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Trio Kenwood KD-1033 turntable main bearing service

  One of my first posts in this blog was regarding the servicing of the Pioneer PL12D turntable, and that has proven to be the most popular by a significant margin. The Pioneer PL12D had its competitors, and probably the most popular alternative was the Trio Kenwood KD-1033 turntable. I use both names (Trio and Kenwood) as the company operated under different names in different markets. In the UK they were Trio, possibly because the brand Kenwood was most famous here for food blenders. 95% of a KD-1033 is similar to  Pioneer PL12D, and servicing them is very much the same process. Both are belt drive , have an AC synchronous motor,  mechanical speed change , a main bearing, sprung top deck and rubber motor mounts. the KD-1033 uses a different type of anti skate mechanism, employing a thread and weight. The plinth is shallower with an internal cross brace. One aspect that is different is the design of the main bearing, and servicing it is a little harder than a PL12D. The Pioneer main b

Restoring a JVC JL-A1 Turntable


Last year I acquired a Pioneer PL-12D turntable which I restored and runs very well. In the blog describing the process I mentioned that I believed that much of the content would be suitable for a wide range of 1970's Japanese belt drive turntables from the likes of Pioneer, Sony, Sansui , Kenwood/Trio etc.

 A few weeks ago I spotted another turntable being auctioned locally on ebay. The price seemed very good and I bid for it and won. It was a JVC JL-A1 which I got for a very reasonable £20 and was able to collect. The unit had been in the family from new and was in very good condition. Just a few issues due to age , namely the hardening of both rubber and lubricants with age. I had read in the vinyl engine forum that it was similar to the PL-12 and I wanted to find out, plus I enjoy working on decks.


As you can see from the pictures it is very similar. Speed change on the left (buttons rather than levers) with cueing lever on the right. S-shaped arm with removable headshell and dial anti skate.  The only significant functional difference is that the deck is an automatic, revealed by the Reject button at the bottom right.  This feature means the platter only rotates when the arm is cued at the start of the record, and at the end of a side (or when you press the reject button) the arm lifts automatically and returns to its original resting position. Magic !








I removed the mat and platter, which was a good deal lighter than the pioneer. The belt hooks over the motor spindle as per the pioneer , and can be attached via two cut-outs  in the platter.  The only difference you see are the white nylon cogs which form part of the automatic arm return mechanism. The top plate of the deck is supported by 4 springs to isolate it from the plinth which is chipboard with a veneer to make it look like real wood. The plinth is a little less substantial than the pioneer one, shallower and with a hardboard panel on the lower side.

The motor is supported  by 3 rubber bushes on 3 rods, exactly the same as the PL12. The motor ran silently from the start. Its not clear where oil is to be applied, but you can see that the lower bearing appears to be accessible easily without having to dismantle the entire motor. Another nice feature of the JVC is that the motor is also supported by two loose bolts which pass through the top plate. These allow you to remove the 3  suspension bolts to service the rubber bushes, without having to hold the motor. They allow it to safely hang, but in normal use they do not have any contact with the top plate.

As with the Pioneer I removed the 3 rubber bushes and along with the belt and rubber mat they had the same process. Clean in warm soapy water, dry and treat with Platanclene roller restorer in a plastic bag for an hour.

The main bearing was very stiff. The whole bearing assembly can easily be removed, its held in place by 3 screws through the top plate. Once removed I could see it uses the same side screw to hold the spindle in place. I removed the screw and carefully extracted the spindle. A few taps elicited the ball bearing that sat at the bottom of the bearing well. All were sticky with old hardened grease so I washed all parts in warm soapy water , dried and further cleaned with Servisol 10 contact cleaner. The JVC bearing well is not brass but some alloy, with what looks like different material for the base possibly Delrin. Once I had cleaned the well with cotton buds and  the spindle and bearing, I reassembled adding a blob of Moly grease to the spindle. Now spins smoothly and effortlessly.

As you can see from the picture of the motor , the springs didn't have foam cores to act as shock absorbers. . However around the top edge of the wooden plinth were blocks of foam rubber which I presume served the same purpose, and as with the PL12 were perished. The top plate is held in place by 3 catches which you disengage from the top via 3 screws, similar again to the PL12.  You can lift the top plate as before but there is not much slack from the white mains cable which passes out of the plinth through a metal plate with a compression collar. Removing this was the hardest part of the whole process, but it enabled me to gain full access to the deck.


I found some foam rubber and added some cores to the springs a la PL12. I replaced the grounding wire as the original had been cut and re-joined from some older wire. I fitted a length of wire and used a couple of soldered eyelets at each end.

Reassembling the deck was easy. I applied power and the motor was absolutely silent in operation. Checking the speed with a strobe disk indicated no problems, it kept good pitch at 33 and 45 and the speed selector worked well. The JVC mounts the selector arm in a nylon sleeve which is a nice refinement as the PL12 arm is inclined to rattle.

I tested the return mechnism and  while it did return the arm to its holder, there was a clicking sound at the end. The gears on the top were not quite disengaging from each other . I lubricated all of the pivot poitns in the cogs aboe and , underneath again I applied small drops of oil to the  pivots for the various arms. The black plastic sliding rod you can see in the lower right of the picture has a captive rolling ball bearing between it and the white nylon housing it extends into . This was a bit sticky and I applied a drop of oil here and worked the bearing in and out till it seemed effortless.

Reassembly and the whole automatic mechanism worked fine, no clicking this time.

I finally tried playing a record. The deck had come with its original headshell fitted with an Ortofon FF15 cartridge. I've another deck with one of these and it's an excellent model. I always fit a new stylus, so ordered a replacement from William Thakker in Germany, who are very good. I choose one of their OEM stylus for around €27. In the meantime I tried the Pioneer headshell with the Shure M75, and it sounded quite good. It was a little noisier, some background hum, but not too bad.

The stylus came and I decided to use a different headshell initially, as , while the JVC original looked good, it was quite flimsy and had some hardened damping material stuck inside. Interestingly using a generic and very good headshell (£6 from ebay) I got no music from the left channel. After a bit of experimenting, it appeared to be a poor connection inside the headshell collar, and removing the rubber washer from the plug half of the headshell sorted the connection. The deck was also noticeably quieter, my hum had gone. With the generic headshell and the FF15 with OEM , it does sound very good indeed. is it better than the PL12 ? hard to say, It has many of the same qualities and perhaps the motor is a little better. I think the pitch on the PL12 is not as good as the JVC, but that could be the motor is more worn. certainly the JVC Motor is more modern looking. The JVC has a tiny amount of in/out play in horizontal arm bearing, but the various arms and levers inside the deck for the auto mechanism mean that the two locking nuts are inaccessible. I think I may live with that.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello,

I have the same turntable but I have few problems and I thought maybe you could help.
Mine is also automatic but the problem is that always when the lp ends the arm goes back but it won't stay there, only a moment and then it goes back and lands on the middle of the lp with bad noise. Why is it doing so? Is it possible to make it stop doing it?
Sometimes the arm decides to do the same thing not when the lp ends but when it is in the middle. But if I understood right the last thing may be because of the wrong anti skating and the weight? What anti skating and weight did you put on your turntable?
Really hope you could help me.

Best Wishes,
Merilyn
Mr Ives said…
Hi Merilyn,

I would suspect that the grease in the automatic mechanism has become sticky with age and the system of gears and rodes which take the arm back at the end of the side (or by pressing the reset button) is not working as it should.

One of my pictures shows the deck from above with the platter removed. This shows the central spindle which has a geared collar. The spindle can turn freely becuase the larger gear to one side has a notch of missing teeth. I believe that this is not working quite right. The lubrication on that larger wheel is probably preventing it from presenting the missing section to the smaller gear, which should be its default state. You can sort of simulate the whole provess by manually moving the arm across and watching how the bigger wheel finally gets moved into engagement with the smaller gear. Its easy to understand when watching but harder to explain.

I think you probably need to lubricate the central axle of the large wheel with a few drops of oil, best is sewing machine oil which is thin. Then work the mechanism to get the oil into the coupling. This might be enough. However there are a few rods and wheels inside which can only be accessed from beneath. Only try this with the power unplugged at the mains BTW.

Basically a few drops of oil in a relatively few places should sort this out.

the other approach is to remove the whole auto mechanism and turn the deck into a manual. This is poossible but quite fiddly and you will have the issue how to turn the deck on and off, which currently a rod beneath does when the arm moves across.

I think a bit of oil and TLC on a deck , which, after all is best part of 35 years old, should get you working again

I dont think your problem is connected with anti skate or the balance weight. On mine these are both set to 1.5grams which is correct for the Shure M75 cartridge I use. be aware that the balance weight i.e the larger weight has to be balanced and then set the smaller black ring to zero, then rotate both till you get the right weight.
Anonymous said…
Hi. I'm having trouble with my jvc too. I hope you could help. The auto return doesn't work. It works fine when you reject but won't return at the end of the record. The table has been stripped, cleaned and lubed. The issue is, I think is the long black plastic arm that should push the metal tab that engages the return mechanism. Should it run captive in the white nylon runner? Mine just flops about in the runner. and it's not hitting the return mech accurately enough. I've had to repair the lever that clamps to the tone arm pivot so was wondering if this was another reason the table was binned in the first place?
Mr Ives said…
Hi, sorry for the delay, i seemed to have a few coments regarding the blog that i didnt notice the email notifications for.

The black rod is held captive in the white nylon piece, but there is a ball bearing sandwiched between the two pieces that allows smooth running. Do you have this ?

Have a looke here http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dJ3CmjgV45k/UuTdY_2KnmI/AAAAAAAACIo/ZoTLbobX49U/s1600/IMG_1036.JPG

You can just see the silver bearing inside the white box shaped holder that has the black rod running through it

I gave the JVC to a good friend as a special 50th birthday present , so i cant tale a look at mine.

The other thing it could be is if you look at that picture you will see further toward the back of the deck is a metal piece, gold or brass in colour that is hooked , it pivots and carries a white nylon arm which touches the micro switch. If you look at the hooked end i.enthe end furthest from the micro switch, you will see there is a pad of rubber. This makes contact with the arm raise mechnaism. Sometimes the foam rubber pad perishes with age and needs to be replaced or the arm doesnt raise properly. Hope this helps , sorry for the slow reply

Sometimes you just have to remove the platter,balance the deck on its back, remove the bottom, and simulate the movement of the arm while watching which mechanisms it engages with beneath
Unknown said…
hi really hope you get this message ive jut bought one of these and cant seem to get the turntale moving the metal rod sticking through the top spins but when i replace the metal disc that the record sits on it doesnt spin and nothing touches
Mr Ives said…
Hi Max , just got home and also saw what i think was your post on vinyl engine. I think you just need a belt which has to hoop around the underside ring of the platter and around the brass spindle. If the previous owner said it worked id expect the old belt to be maybe around the platter or in the box ? No matter but when you find the belt, which is like a large. Dark grey rubber band, you just hoop it around the rim of the ring on the underside of the platter, then drop the platter back on, then via the two access holes in the platter, loop the belt over the motor spindle
Anonymous said…
hi, i just purchased an used jvc jl a1, but the weight at the end of the arm is missing. is there any chance you can tell me the weight of this piece, so i could get someone to make one for me? thanks in advance!
Mr Ives said…
Hi Anonymous

Sorry I can't tell you exactly as I gave the deck to a good friend as a 50th birthday present.

Many Japanese decks share similar components and you may find the balance weight from a similar vintage deck from other brands fits on to your decks arm stub. They screw on using a gentle internal spiral with a ball race. The weight needs to be able to balance whatever cartridge you choose , then allow movement to apply the tracking force. While there is a calibrated ring on the front, they are only needed if you don’t have cartridge scales.

Anonymous said…
thx a whole lot for the quick reply and the whole article, which is extremely helpful.
Anonymous said…
Hi Mr Ives - hope you read this given its an old thread. I've been reading this blog with much interest as I got one of these today. Unfortunately the veneer on the left front corner was damaged in transit - any recommendations on how to go about fixing this/is it worth taking the deck off the plinth and redoing the veneer on the top only or getting a new plinth ?
Anonymous said…
Hi, I have the same turntable and I would like to restore it.
Accidentally I lost the ball bearing while cleaning it and I would like to buy a new one, can you tell me diameter please?

Thank you very much!
Mr Ives said…
Hi, well worth restoring. I cannot tell you exactly the size as I gave the deck to a friend, and I dont have a service guide. The user guide is downloadable from Vinyl Engine but it doesn't describe the bearing.

The deck is quite similar to the Pioneer PL12D and that uses a 1/8" diameter ball bearing, , and I'd suggest trying that, I dont think it would do any harm, and is likely correct of close enough
Anonymous said…
Thank you, I've tried with a 4.7 mm ball and it fits, but the spindle seems to be a little too high because the locking screw is near to touch the lower side of the spindle groove.
Without the ball bearing, the spindle go down about 2.5 mm, so I think it needs a ball bearing between 2.2 and 4.7 mm.
As you say a 1/8" (3.175 mm) diameter ball bearing should be ok, I will buy this diameter.


For who asked about the weight, if still usefull:
https://ibb.co/n2HzDH
https://ibb.co/izJH0x
https://ibb.co/mPxS0x
https://ibb.co/nzS5nc
https://ibb.co/f9vfLx
https://ibb.co/ju8Zfx
https://ibb.co/jkND7c
https://ibb.co/fB1ZDH
(97.57 g / 3.441 oz weight, 30.26mm outer diameter, 12.07mm inner diameter, 31.93 mm lenght without the plastic ring, 36.71mm total lenght with the plastic ring)
Mr Ives said…
Thanks for the update and the links to the dimensions of the counterweigh, and good luck with the bearing.
Drift said…
Thankyou for your post!
My A1 recently stopped working, it initially was very slow to spin up to speed & could only be started at 45rpm. The next time I used it, it wouldn't start at all.

After finding your post and downloading the owners manual, I pulled the platter & back off, cleaned a few components, added a drop or two of sewing machine oil.

Eventually I managed to get it turning but something still wasn't quite right. I had a leftover ball-bearing on the bench with no idea where it belonged. Thanks to your post, I managed to find its home! I spent another couple of hours turning everything by hand until I understood how it all worked.

By this point I'd discovered the arm wouldn't auto return to the holder. It'd lift up at the end of a record & put itself straight back down.
It turned out to be a crack in the plastic which coupled to the shaft of the tone arm. This crack meant the grub screw was no longer gripping the shaft & thus wouldn't rotate the arm.
A little bit of "Sellys plastic glue" and a cable tie, and I'm back in business!
I also replaced a bit of foam on the end of the large metal arm/lever, so that it did not push the plastic rotators an extra 2-3mm, causing the tone arm to bounce off the stop when it returned home.
Mr Ives said…
Thanks Drift for your message, glad your deck is running again
Len said…
Nice article, thanks for the detail you go to here.
Reading as I was troubleshooting a problem with getting no sound from the left side. Was the same issue with an after-market casing and sorted by removing the rubber washer!
Now I'm wondering why the platter keeps revolving on mine when the arm returns as you suggest it should stop... Any idea?
Len
Mr Ives said…
Hi Len, if the auto-return works but doesn't switch off the deck id suspect the micro switch is sticky.

If you disconnect the deck from the mains and lock the arm in place and remove the platter you can flip it over and remove the baseboard. If you then flip the deck so its restong on the rear of the deck on a soft towel, you can simulate a record play and rotate the spindle, which should show how the cogs and levers engage . The micro switch is visible in my underside picture. Its about 10mm x 20mm and has a metal lever along the top. The arm progress rod nudges this shut when a side completes. First thing is to spray contact cleaner inside the microswitch, using the fine tube which comes with servisol or deoxit brands. Important to get the tube in a recess in the switch. After application exercise the switch by depressing the top lever 100 times, then repeat spray and exercise.
Unknown said…
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I'm having some problems with a Linear Design LD-500, which is a rebadge of this turntable. My spindle doesn't spin at all. I can't get the spindle with its housing out of the top plate without removing the auto-return gears, which I can't figure out how to do. I've also been unable to remove the spindle from the housing, even with the screw that holds it in place removed. Do you know how I can get the spindle out and moving again?
Unknown said…
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I'm having some problems with a Linear Design LD-500, which is a rebadge of this turntable. My spindle doesn't spin at all. I can't get the spindle with its housing out of the top plate without removing the auto-return gears, which I can't figure out how to do. I've also been unable to remove the spindle from the housing, even with the screw that holds it in place removed. Do you know how I can get the spindle out and moving again?
Mr Ives said…
Hi,

I think the cog which sits around the spindle is a compression joint and should pull off. The big cog is held in place by a circlip which you should be able to remove from the top with a small screw driver. be careful it doesn't fly off . The spindle housing is held in place with 3 screws on the top and with the cogs clear you should be able to remove the whole thing and immerse it in some warm soapy water. I'm sure that the original grease has turned hard and thats why its not turning. Eventually that should loosen it up and lubricate and reassemble. There is a small ball bearing at the bottom of the spindle housing , and that needs t be cleaned or replaced too
Unknown said…
Hi,

Just stumbled on this blog, recently I acquired a JVC JL-A1 in mostly working order from a friend who was downsizing house and had gotten rid of all his records. After digging out my preamp to interface it to the line-level input on my computer sound interface, I pulled out a record (The Beatles - Abbey Road) and tried it out.

It played fine, audio sounded good, but it sounded slow… so I got Audacity to capture the first track ("Come Together"), and compared that to a recording of the same song that I had on a CD (from the "1967-1970" album). Synchronising the start of both tracks, I observed the playback from the turntable was slow. I had sampled at 48kHz; when I changed the sample rate to 50.185kHz -- the recording played correctly.

Now, this works for digitising, if slightly annoying. It'd be nice to correct the speed of the motor. Since this is a synchronous motor, it's deriving its speed from the mains line frequency, which according to some electrical meter I have on hand (CET PMC-220), is sitting around 49.97Hz … not off frequency far enough to account for the nearly 5% error I'd have thought.

In the blog article, I see mention of lubricating bearings in and around the motor. Could that be sufficient to get the motor turning at the correct speed, or should I be looking elsewhere?

The other thought is that if the motor is the problem, maybe I replace it with a extra-low-voltage (≤24V) DC motor, perhaps a small BLDC motor with integrated hall sensors that I can whip up a small motor controller for. Problem there is what should I look for in terms of specifications? What motor shaft size, rotation speed and physical dimensions are appropriate for this turntable?

Regards,
Stuart Longland
Mr Ives said…
Hi Stuart,

My initial reaction is that the main bearing is the more likely culprit. It probably needs a good clean, relube and possibly the ball bearing replacing. As others have indicated, the original *may* be a 1/8" but we don't have a definite size match. With the belt unhooked from the motor, you should be able to free spin the platter by hand and it should run for several minutes. If it doesn't it's certainly that the main bearing is gummed or dry.

it could be the motor, and it's worth putting a few drops of sewing machine oil in the top oil point, but I think the motor is less likely.

I assume your friend had it running at the correct speed at some point ? AC synchronous decks use a motor where the speed is locked to the mains frequency, and not a function of voltage. While many have voltage selector switches, they also shipped with two sizes of motor pulley to accomodate 50Hz and 60Hz regions. a Deck fitted with a 60Hz pulley will be slow in a 50Hz country, and a 50Hz pulley will be fast in a 60Hz country. Do you believe the deck has travelled ? That all said, it sounds like the percentage is too small for this explanation
Unknown said…
Hi, Replying inline.

My initial reaction is that the main bearing is the more likely culprit. It probably needs a good clean, relube and possibly the ball bearing replacing. As others have indicated, the original *may* be a 1/8" but we don't have a definite size match. With the belt unhooked from the motor, you should be able to free spin the platter by hand and it should run for several minutes. If it doesn't it's certainly that the main bearing is gummed or dry.

it could be the motor, and it's worth putting a few drops of sewing machine oil in the top oil point, but I think the motor is less likely.


Ahh so that'd be the bearing that allows the platter itself to spin. That sounds like an easy test. I'll see if I can procure some suitable lubricant and see how it goes. Sounds like a better plan than trying to replace the motor… especially as messing with mains power stuff is a hassle with electrical laws in this country (Australia).

I assume your friend had it running at the correct speed at some point ? AC synchronous decks use a motor where the speed is locked to the mains frequency, and not a function of voltage. While many have voltage selector switches, they also shipped with two sizes of motor pulley to accomodate 50Hz and 60Hz regions. a Deck fitted with a 60Hz pulley will be slow in a 50Hz country, and a 50Hz pulley will be fast in a 60Hz country. Do you believe the deck has travelled ? That all said, it sounds like the percentage is too small for this explanation

I believe so, the back of the unit has factory-applied stickers that state it's a 220-240V 50Hz unit, so it should have the correct pulleys and belt for a 50Hz mains system. I realise it won't be all that sensitive to voltage fluctuations (mind you, the motor likely won't thank me if I give it 110V 50Hz), mains frequency is the key metric here, hence I checked it. (As a day job, I write software that polls electricity meters for things like line frequency and energy used, so had a number of meters on hand I could check.)

I think the speed is close enough that it's likely a friction issue that you've alluded to… I'd imagine if it was a 60Hz pulley it'd be wildly off (in the order of 17% not the ~5% observed). Other outlier possibility I guess is the possibility the belt is stretched and not providing correct tension, but the lubricant and bearings look like a good first step to check.

Many thanks for the advice.
Regards,
Stuart Longland
Mr Ives said…
Thanks Stuart for the confirmation about the mains frequency. It's important to thoroughly clean out the main bearing assembly. the one I had was very stiff, and I suspect the original oil or grease had started to become gummy, which creates a breaking effect.

With these fixed speed motors, and well lubricated bearings, speed is entirely an issue of geometry and ratios. However an equilibrium needs to be achieved as the top plate is decoupled by springs, and the belt is attached to the motor, decoupled from the top plate by flexible rubber mounts. Things can move a bit, and a belt that is too tight will tip the motor in slightly. Rubber , like oil, seems to change with age and climate, and I'd also suggest doing some restoration on the 3 motor mounts, os mechanical noise from the motor can get into the replay system, be picked up by the stylus and appear as some background hum only when a record is playing.
I trust William Thakker in Germany to supply correctly specified belts .

Good luck, and keep us posted
Unknown said…
Okay, so haven't tried taking apart the turntable, but figured I'd stock up on the materials first. Looks like Thakker aren't shipping outside of the EU (a bummer, but yeah, China's little gift has thrown a spanner in the works):

https://cdn03.plentymarkets.com/x8owdo162lc9/frontend/home_slider/COVID_info_slider_en_01.svg

I was looking to get the bearing lubricant that they sell since it's clearly intended for this task. I did look around for Moly grease… should I be looking for something specific or should something like this do?

https://www.bunnings.com.au/kincrome-450g-moly-high-performance-grease_p0028282

Regards,
Stuart Longland
Mr Ives said…
Hi Stuart,

You can use a wide range of lubricants on turntable main bearings , as long as they are just oil or grease. So penetrating oil or engine oil which contain detergents are not a good idea. A lot use gearbox oil, or sewing machine or clipper oil.

on the JVC you may find the auto return gears need a clean and relube, again, simple oil can oil is often fine, if the old grease has gummed up
Unknown said…
Hi, finally attacked the turntable this morning.

Removing the platter: that was the first problem I encountered, as this had been done maybe once in the turntable's lifetime (apparently the belt has been replaced once before). I undid the screws on the bottom looking for clues (it was on stiff enough that it stayed put with the assembly up-side-down), spotted the 3 screws that held the bearing in place, but no obvious clues.

In the end, I just had to be a bit more firm with it and eventually the press-fit platter popped off.

I cleaned out the old lubricant which had become slightly stick (with sink plugged so that little ball bearing didn't go running off!), gave the chamber a good wipe out with a cotton bud and flushed it all out before wiping down the shaft and bearing with paper towels. Then, packed it with the moly grease I linked to above.

Maybe I used too much, but the playback speed was still slow after re-packing and putting it all back together. The platter spun, but would soon come to a stop maybe 30 seconds later. Tried the "test" I did before (The Beatles - Abbey Road) and again, it sounded slow. So, plug went back in the sink, the platter came off (much easier this time), and out came the bearing for round two.

When I was in Bunnings yesterday buying the grease, I also saw this lubricant which I thought might work for the motor: https://www.bunnings.com.au/100ml-household-oil-lubricant_p5810258 Since the Moly Grease I bought was clearly too heavy (or maybe I used too much?) I figured I'd try this out. So another thorough cleaning out, drying out, a few drops of this alternate oil in, and put it together.

Spinning the bearing in my fingers, there was a lot less resistance now, and putting the platter back on, it was spinning for much longer. Hooked the belt up, plugged the turntable back in and gave Lennon's masterpiece another spin.

Comparing against a CD (1967-1970) it doesn't line up perfectly, but it's also possible they're two different recordings. The pitch matched though, and that I thought was the important bit.

Some asked about the size of bearing: The one I have is about 4mm in diameter. I didn't measure it exactly (I guess I can pull it out and get the vernier calipers onto it if needed) but that measurement might be a rough starting point.

Many thanks for this post and the advice though, this page is a great guide for fixing these turntables, and it'll be good to re-sample some of my records on this unit as frankly, the Kenwood P-110 I used prior is a toy compared to the JVC.

Regards,
Stuart Longland

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The inevitable problem, too many records. Turntable and amplifier on top Like many record collectors around the world, I have a number of IKEA cube cabinets from both their EXPEDIT (older) and KALLAX (newer) ranges. These are easy to make, cheap to buy and perfect for record storage. The system comes flat packed and uses bolts and dowels to hold the system together. If you follow the instructions  the system is strong and should not collapse. You can augment the joints with PVA wood glue for extra strength. My turntable sits on top of an EXPEDIT 2x4 cabinet, laid along the long side, with some felt feet to support it from the floor, and you can use KALLAX in the same way. It's been great but has two problems I wanted to address : 1) Because the system has no back panel, the records  can be pushed too far back. 2) While the structure is strong and fairly rigid, there was some lateral movement. With heavy equipment on top, I found that if I nudged or knocked either top side, this all

a vintage Sonab 85S / Yamaha CP-500 turntable

The Sonab 85S turntable You'll see from this blog that I'm interested in vintage audio equipment , especially turntables and speakers. I keep an eye on ebay for potential bargains, and saw this turntable listed quite close to me and for a very good price, £60 buy it now, including 45 adapter, dust bug, DIN adapter, record clamp and a very nice Shure M95 cartridge. Condition listed as very good and with the original sonab headshell. I've been interested in this deck for sometime, as to my eyes , it's a particularly nice design, with the very simple tonearm and deep chassis. I was aware that the model , from the late 70's was a cooperation between Swedish manufacturer Sonab and Yamaha. I don't know how much was contributed by which firm, but the same deck, or one very similar is also to be found as the Yamaha CP-500, though typically in teak rather than black. There were two Sonab models , the 75 and 85, the former being a manual  deck, the latter an automatic, an