townshend rock 2 tonearm mounting plate improvent??

[karma67]

being a serial fiddler it came into my head that perhaps the plate could be bettered by using either ebony or panzerholz.
the original mounting plate is metal,mild steel which normally would be thought of as an awful choice for a tonearm board,it works well and i have no complaints.
the replacement would have to be thicker,say 10-19mm but i can hide the thickness by rebating the underside to sink it lower on the plinth.
what do you think?

https://s26.postimg.org/hfry0mp55/IMG_1597_1.jpg

[RothwellAudio]

Ebony is expensive and is a natural/organic material, so it's got to be good for sound quality - right?
Not in my opinion, at least not for this application. It's got a hard surface - ideal for the fingerboards of stringed musical instruments - but it can be a bit brittle and can crack along short pieces of grain such as you would have with the screw holes so close to the corners of the plate.
I doubt you will do any better than what you have already. That's a very neat job.

[StuN]

I had similar thoughts and am experimenting with one made from Rhino board - a 9-ply flooring board which is 12mm thick and has a satin black finish. I use it for my OL modified RB300 and it allows me to do away with the height adjuster. Early signs are encouraging, but I'll need to swap back soon to make the comparison.