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Turntable Issue

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:55 pm
by MrCrowley
I bought a 1979 National turntable off and auction site for $30 :) If you don't already know, National is made by Panasonic who makes technics, so it's a damn fine system.
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Anyway, I got home and tested it, and worked perfectly, the turntable, tape deck and radio.

The next day I wake up, go to use it, tape deck is fine, same with radio, but the turntable is only playing sound through the left speaker, I plug in my headphones, same thing, left speaker only.

I don't remember bumping the stylus, it's brand new and the cables look fine, so i'm thinking it's the pre-amp, but I have no idea how to get to it, how to identify it and how to fix it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

BTW some of you may remember a problem I had with my stereo awhile back, well turned out it was a shotty cable all along... :roll:

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:00 pm
by jrrdw
See if there is 4 little wires on the needle arm just behind and above the head that holds the stylus. If there is, more then likely there will be a short in 1 of those wires. Wiggle them a little and try it again. They are color coded for the left and right channel's.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:05 pm
by MrCrowley
There's a white, red, green and blue one. I'll give it a try now. :)

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:06 pm
by pizlo
I'm don't know much about turntables but my dad sure does, hes got around 3,000 records in the basement, mostly old Greek stuff. I am however making a ghetto surround sound in my room, I'll pot pics of it once I get the 200 dollar whoofer for free from my sisters friend.(they got it free with there uber speaker set, and don't need it.) Last night I found an integrated amp in my churches attic, and now I'm using that to power 2 huge ass panosonics from the 80's.
Well good luck.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:08 pm
by MrCrowley
Jrrdw, It's having a lot of effect on the left speaker, making it quiter or louder, but not on the right speaker. Do you know which wires and for left and right?

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:19 pm
by jrrdw
If one is stripped it will be the + and the solid color will be the -. Disconnect one of them and see what side it discontinues. Then you will know what is left and right.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:27 pm
by MrCrowley
None are striped and I seperated them as far apart as possible but still no right speaker. The wires cross over each other so it's hard to seperate them.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:33 pm
by jrrdw
Me, I used a pair of needle nose pliers and pulled mine off one by one and very very gently squeezed the little tiny wire ends and put them on again. It mite also help wiggling the stylus around a little. When the manufacture put mine together the stylus wasn't inserted all the way, I pushed mine in a little and it was ether the wires or the stylus, but one or the other fixed mine. Many moons ago.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:42 pm
by jrrdw
I just dug out my owners manual, the white and blue wires are the left channel. Blue is the ground. Green is ground for the right channel.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:47 pm
by MrCrowley
Just rearranged the wires, still no go with the right speaker :?

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:50 pm
by jrrdw
Try pushing the stylus up into the head some more? What kind is it? My turn table is a Fisher and my head is a Audio Dynamics, I replaced the Fisher.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:57 pm
by MrCrowley
I have no idea, the turntable appears to be a Gerrard. I remove the green and red wires, which had no effect so they must be right. The green wire looks a little dodgy I think it's not connecting with the metal bit.

They may be the problem, i'll try fixing that.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:06 pm
by jrrdw
Yea, try giving them a little pinch to give them a better connection.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:09 pm
by MrCrowley
The end of the greencable is sticking out of the plug that plugs it into the stylus, so I shoved it back in, and when plugging it back in, it comes back out. And there's not enough wire for me to strip off without cutting the plug off.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:16 pm
by MrCrowley
Okay, still can't get it to work and when I screwed the arm back into place, it won't go far enough in (towards the middle) to play the last bit of the record, so if you play it, it will just keeping repeating as it can't go any further in without forcing it.