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Thread: Technics 1210 - can't put enough weight on the tonearm

  1. #1
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    Technics 1210 - can't put enough weight on the tonearm

    I recently received some used Technics from eBay and having owned one before, doing some routine checks and cleaning the turntable to try it out.

    After I zeroed out the tonearm, I added more weight to it the needle (Stanton Trackmaster 2). Its recommended tracking weight is 2-5 grams but the weight can only move up to 2! And it sounds terrible at this setting so there's definitely not enough downforce on it (temporarily put coins on the cartridge and the sound improved). I tried zeroing the tonearm again and also again noticed the counterweight seemed too far inside the end the arm when it was balanced.

    It seems like the tonearm balance is very off somehow because there's not much more room to turn the weight. Is this something wrong with the bearings or some other need to take it apart to fix the problem?

  2. #2
    Member fatcatdj's Avatar
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    yeah, I hope you got the 1200 at a great price because the tone arm calibration is whacked. Two things happen with a bad tone arm=
    tracking and balance. For now read this


    http://music.hyperreal.org/dj/sl1200.html
    .."You can NEVER go too far"---Ferris Bueller

  3. #3
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    What are my options here? Can I attempt to repair this myself or would it be better to replace the assembly? I wonder if this part is enough to deal with the balance problem. Or if it's other parts around the tonearm base that I need to check.

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    Can you take a picture of the tonearm?
    Dumb question, but did you remove the weight that screws in to the end of the tonearm? Maybe that is why you can't get enough weight on the cart.

  5. #5
    Member HBBoogie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by _rt_ View Post
    Can you take a picture of the tonearm?
    Dumb question, but did you remove the weight that screws in to the end of the tonearm? Maybe that is why you can't get enough weight on the cart.
    ^^^This.

    It should look something like this


  6. #6
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    Yes, I see that weight attached to both turntables and it must be what's pulling the arm back. Should I remove them? Because I did see that without them, I can move the counterweight further back to balance the arm, leaving me more room in front of the weight.

  7. #7
    Removing the weights will apply more pressure on the needle. Try that.

  8. #8
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    Yep, that was the problem. I can set the weights correctly now!

  9. #9
    Member DjLiquitATL's Avatar
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    those little weights are sneaky b/c they look almost like part of the tonearm
    -->(2) Numark TT-200 Ttables, SL1, DDJ-SX2, Rokit 5 Monitors, BX8 Monitors, Reloop IQ2 Midi, TSP2, SDJ, DJP4M (DjProForMac), 2015 Macbook Pro (Quad Core i7 2.5ghz, 16GB RAM, 2GB AMD-R9, 1GB SSD) <--

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    Awesome.
    I was hesitant to suggest that may be the problem, but once people started talking about replacing the tonearm, I figured I better throw it out there.

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