My current restoration projects, hifi and music related.

[g8ina]

I was recently lucky enough to be gifted via Freecycle an old 1985 vintage Manticore Mantra record player turntable. It was missing its glass platter, the lid was broken, the Rega RB300 tonearm was broken, stylus was missing out of the Grado Blue spot cartridge, and the veneer was rippling. Upon disassembly, I found the steel sprung sub chassis had some rust spots on its black stove enamelling.

Lid - B&Q Seedling Propogation tray lid, £8. It isnt perfect but it will keep the dust off.

Platter - £8 got me a 30cm diameter, 12mm thick disc of MDF with a 7mm centre hole.

Tonearm - only one part of the plastic moulding was broken, good old IS12 to the rescue (super glue).

Veneer - Smoothed down with a hot iron, then sanded with VERY fine emery, finished with beeswax.

Sub Chassis - off for sand blasting, then will be repainted with black hammerite.

Cartridge - replaced with an Audio Technica AT91, salvaged from a freebie turntable from another Freecycle find.

THEN, the chap who gifted me the thing emailed me to say he had found the glass platter and felt mat. Mint condition, not a mark on it



NEXT is my Tabla.

A few weeks ago at a car boot sale, I found a Tabla (Indian Drum). This is a Dayan, or right hand drum, the smaller of the pair. Made VERY solidly out of teak (I think), but with a damaged skin, I paid £4 for it. A new head from JAS cost me £26 inc post. Shell has been stripped of its old nasty paint work, sanded down to achieve a fine sheen on the wood, then waxed.

The thong, which is used to tension the head, is 12 metres long, and cut out of a single piece of (cow ??) hide and will be re-used.

To buy a Tabla of this quality would have cost me anything between £80 and £150, so I'm quite happy with costs so far



Step One, disassembly -


Step Two, strip paint -


Step Three, wax on -



More to follow as they come on...

[sammyc]

I was recently lucky enough to be gifted via Freecycle an old 1985 vintage Manticore Mantra record player turntable. It was missing its glass platter, the lid was broken, the Rega RB300 tonearm was broken, stylus was missing out of the Grado Blue spot cartridge, and the veneer was rippling. Upon disassembly, I found the steel sprung sub chassis had some rust spots on its black stove enamelling.
[...]
THEN, the chap who gifted me the thing emailed me to say he had found the glass platter and felt mat. Mint condition, not a mark on it

^ nice sequel lovely when something like that happens. highly satisfying.

More to follow as they come on...

good stuff. (although 1985, 'old/vintage'.. yikes..)

edit/ after a quick browse, the more I see of these the more I like 'em. One went for £166 quid-ish on ebay a week back I note (all black model) & one up at the mo for £60 so far. Something to think about one of these days when I get my NY loft. How many different veneers were there I wonder?

[Flibb]

Excellent thread, very interesting. I am about to move house and will finally have the room to setup my Hifi kit I do have an old Dual CS505 that's in need of a bit of work, the wiring that connects to the cartridge is a bit suspect, any idea if its a good idea to solder, or try and find replacement crimps, or rewire?

[g8ina]

Yep, the old Mantra was made just down the road in Biggleswade and the guy who did it is still in the business...I might just take mine down to him to get him to set it up properly. The 60 quid one has no tonearm, but a Rega will be cheap enough.. Veneers ? Ive only ever seen the dark one I have and black. And if you think thats a reasonbable price have a look at the latest Linn LP12 prices !!! Yikes indeed !

Rewiring the tonearm ? YES Try this :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182251289958

[Flibb]

I did seriously consider a Regal Planar 3 that was up on eBay for £150 the other day. But will get the DUal up and running properly before considering an upgrade or new project to play with

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[peterb]

Excellent thread, very interesting. I am about to move house and will finally have the room to setup my Hifi kit I do have an old Dual CS505 that's in need of a bit of work, the wiring that connects to the cartridge is a bit suspect, any idea if its a good idea to solder, or try and find replacement crimps, or rewire?

If its litz wire, it is nigh on impossible to solder successfully, but that would be unusual. Crimp connectors are used for ease of assembly and a reliable connection by automatic means - and makes plugging the cartridge in much easier.

TBH, its extremely unlikely to be litz wire, it is/was used were cable were required to be very flexible, and where high impedance circuits could pick up static noise from the cable itself.

[g8ina]

The description in the ebay listing makes me believe it to be Litz, enamelled copper entwined with silk. The enamel appears to be self heat stripping so on the face of it, is ideal. Ive ordered a few metres to see, Ill report back.

[g8ina]

**Finally*** got all the paint off the sub chassis, took three coats of Diall paint stripper and four or five wire wool balls. Down to bare steel, going to bake it tomorrow to get all moisture out, alcohol clean then spray with hammerite or similar. THEN I can reassemble it and set it up. Yayy.

[g8ina]

More from the Tabla, managed the lacing today, an hour and a half, 12 metres of cord !! Had to soak it for 2 hours to get it pliable enough to work with !

[g8ina]

and while Im waiting for the cord to dry out and stretch before I put the tuning dowels in, Im going to rewire the tonearm on the turntable with the Litz wire I got off ebay.

[g8ina]

First coat. Had to strip the sub chassis back to bare metal, as the old paint has rust bubbles... Took 3 coats of Diall stripper to get it all off. Blooming good paint that was !!

[spolsh]

Do you play the tabla drums, or is it an ornamental piece now ? Looks the business either way !

[g8ina]

I play the Irish drum, the Bodhran, but Ive always loved the tabla. Cannot play it (yet) Might take some lessons, but at age 61 it's doubtful I'll ever be another Alla Rakhar or Zakir Hussain

[g8ina]

Both finished today, well - almost

Tabla has had the temp dowels inserted, still a way to go to tune the skin up to pitch, Ill need more, denser wood soon, but for now it proves the thing sings.



And the Mantra -

Well, the old Manticore Mantra turntable is proving it worth already. Not fully properly setup yet, it's sat here playing Swingle Singers at me and sounding very sweet indeed

This was a freebie off my local Freecycle, missing its platter, lid and stylus off the Grado cartridge - I had a lot of work to do. First try and source a platter - I had one made in MDF which worked, but then a few days later the guy who gifted it to me found the original glass platter and felt mat

After a complete strip down the paint was stripped off the sub chassis (rust spots under the paint), it was sandblasted, cleaned and resprayed matt black. The plinth needed nothing more than a very light sanding with superfine, and a wax finish. A new base of 12mm MDF is waiting to be cut to size and fitted on Sorbothane feet.

I found an old AT91 cartridge with reasonable sylus at a car boot sale (I do have a new AT95 on its way from Canada, a swap for one of my infrared cameras).

Eventually Ill get round to reqiring the arm (Rega RB300), but thats later on.

Rather pleased with myself today

[g8ina]

Wait !! Its gets better !!!

Mike Oldfield, "Exposed" double album, found on car boot sale today for a quid. Its in SQ quadraphonic sound MINT.

AND my Denon is decoding the 4 channels pretty well in PLII.

Bonus.

I feel like Im 22 again

[Zak33]

Wait !! Its gets better !!!

Mike Oldfield, "Exposed" double album, found on car boot sale today for a quid. Its in SQ quadraphonic sound MINT.

AND my Denon is decoding the 4 channels pretty well in PLII.

Bonus.

I feel like Im 22 again

CD-4 or Q 4 / Q8?

I'm well intrigued!!!