make your own g88

[scotty38]

Very nice Ant!

[Vinyl-ant]

The motor unit is now fettled and sorted, motor rebuilt and all the wiring replaced. Cap on the switch to stop any thumps on switch on, bearing shim turned up on the lathe out of a piece of scrap delrin, and speed adjusted.

Next is the arm board mounting points, then the arm rebuild.....

I had hoped to have it playing today, the day had other plans, maybe working on it into the evening will have it squared away before midnight and it turns into a pumpkin.. We shall see. Now where's mi reel of tonearm litz wire........

[Vinyl-ant]

done

Gl75 g88 mod by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

sounds very very smooth and is very quiet in terms of noise. Cart in it the ortofon sl15 ell

Gl75 g88 mod by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

the 3009 has been rewired and rebuilt, and a phono socket conversion made, only thing is that I couldn't use the screening can but it isn't picking up any hum anyway so it doesn't matter. It's been rewired with copper litz from scientific wire company which is my favoured stuff at the moment.

Gl75 g88 mod by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

just need to re set the arm board position and touch in a bit of paint where i knocked it.

Got the 1965 retro look spot on if I do say so myself

[SteveTheShadow]

You just need to bend the bias pulley arm in towards the arm pivot housing, so that the plastic pulley wheel carrier is vertical. By doing that, the bias thread will be level and running parallel to the motor board. Apart from that, it looks fantastic.

[Latteman]

[SteveTheShadow]

D8070B29-3517-4A10-A19B-BFE36FB941AA.jpeg (77.86 KiB) Viewed 2965 times

Managed to blag a go at my place with this turntable.


Doncha just love old classic tonearms.
Running my Audio Technica VM540ML and tracking at 1.75g (about as far out as you can get the SME 3009 Series II Improved with the arm balanced at zero tracking) it sounds great.
IMO the SME Series II tonearm was always a great moving magnet carrier. 1979, at the tender age of 21, was the last time I had one, I was running an Ortofon VMS20E, tracking at 1g on a Thorens TD160, that I’d fitted with all the Charlie Trayhorn damping arrangements and foamless springs. It was good for its time, but the breathed on Lenco/SME/AT combo knocks that particular TT into a cocked hat.

[SteveTheShadow]

OK, so after a few records it started to irritate; something not quite right with the treble, a bit dirty and bright on older vinyl records. After a bit of standing on my head and poking around, the back of the TT, I noticed that the arm was a bit high at the rear. The micro-linear stylus profile on the AT cartridge is a tad sensitive to VTA, but has never been this sensitive. The arm was already at the bottom of its height adjustment when I’d set it up, so there was nothing for it, but to double the height of the mat, by removing the Lenco mat and substituting in its place, a cork mat atop a flat rubber mat. This gave the necessary height to level up the arm tube.

Then the blasted azimuth was wrong, due to the J shape of the arm and the straight knife edge bearing arrangement. A tweak of that adjustment courtesy of a mirror on the platter, and we were away once again, with a nice silky 1970s vinyl sound now coming from the AT cart. I’d forgotten what a tweaky little bugger the SME Series II arm really is; nearly as tweaky as the Mayware unipivot. Hours of fun but definitely worth the trouble to get right. Gimbal arms such as my Rega R200 are a walk in the park in comparison.

This particular combo has the lowest groove noise I’ve heard. Virtually silent. Brilliant for an idler drive deck. Ant has got this idler drive TT fettling down to a fine art.

[savvypaul]

I shall call it 'the little lady'

[SteveTheShadow]

Bit more tweaking:
Tracking now at 1.5g with 1g of bias. The recommended tracking weight for the VM540ML is 1.8 x 2.2g. The VM540’s predecessor, the AT440MLB, has a recommended tracking weight of 1g -1.8g, with 1.4g nominal, and the static and dynamic compliance of the assembly and the cartridge weight is identical in every way to the newer cart. Why they upped the tracking weight is a mystery as the 540ML tracks perfectly at the 1.5g I now have it set at.

The image has jumped clear of the speakers. The SME arm was never noted for its air and space, majoring instead on midrange presence, but it’s now not bad at all in the air/space department. It’s a highly responsive tonearm in terms of letting you know the results of fine adjustments. It’s taken a few hours to get the combination really singing, but it’s now doing very nicely.

[scotty38]

Then the blasted azimuth was wrong, due to the J shape of the arm and the straight knife edge bearing arrangement.

Can you explain this to me please?

I think about it and get what I think is correct in my head but then cannot see how it would be different for a straight arm with normal offset headshell or even a gimbal arm. Put me out of my misery please.....