Water jet cnc will do it very quickly and neatly - many small engineering firms use these
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Type of wood supposedly determines the "tone" of your deck. I was VERY sceptical until I started playing around with ebony. I'll only impart two pieces of advice, firstly modify the deck one mod a time and carefully note positive/negative effects. Secondly, enjoy yourself. I have a SME 3009 with Shure v15 Mk3 with the JICO SAS/s stylus on mine and it rakes up tremendous amounts of details, my 3009 is also set up as a "real sound" tonearm with vintage tinned copper tonearm cable and IC's, again I was sceptical but it produces a fantastic sound to more more analytical SME 3012 setup. You picked a great deck, I think you'll have lots of fun.
Thanks Andrew, I was also thinking of getting a 3009 or Mission 774 and a classic cart like one of the shures. What do you mean by 'real sound' tonearm? And what difference does copper tonearm cable make? I got a Jelco 750D I will try with it first though. I have a starter plinth kindly given to me by Westflower of this forum, but I've yet to set it up, just an old SME plinth, but with lead lining. Looks wise the nicest plinths I've seen are those compact slate ones with the TT sunk (flush with plinth), they look awesome with the 401, but of course we all know looks come second to SQ and I'm not sure whether I'll like slate or wood.
The Jelco 750 works a treat with the 401, and it doesn't look out of place
https://i.postimg.cc/HWrP7ZvR/401.jpg
Cheers guy, the Misson 774 appears to be quite cheap as well. Will keep an eye out for one. Any typical carts to match?