The Heybrook TT2 info thread.

[shane]

Great stuff!

[Wakefield Turntables]

Hi Shane,

Just a quick message. The TT2 is an excellent deck, it's the first belt drive I've owned since I sold my LP12 probably 10 years ago. It's a keeper. I'm having loads of fun trying various MM carts on the Alphason arm and currently have a pair of fully restored JR149 speakers playing The Wall (Pink Floyd). What a great deck you designed. I've added a splash of oil, re-aligned the springs and reset the platter height, cleaned the belt spindle and that's it. The deck hasn't needed any other work. It's still looking a little sorry for itself and I may do a light restoration at some point, might make a thread. Anyway, thanks for everything,.

Andy

[shane]

Thanks Andy, it still gives me a kick to know that there are people out there enjoying their TT2s forty years on. Hope it keeps you happy for another forty years!

[Wakefield Turntables]

Hi Shane,

Just another quicky. I'm well on my way to restoring the TT2, I'll be doing a thread at some point. This question is regards the badge on the top of the TT lid. I see that your avatar is of this very same badge. Do you know if this is the correct badge for TT2's with serial numbers <500? Bit of a weird question but I'm a bit OCD about these things.

Andy

[shane]

Certainly is! The photo in my avatar is of my own TT2 s-no 177. They were definitely still using the same one when I left in 1984, by which time they were up to about s-no 2000. As far as I know it was never changed. The lid itself of course was bought in from Linn.

[Wakefield Turntables]

That's great thanks Shane.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Shane,

Am I right in thinking that Walnut veneer was used on the early TT2's, also was the veneer varnished or simply waxed/oiled? I ask these questions as I'm nearing the end of the Restoration of my own TT2 and the veneer is the last thing to be restored.

Thanks as always

Andy

[shane]

Sorry Andy, only just spotted this.

The plinths were made by Greaves of Sheffield who were also responsible for the HB2 and HB3 cabs, and probably about half of all the other UK speakers in the early 80s. Peter C took all the drawings to Greaves and did all the negotiations with them so I never got to see the manufacturing process, but I believe the finish on the veneer was a light clear cellulose lacquer which was just sprayed on. The options were either teak like yours or black (black was always an option for everybodies speakers and plinths. Saved scrapping teak ones with blemishes!). I don't think there was a walnut option but I could be wrong. I seem to remember a one-off rosewood plinth which looked gorgeous!

On the subject of the plinth and since this is the general info thread, time for a small admission. I've seen several people refer to having problems with some arms touching the lid when closed and wondering whether they've got the arm set up correctly. My fault! As long as we were going to use the Linn lid, the TT2 was always going to look a lot like an LP12 but I wanted to differentiate it as much as possible, so I put in the black cutaway around the bottom of the plinth and also raised the top plate above the plinth surround by 5mm with a chamfered edge. This gave the turntable a nice solid look, but also because the veneered area was now a lot narrower than the LP12, it made it look slimmer as well and overall I was jolly pleased with it. The only trouble was that raising the top plate by 5mm effectively lowered the lid by the same amount, hence the problem with some arms touching.

I always play any turntable with the lid open since I've seen lid static lift an arm right of an LP before now, so I never realised it was a problem until a dealer commented on it well into production!

[Wakefield Turntables]

No worries Shane, thanks for the additional info on the history of the deck, always very interesting to hear these snippets of information.