Saturday, August 13, 2011

Technics SL-1200 MKII

For someone who collects and listens to a ton of records.. i really have a shitty turntable.

I finally decided on the Technics 1200 as its a great deck for the price, is completely customizable and repairable and are rather easy to find parts for still (though discontinued).

I found one on CL from a guy who lives close to me. We ended up working out $200 on the deck with a headshell, Staton 500II cart and no needle.

The dustcover was there, but scratched up pretty bad, covered in stickers (awesome ones) and had no hinges. Also, the On/Off switch mechanism was broken from the inside and needed to be repaired.

Jeff and I tore into it and realized, right off the bat, that the bottom casing had no screws in it. The guy who repaired it last and upgraded the cables probably just forgot to put them back in!

We got it all apart and made a list of all the parts that are needed to get this guy up to snuff.

I caught an amazing break that next week.. the dustcover is usually around $50 -$60 and the hinges are another $40..and.. the hinge receivers are another $20! Thats a lot of cash just for the cover. At a Value Village in Lake City I found a technics sl-q2 that was pretty beat up but had a headshell that I could use for the 1200. Also, it had a good slip mat and decent tone arm. I figured it was worth having around for parts. When I picked it up, I realized that the dustcover didnt fit it.. it was a bit too large and the hinges didnt mount into the deck. It actually looked like the one I needed for the 1200 and it was in great shape! Sure enough, I took it home and it fits like a glove!

I placed and order with Panasonic for most of the parts and got 2 random pieces from eBay and 1200parts.com.

Next week comes cleaning fixing and reassembling... possibly even painting!

Asst Projects in between

Been collecting assorted items from Craigslist and the local thrift stores and working on them.

In the last couple of months, there has been an Alesis DM5 drum module, Tascan 414 4track recorder, B&O RX2, Technics SL-Q2 and a handful of other things..