a new phono lead on one and sanded and polished the platters on both. New slipmats were put on and new stylii fitted to the supplied Stanton 500 carts on original Technics headshells.

I have found numerous guides online, including the Technics manual, and tried setting up the tonearms (height, weight, anti skate) but they still seem very prone to skipping. They sound fine playing a record but if I'm cuing up a record and holding it at the first beat, or rocking it back and forth on the beat it often skips a groove or two with little or no provocation.

It happens with brand new, unwarped records. As I said, it will play fine and sound great without skipping, but I'm sure they should be more robust when it comes to holding the groove when manually cuing.

The recommended weight for the stylus is 3 to 5 grams. I've tried both extremes and with anti skate set to full and to off. It's marginally better with max weight and no anti skate but still a whole lot skippier than the sh1te belt drive Ariston decks I started on years back.

Is it likely that the "suspension" is gone in the carts? Does such a thing even happen. Otherwise I'm stumped. Everything that should move, moves freely, and everything that shouldn't doesn't.

Any help?

Paul1979

Your turntable is fine you just havent set it up right, there is an art to this......this vid shows u how to do it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc7mxiw1r4w


In his RBMA Interview New York DJ Danny Krivit tells how to set up the turntable properly.

RBMA: »And you also have a special method of tuning a turntable the right way, right?«

Danny Krivit: »Well, I don’t know if it’s a special method, but it’s what I do. I feel, when I start DJing, if I don’t do this; it was what was taught to me. If I just accept the turntable the way it is, lots of times I’ve come in and someone didn’t know. They want the tone arm to stay in place so they turn the weight around: it’s very hip hop. And they have it maximum weight. And it’ll stay in the groove, but if this is a record you care about, it’s probably cutting a new groove in the record. Really maximum weight for a record should be about 3 grams. And it has a setting here. I usually drag along a record, this one in particular, I found a record that has a blank b-side. No grooves on it. (holds up the blank-sided record before putting it on the turntable) And what I do is, I take the weight, (unscrews the weight on the end of the tone arm and adjusts) and I get it to a point where it’s weightless, but it just manages to stay down. And then I change the number to zero at that point. And then I bring it up to about three. If you’re home, I’d probably set it less than three. Whatever the suggested weight is. The least weight possible, the longer your records will last. And then I have to set the counter balance on the side (adjusts counter balance gently) to the same setting. And unfortunately, this is the most common turntable, the MK2, it only goes up to three. So if you need to go a little further, you’re stuck. You actually have to dial off a little weight. The newer ones go up to six and you can adjust it a little. But once I do that, it should stay where I put it (puts needle on blank sided record and the needle skids toward the centre). See? I have actually dialled back a little weight. There’re no grooves so there shouldn’t be anything pulling it one way or another. (readjusts weight and puts needle gently on the record) And if you have it off, it’ll kind of slide to one way. And then, just as a double check after I’ve done that, (flips record over) I’ll just kind of make sure I’m listening to it, and I’ll pick a groove out and (cues a groove) move it back and forth like a scratch or something. Make sure it stays in the groove, doesn’t pull to one direction or another. And once I’ve done that, I feel pretty confident for the night. If I haven’t done that and halfway through the night it starts skipping, I have to blame myself, I didn’t go through this routine.«

RBMA: »And this is also better for the sound, then?«

Danny Krivit: »It is. I mean, if you put an enormous amount of weight – people put a quarter on here, they turn the weight around, up to ten grams. You can hear the difference, it’s crunching. You look at the needle, the plastic is riding on the record. The needle’s forced down ridiculously, you can hear the music being crunched.«

RBMA: »And this was a common or is a common method with New York DJs? Because I have never seen it before.«

Danny Krivit: »No, it should be more common. It’s an old school thing. Most of the places I go, the sound technicians themselves are not paying that much attention. The other adjustment to make, which I should have pointed out, is (puts the record back on the turntable) the actual height of the arm. This wheel here (indicates the weight on the end of the tone arm), when it’s on the record – depending on the felt, [the angle of the tone arm] should be fairly flat. It can lean a little bit down [towards the needle] – lightly, not too much. And it shouldn’t lean up. And so you adjust this to that level. If that’s set at the wrong level, it’s again hurting your records. It’s cutting a new groove in it. Records that you’ve had the weight turned around and it’s so heavy like that, [the effect] after ten plays would be the equivalent of [playing them] like this, (indicates the turntable which he has just adjusted) for maybe 300 plays. So you really do hear a difference quite quickly.«

Also another New York DJ, Cosmo has done this video showing you Dannys method step by step:

milltown

Thanks Paul.
TBH that looks like pretty much how I set them up in the first place but I'll try again, following that from scratch and see how it goes.

milltown

Looks like one of my carts is goosed.

Spent a bit of time at these today. Noticed that the carts were fitted quite far back in the headshells, so moved them forward. Then balanced and set up as per the guide Paul linked. One deck works like a charm now. When I tried the other one, it looked to track fine on the lead in of a record but as soon as the music started it went hopping across the record. Swapped the headshells around and the problem followed. The bogey cart needs a good 1.5 grams more weight to hold a groove and will still go skipping unless the anti skate is at the max. The good cart doesn't seem too bothered about whether the anti skate is on or off.

cravings

are you missing the square weight piece from one of your headshells? it fits between the stanton cart and the technics headshell.

incidentally if anybody has a spare pair of these, i have a pair of carts missing them..