Garrard 301 restoration project

[SLS]

Do you know Kridon? I could ask him if he has any more feet available.

Sent from my HEY2-W09 using Tapatalk

Carl Ellis told me he had a direct contact for Kridon. He does have a very few items still on eBay (per @cageyH link above) and you could ask him via one of those products if he still has any "Type 4" feet available.

[SLS]

Since only the motor and the control switches/levers remain of the original deck, it can hardly be called a 301. And despite the admirable dedication and perseverance shown, I'm sure he could have achieved an equal, if not better, performance from a more recent turntable design.

Mine is the same, from CTC, original motor rebuilt, levers reconditioned, new bearing, platter, etc. It's still a 301. It's a Classic Turntables 301 and whilst it works identically, it's better made and will probably last longer. I had a very good deck before, ultra-modern, I prefer the 301. I could have bought a Brinkman Bardo for the same money, but I prefer the look of the 301. The plinth has the same veneer as most of the furniture in my music room, where aesthetics matter - a lot.

Ray Clark was very concerned that the Hammerlite finish is as close to the original finish as possible. He had to change supplier to one in Northern Ireland and actually sent it down to me for prior approval before putting it together.

This was not the actual one supplied, this has the fixing holes on top. The CTC version has bolt fixings from underneath the plinth into the base of the deck. I put some sorbothane strip between the plate and the plinth and under the heads of the bolts, so the bolts and base are not in direct contact with the plinth.



Personally I think it looks better without the 4 fixing holes, but you have the option.



Incidentally, these two photos show the same veneer. The first one is a cupboard that has been sanded and sprayed with two coats of satin, once sanded ready the next day. The 301 plinth has 16 coats of lacquer, each fine polished, took 5 weeks. I'm not sure there is anyone in the UK who does that on a regular basis for plinths, you need a good spray booth, a special license as the stuff is toxic and a lot of experience.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LXVII - More skint ramblings and MONOLOG - A sub blog! Pt VI - DOH!


It's Sunday evening and I'm chilling with some single malt (a wee drop) and some Mingus playing in the background. Things have taken a meandering path over the last few days. So, the Stack Audio footers are still in place and doing a good job. My Paradise has been sent away for repair and I've got a replacement borrowed unit from Si (Paradise Guru and general all round DIY good guy and boffin). This new Paradise has a few tweaks compared to my old faithful and knowing Si things will generally be better when he's tweaked things so he's been given 100% Cart-Blanche with respects to upgrades to my Paradise, so I'm hoping for a nice little uplift in sonic presentation. The loaner unit is quiter than mine and appears to give a smidge more detail and the RIAA has been tweaked to be flat, VERY flat! I've put out a request for a dead Garrard 301 motor to begin designs on my decoupled motor cradle for my plinth, very, very long shot but you never ever know!

Now, a few words about the MONO setup. So, the quandry over the Quad ESL and Tannoy Monitor gold 15" speakers was solved this weekend, I'm using both! Both speakers have good and bad points. The Quad having and amazing mid band and great with vocal and classical, the MG 15" being good with Jazz. So, the best of both worlds, I alternate the speakers and have two great setups! Yep, a real DOH moment! I'm still awaiting delivery of the IPE from Europe, it's been posted, talk about a slow boat from Europe ! Anyway, the 3009 should have a nice new tonearm mount before the end of the year . Now, the 3009 will be undergoing a RCA conversion to get rid of the old SME tonearm cable. This conversion is actually very simple. I just need to make a new mount to fit into the base of the tonearm and dig out my Furutech RCA's that I have kicking around in my spares box in the garage, this should make for a nice upgrade in presentation.

Well, that's about it, as ever stay tuned.......