Garrard 301 restoration project

[Wakefield Turntables]

401 bearing arrived today. Its looks a little tatty and a couple of bits are missing but it should suffice. I'll be doing a little work on it tonight, mainly cleaning it up and then ultrasonically cleaning were ever I can. I'm going to contract Loricraft and probably get this refurbished upto 501 bearing specs, cost will be ~£500 but I view this as an investment. I can't really see how any of the after market bearings available beat the original garrard design and consequently I believe that Loricraft has vastly superior experience, expertise and research resources available to produce the best bearing available. I'll try and take some pics later.

[AlfaGTV]

Goodie! Following this thread with great interest, even though i have nothing to add... Garrard rookie...

[Wakefield Turntables]

Thanks Mike, what you got?

Well tomorrow is yet another day and yet another load of stuff going off on the 301. Tomorrow hopefully see's the costings of some new Yannis Tome tonearm cabling. So, it looks like it might be goodbye Nordost hello Yannis. I'm probably going to do some experimentation with the Yannis tonearm cable that I already own. I'll probably do some listening over the weekend to see if it's better on the 301 compared to the Nordost. Certainly the yannis cable sounded better on the 1210 compared to the nordost cable. I'll hopefully be speaking to Loricraft and doing some cleaning of the 50hz pulley. Loads to do in the search of perfecting the 301!

[AlfaGTV]

Ah, no Garrard at all but deffo would grab any 301/401 if the opportunity was given!
Playing mostly on my Michell Orbe SE/SME V/Nordost Tyr but also have an SL-1210MkII with OriginLive armboard and AudioOrigami RB250. And to make sure i have something to fiddle with i have a Lenco L75 and a Thorens TD-125 MkII waiting to be re-plinthed!

[Wakefield Turntables]

Have you tried the V and Tyr combo on your 1210? Its a combo I used on my 1210 for ages and found it to be a good match, the TYR then went onto the 301. I'm thinking of getting rid of the TYR for some Yannis Tome goodies!

[Wakefield Turntables]

I had a fantastic 40 minute conversation with Terry over at Loricraft today. I was mainly interested in getting the 301 bearing upto 501 bearing spec and was promptly told not to bother! Terry seemed to think that the mods available via Dr. Bastin were just as good as anything currently out there, he effectively talked me out of not giving him £500! I also found out the Nigel's Speed Controller was also designed by the same who produced Loricrafts own PSU!!!! Now here's the interesting thing. I happened top mention I'd removed the eddy brake disc from the 301, now to my surprise I was told that this would speed up the 301 by 2% and I'd be running over 34rpm. As stated in a previous post I decided to buy a Tachometer to test the accuracy of my 301 platter speed. You can buy one from ebay simply by searching in the sound and vision section and typing "tachometer" they range in price from £10-30. I think I paid £25 I could have got it cheaper but decided I wanted one sooner rather than six weeks later from China. Well after a little messing around I found that my 301 was running at bang on 34rpm or ~1.75% quicker than normal.

DSCN2127.jpg


The Tachometer did rely on a reflective strip and the tachometer has to be LEVEL when taking a reading other than that I would heartily recommend spending the £25. The laser is reliant on the reflective strip and being flat.

DSCN2128.jpg

Finally this is the Tachometer I bought

DSCN2129.jpg


This little experiment has taught my a few important things. Firstly you don't need to spend £1000's on fancy speed controllers and that secondly a lot of the after market bearings for the 301 are just over priced reverse egineered copies of the origin Garrard 301 bearing, in fact even the 501 bearing varies very little from the original 301 bearing according to Terry at Lorifcraft. More importantly I've learned the guys at Loricraft really know their onions. I think that I really must get the Nigels Speed Controller built as this is slowing down the progression of the 301. So tomorrow night might be an evening spent reading the various threads over on Lenco Heaven and then hopefully sometime over the weekend ordering the parts. Experiments with the 401 bearing are still around the corner. The 301 sounds very very good but I just wonder what it'll sound like with an exact rotating 33.3rpm platter and the 401 bearing in place.

[Reffc]

My experience Andy after working on a lot of Garrards is that they are best left standard, or as standard as possible because they just work, and work well. The only mod I'd ever consider is to strip the linkages (Cadmium plated on the 301) and have them acid dipped and zinc plated instead, plus maybe have the chassis re-enamelled. That and a wiring check plus motor overhauls is usually all these decks really need (ditto 401). They were made to last and lots of the so called "upgrades" out there are just ways of people being relieved of their hard earned; that or adding "bling" which means they're no longer standard examples. Most who deal with these will tell you that the standard bearings and drive system is probably the best so little point in spending a fortune on after market items, some of dubious value. Cleaning the inside idler running face of the platter and checking idler wheel bushings for wear is worthwhile, (replacing bushings if needed) and I've also found that renewing motor suspension springs and dampers is worthwhile (holds the motor properly aligned and cuts down on noise). As you've found, there's a lot of inter-web rot spread about so called "upgrades" like pulling the eddy brake out of use, which is nuts when its sole purpose is to regulate speed control! Any blame for worsening of vibration is usually in the heads of the purps spreading these recommendations instead of checking for bearing play! A decent service and getting them into a decent plinth is usually all any of them will ever need until they eventually wear out (long after we're gone!). Mine's been going 44 years!

[Wakefield Turntables]

My experience Andy after working on a lot of Garrards is that they are best left standard, or as standard as possible because they just work, and work well. The only mod I'd ever consider is to strip the linkages (Cadmium plated on the 301) and have them acid dipped and zinc plated instead, plus maybe have the chassis re-enamelled. That and a wiring check plus motor overhauls is usually all these decks really need (ditto 401). They were made to last and lots of the so called "upgrades" out there are just ways of people being relieved of their hard earned; that or adding "bling" which means they're no longer standard examples. Most who deal with these will tell you that the standard bearings and drive system is probably the best so little point in spending a fortune on after market items, some of dubious value. Cleaning the inside idler running face of the platter and checking idler wheel bushings for wear is worthwhile, (replacing bushings if needed) and I've also found that renewing motor suspension springs and dampers is worthwhile (holds the motor properly aligned and cuts down on noise). As you've found, there's a lot of inter-web rot spread about so called "upgrades" like pulling the eddy brake out of use, which is nuts when its sole purpose is to regulate speed control! Any blame for worsening of vibration is usually in the heads of the purps spreading these recommendations instead of checking for bearing play! A decent service and getting them into a decent plinth is usually all any of them will ever need until they eventually wear out (long after we're gone!). Mine's been going 44 years!

Hi Paul,

Nice to hear from you again. I would agree with 100% of what you say. This project has been nearly 5 years in the making! I've left the deck standard, I've removed the Cadmium and not bothered to Re-Zinc them as it's only me that's going to see the links. The Chassis has x1 small ding but that's part of its character! The wiring is ok and I've overhauled the motor. As you can see no additional "bling" has been added. The bearing has been "Bastin'd" but this has been fully endorsed by several "Guru's" so I'm happy with that mod. The Idler wheel is probably where I should spend some attention. Terry @ Lorricraft gave me some simple advice suggesting 95% of Idler wheel's should be ok as well as the bearings and bushes, mine looks pretty good. I shall at some point be cleaning the idler wheel with meth-spritit and re-lubing with vaseline to keep its plascitity (sic?). Anything that's removed will US cleaned and then replaced. I'm still going to go ahead with the speed controller as I thing this to be a very important aspect to the running of the machine.

PS This 301 powers The speakers & XO's you designed for me!

PPS I'll be ordering some new XO's (THE ULTIMATES!), when I've finished the raft of DIY projects (mainly speaker refurbs and building of a new hifi rack).

[Wakefield Turntables]

I managed to find a couple of hours tonight to mess around with the 301 and today I decided to rebuild the Idler wheel housing, give the idler wheel a good clean (especially the leading edge of the wheel), reinstall the idler brake, and ultrasonically clean everything that can be cleaned. The ultrasonic cleaner is something I didn't own originally so as I strip the deck down I'll ultrasonically clean as I go. Time for some pix!

Idler housing dismantled and ready for installation of idler wheel break and a good clean whilst I've access to it.

dismantedidlerwheelhousing.jpg

Pulley wheel being ultrasonically cleaned.

pulleywheelus.jpg

Idler wheel, screw and housing mount all being cleaned.

Attachment 16020


The idler wheel, housing mount and screw recieved a very good clean when I first rebuilt the deck but I think I missed some muck!

Attachment 16021Attachment 16022

Deck rebuilt and now spinning at smack on 33.3 rpm.

333.jpg

I've learned a couple of things. Firstly I could detect no difference between listening with or without the idler wheel break so I reinstalled it. Secondly I've heard several stories of 301's sounding better with a little eddy break current applied. Without the idler wheel disc my deck span +1.75% fast, re-installed and with a small amount of eddy current brake applied I'm spinning at 33.3RPM. I wonder if the vast majority of 301's spin a little fast, hence the advice of applying the eddy current brake. This deck is now running 0.01% slow, which TBH is good enough for me. Hopefully I'll get my act together and order the NSC parts. The 301 now sounds silent as the platter spins, I'll have to get the stethoscopw out and have a listen when I get a little more time. This little mini service appears to have given the 301 a new lease of life.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Another day another update.

This time its time to service the 401 bearing I intend to fit on the 301. Why bother you ask?

Well I have a very nice bearing modified by Martin Bastin but when this came up on eBay for £125 I couldn't resist. It's widely considered to be a better bearing than the 301 with better rumble figures and can with a little modification be retrofitted directly onto the 301. As always with eBay it's a risk when buying so this was a complete punt. This bearing came plenty dirty and needed a lot of cleaning.

Loads of metal polish later we have a pretty clean bearing housing.

bearinghousingcleaned (1).jpgbearinghousingcleaned (2).jpgbearinghousingcleaned (3).jpgbearinghousingcleaned (4).jpgbearingshaftcleaned.jpg