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Old 20th May 2013, 5:05 pm   #114
GP49000
Hexode
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Sonoma County, California, USA.
Posts: 405
Default Re: Garrard record player deck identification.

The Garrard RA-7 pusher platform seven-inch small hole record adapter

Today, a brief step back farther into the past to the 1960s for a minor accessory seldom seen, at least in the USA:

In 1960, Garrard introduced its Type A Automatic Turntable. Based upon the time-proven pusher-platform Garrard chassis, the Type A featured an advanced tonearm and a heavy, cast oversized (10") platter replacing the non-counterweighted arm and stamped steel seven-inch platter of its predecessors, the RC88 and RC98 record changers.

This large platter created a problem. Automatic play of 7" small hole records (there were both 33rpm and 78rpm records in this size) had been acccommodated on the prior models by a 7" position on the pusher platform that supported the record stack from the side. With the larger platter, the pusher platform could no longer be designed to move inward toward the spindle far enough to support a 7" record; it would strike the platter. So on the Type A and all other pusher platform models from then on, the platform only had 12" and 10" positions. Even the lower-priced 88 Mk II which did have a 7" platter lacked that 7" position, as it was a stripped-down Type A with identical mechanism.

Automatic play of 7", 45rpm records, all of which had large centre holes, was provided for by the Large Record Spindle LRS-3, the same as had been used with the earlier RC88 and RC98; the LRS-3 did not use the pusher platform for record support. For 7" small hole records, Garrard designed the RA-7 (Record Adapter, 7 inch) as an optional, extra cost accessory, priced in the USA at $1.50. The RA-7 clipped onto the pusher platform, which would be placed in its 10" position; the RA-7 provided an extension platform to support the edge of 7" records, and a sliding pawl, pushed by the pusher in the platform at the appropriate time in the cycle to push the 7" record onto the platter for play.

The RA-7 was mentioned in USA Garrard advertising in 1960 and 1962. With the introduction of the Type A70 in 1964, the RA-7 was no longer shown in the USA "Comparator" booklet or the British catalog sheet, and neither did it appear in the 1966 catalog which included the 70 Mk II, the last in the long history of Garrard pusher platform automatic turntables and record changers. However, it did fit and work on both of these "70" models.

The RA-7 was not mentioned, either in the list of accessories and replacement parts, nor in the operating instructions, in any of the instruction manuals for the models that would have used it: 88 Mark II, Type A, Type A Mark II, Type A70 and 70 Mk II.

I have owned at least one Garrard pusher platform machine continuously since 1967, when I purchased a secondhand Type A. Just for the sake of completeness, I tried to order the RA-7 adapter from local Garrard dealers but their dealer catalogs no longer listed it. Over the years, I never saw one and wondered if I ever would.

Finally, earlier this year, I acquired an RA-7 as part of a package of Garrard parts and accessories. It was still in its original plastic bag and showed no signs of use. Attached are the last page of the Garrard USA 1962 catalog, listing the RA-7; and photos of the RA-7, the little plastic bag it came in, and a Garrard 70 Mk II set up for automatic play of 7" small-hole records...perhaps the first time this RA-7 has ever been installed onto a turntable. A shame: I could not find a 7" small-hole record to play!
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Last edited by GP49000; 20th May 2013 at 5:11 pm.
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