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Old 18th Apr 2012, 8:07 pm   #20
Darren-UK
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Blackpool, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 4,061
Default Miscellaneous bits and pieces.

So your newly acquired record player with one careful previous owner (but two dozen more careless owners) has a turntable which rotates the wrong way, explodes midway through a record or stubbornly refuses to play whenever you load a Cilla Black record. All these things can be put right but it's the small niggles which can cause the biggest headaches:

Control knobs

As with radio receivers, missing or damaged knobs can also be a problem on record players and this also applies to rotary-type deck controls (Collaro speedchange knobs, for example, have a habit of going missing).

Obviously these cannot be obtained new, so your only options are to place a request in our Sets & Parts Wanted (S&PW) section with a picture of the knob type you require if at all possible, or replace with non original types.

It's worth remembering that some knobs, specifically on/off, volume and tone may well be identical, or very similar, to the knobs used on the manufacturers radio receivers from the same period.

Turntable mats

These are now becoming a serious problem when replacement is necessary. With age and, perhaps more to the point unsuitable storage conditions, these mats perish and eventually crumble away.

You might be lucky as a result of a request in S&PW but improvisation is often the only recourse. Do a forum search, keywords "Turntable mat" or "Platter mat" for more information.

Lid hinges, catches etc.

Record players seldom turn up minus their hinges and catches, but they frequently turn up with these items damaged and/or badly corroded.

If replacements are needed then, again, ask in our S&PW section. However, the majority of these items are of Cheney manufacturer and a web search using that name as the keyword will show several suppliers, one such being Sid Chaplin who is a Godsend for items like cloth, handles and cabinet fittings.

Bear in mind that carrying handles, as fitted to portable record players, invariably have plated, or sometimes anodised, end caps to match the other cabinet fittings.
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