[ZachCR]

Hello!  A month ago I bought a Well Tempered Record Player from a man named Victor on ebay who owns a record shop somewhere in CA.  He said the record player was in a perfect condition and he just had too many tables.  I was dubious because the price was so low but I decided that I'd been vying for this table for long enough and it was worth a shot.  Unfortunately it's been a headache since the day it arrived.  There is a terrible HUM & electrical noise (two separate sounds) coming from the table.  I have isolated it to the table and nothing else in my chain.

Here are videos and pictures outlining the problem.  I do not know how to fix it.  I have tried grounding with the post alone, grounding by clamping the wire to the rca then to the ground post, then to a ground and it changes nothing.  The owner told me that the tonearm wires attached to the female gold plugs in the black metal housing (pics provided) can't be touching the black metal housing at all and told me to take off the RCA and just use those.  He said it will fix the hum and it did not. (that doesn't seem like a permanent solution or a record player that is in perfect condition anyway). I have tried everything and I am at a loss.  Maybe I need knew tonearm wires?  I just don't know. 

Thank you so much for your help, it is greatly appreciated.  Have a good day

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aOyy4pV8kj-U1DuHaghBCjx-gA-D0Uml?usp=sharing

[audiobasic2000]

Good Morning, Zach:

It's been a very long time since I had a Well Tempered (one of the first iterations and very good at the time). From your pics and videos, the hum and mosquito(?) buzzing do not appear/sound to be a by-product of either phono stage.

1. On the aluminum/metal RCA block, the ground post would be (should be) in contact with the aluminum/metal block and the ground tabs of the RCAs would also (should be) in contact with the aluminum/metal block (this is assuming that ground post and RCA ground tabs are indeed contacting the metal, i.e., the metal sanded or filed at those contact points).
2. Remove the clamped ground wire you added just so you are back to the original configuration/connections.
3. You can use a multimeter (VOM) and set to to resistance or diode/continuity check to determine if indeed the ground post and the RCA ground tabs give a zero resistance or beep on the continuity check.
4. You can also check that the RCA jacks are isolated from the ground (ground post and RCA ground tabs).
5.  Gently disconnect the cartridges clips from the cartridge (if there is a phono cartridge mount and connected) and then test the continuity of from each clip to it's respective wire going to the RCA block. Please remember/mark/note which clip connects to which cartridge pin if not the clips are not color coded with shrink wrap.
6.  From the looks of the tonearm wiring, it's not the original and may have been swapped/re=wired at one point in time. (and if so, may be the cause). I believe Bill Firebaugh used sand to filled/damp the tonearm tube of resonances - so, if the wire were indeed changed, then maybe the wires weren't insulated properly or twisted (helically) to reduce crosstalk/hum/buzzing, or maybe a small part of one of the wires is touching the tonearm metal.
7. Try a different set of RCA cables/interconnects (just to rule out the cables and the RCA plugs).
8. Some older cartridges (MM?) may have a slightly different ground technique/shield that may need to be either isolated or in contact with the metal head shell or grounded.
9. Kind of suspecting something to do with the wiring inside the tonearm or else the RCA block assembly.

Hope this helps in narrowing down the culprit/cause.   

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Kingsley.

[Whitespider]

Hi,

Although there may be a number of possible reason for hum, with your tonearm, there are somethings that are not correct.  The arm clearly has been rewired, but it is missing a wire.  There should be 5 wires existing out of the tonearm and going to the aluminum bracket with the RCA sockets and binding post.  A wire attaches to a screw that is at the nose of the tonearm.  I don't see any clear photos of the nose area of the tonearm.  In one of the videos, there is a very quick scan of the cartridge mounting and the attachment area does not look like a Well Tempered cartridge mount.  The cartridge was either mounted to a narrow aluminum nose with a slot in it, or a short flat aluminum plate with slightly oversized screw holes and sharply angled front.  The tonearm lift is a separate piece on both of these.  It looks like a more conventional looking headshell with a moulded arm lift has been mounted on your tonearm

There should be a wire that attaches to a screw at the mounting mount of the nosepiece out to the ground binding post.  This screw also allows for a rough setting of the azimuth of the cartridge so the paddle in the oil cup will run perpendicular to the table.  Final azimuth is set with the large knob on top of the tonearm which adjust the length of the strings.  Try running a thin wire from the screw at the nose of tonearm to the binding post.  Just run it on the outside of the tonearm for testing purposes.  This should ground the tonearm tube.  A wire should run from RED cartridge to RCA right center pin right/ A wire should run from GREEN right ground to right RCA tab.  A WHITE wire from cartridge to left RCA center pin/ A BLUE to left ground RCA tab.  Clearly, at the moment, your tonearm is not grounded. As was mentioned, the tonearm normally is filled with sand which makes the tonearm quite "dead".  Tapping a Well Tempered tonearm with a pencil makes very little sound through the speakers.

Hope this helps.  The Well Tempered tonearm and turntable are genuine classics in the very best sense.  Hopefully, you can get your arm and turntable up and running.

-Edward

[/mp]

From what I can see in the images you shared, it appears to be a Well Tempered Turntable & Tonearm, not a WT Record Players. The WT Tonearm has anti-skating adjustment; the Record player's tonearm does not. The WTT&T has a large square motor. Does yours have a plastic shroud on the power cord. The RP has a round motor. Is your record clamp ~3-4" in diameter? That's the large clamp. The RP has the small clamp, ~2" Later iterations of the WTT&T were called the WT Classic. It's been decades since I've seen a WTRP so take this all with an extra large grain of salt. Half twist the belt.

As always, YMMV.

[toocool4]

I’ll mention the obvious which no one else have mentioned so far. It’s not as described, send it back for a full refund. Why mess around trying to fix it, if you mess around with it the chances are he will not take it back.