How To Rewire a Technics SL-1200 Tonearm

Well, that tech should have been able to correctly align the anti-skate for you. It's not complicated, it's basically a spring and a gear assembly that need to be adjusted within the tonearm base itself:





That spring circled in green is what controls the anti-skate. It is attached to those gears, and adjusted with the anti-skate dial/knob. The tonearm has a brass shaft which is used to allow the spring to set the anti-skate to it's proper setting.

Of course, I would not suggest doing this yourself, unless you feel comfortable taking your tonearm base assembly apart. Which requires de-soldering your tonearm cables. But, if the tech had to go in there to fix the original sound issue (replace tonearm or replace RCA cables), this could have been easily corrected at that point.

 

Yep, VTA sucks on the Rega without the proper adapters. Of course we warn customers about this, but the ones who don't care, are generally DJs, who just want a Rega tonearm on their 1200s. But for the Audiophiles, it's a different story. So everything has to be perfect for them, and we'll usually install the VTAF from Peter Riggle Audio, or a less expensive option are the Origina Live VTA Adjusters.

The VTAF in action (not a 1200, but you get the idea)...


For you friend, either option is good. It's all about finances. But, yes, the M5G tonearm is a great alternative option for him.

 

Heat shrink on the tonearm?

But thanks for documenting the procedure! I'm gonna take apart my SL-1200MK2 tonearm soon and this post is helping a lot.

I'd like to know what kind of heat shrink you used on the arm -- and whether it made much of an improvement.

 

I "got" it from work. It's plain electrical wire heatshrink (polyolefin?) I may have another one at home. I can send it to you if you wish. Let me check first to see if I still have it though.

I have no idea if the heatshrink helps. I put it on the arm before I even played the TT so I have no before and after. I got the idea from some people at the Audio Asylum board. You should do a search there for detailed opinions on it.

 

i get lost after you take the arm out. what's the overall change that you are making to the wiring?
all i see from the description is that you are attaching the five loose wires to a guide wire and then pulling it out of the base of the tonearm. can you explain a bit more what happens after that?

 

disregard the above. i think i get it now. the last photo threw me a bit.

would this make things easier?

http://www.dedicatedaudio.com/inc/sdetail/8824

 

Those cables are very nice indeed. All the work done for you. $79.95 isn't too bad either, considering the work involved.

 

I've always wanted to hear a RB250 on a 1200.

it sounds like a pain in the ****... but... when i do get a second turntable, I'm thinking a direct drive just to get the best of both worlds. (I have a P3-24 as my main table).

as an absolute novice in setting up things... it is feasible for me to do this myself? or am I better off getting an expert to install this arm?

 

Ground wire installation?

Koptapad. An excellent post as I plan to rewire my 1200 soon and your tutorial will lead the way

Q: I plan to remove the existing ground wire from the 1200 entirely and reattach it to the shield on the new interconnect.

Will this work?

 

Dunno. Why remove it? It might be needed for the preamp ground.

 

I know I jumped in a bit late here, but I rewired a similar style tonearm on a Pioneer PL-600 turntable (the earlier silver direct drive turntable, not the later cheap black plastic belt drive turntable of the same number). One of the four spring pin contacts at the screw collar had pushed back in (the internal plastic part broken beyond repair allowed the spring to break through and lose it's tension). I had a donor arm where the collar was still perfectly good, so I used that piece (since they're essentially a universal design). I find it's easiest to solder the wires at the screw collar part WITH the headshell installed into the part - this is important, since it will prevent (minimize the risk of) the soldered pins from melting themselves into the plastic part. Once done, a draw wire can be used to pull the wire from the headshell end of the arm to the base part. Once through, the wires are soldered to the base circuit or to the lead out wires. ...Oh, and the first tonearm of this type that I rewired? A Linn Basik LV-V, which I had rebuilt with Linn Akito horizontal bearings/pillar post. The aforementioned tonearms are of similar type to the Technics SL1200 tonearm, so rewiring them is very similar.

On a final note, if one doesn't want to take on the task of rewiring the tonearm, the replacement wands (pre-wired) with bearing yoke are available through various sources online (incl. ebay dealers) for as low as $49.

Speaking of the replacement tonearm part, because of a recent successful Linn Basik turntable rebuild with a similar Technics arm, I decided to build another half-homemade turntable (surplus Linn Axis parts) with the aforementioned brand new Technics replacement arm (just had to purchase a counterweight and a Jelco lift/lower device separately, so I could put it all together and make it work). At least this way, it'll be new, inexpensive AND reasonably permanent (otherwise, if I went with a more expensive tonearm, I'd be tempted to "steal" it and use it on one of my Linn LP12 builds instead).