Restored vintage Hadcock 228 Super Arm

[disarmamant]

I have just finished restoring and rewiring my vintage Hadcock GH228 Super arm Uni-lift Mk III.

It was in a rather unusable state from it's previous owner with badly made internal wiring insulated with sellotape! The rubber bush that holds the counter weight stub had degraded and was replaced with a short length of silicone rubber tubing.

I replaced the internal wiring with new fine copper litz wire and fitted new beryllium copper turned cartridge tags I made myself on a CNC lathe. I made a new brass bush to fit in the bottom of the arm post to retain the hard wired screened phono cable and a tag for the earth wire.

To test it out I fitted the arm on a temporary plywood arm board on my Palmer 2.5 turntable with a Goldring 1042 moving magnet cartridge. It's really taken me quite by surprise how good it sounds. In fact I can't remember the Goldring sounding this good. I was planning on selling the Hadcock, but now i'm not so sure...

Here it is playing on the Palmer.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/09kk6zs670a1vgq/IMG_0120.jpg?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9954ablb9hfd9fc/IMG_0122.jpg?dl=0

[walpurgis]

Looks very good. They do have a reputation for decent sound. Nice! :thumbsup:

[Barry]

Good work there Martin - well done. Have you modified the counterweight assembly? - I don't remember it looking quite like that.

As Geoff has said the Hadcock 228 did have a good reputation for sound quality, despite being a bit tricky to set up.

(What is the DG record being played for the Hadcock's debut?)

[disarmamant]

Good work there Martin - well done. Have you modified the counterweight assembly? - I don't remember it looking quite like that.

As Geoff has said the Hadcock 228 did have a good reputation for sound quality, despite being a bit tricky to set up.

(What is the DG record being played for the Hadcock's debut?)

Thanks Barry

I’ve not modified the counterweight assembly, it’s exactly as standard. It’s an original 228 from the 60´s

To accommodate cartridges of different weights there are a set set of three different counterweight rings that fit over the smaller stub assembly.

The smaller sub assembly has a small knurled screw at the back for fine adjustment of tracking force.

I have the original box, instructions and alignment protractor. I have all the counterweight rings, both the hanging bias weights, and even the original syringe for the silicon damping fluid.

It sounds quite lovely.

The DG on the turntable is Dvorak Symphony No8. Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Rafael Kubelik. 1966 - DG 139 181.