I'm starting this thread in hopes that it can become a valuable data base for us veterans and newbies alike, concerning vintage turntables. What information I'd like to see is the brand, model (and year), problems that you have had (and fixes you have needed) and general overall recommendations (or not) to others that may be interested in vintage tables.
I'll start with my old Empire 598MKII table:
This table is from about 1972. It is still in very working order, with the exception of the anti-skate mechanism, which is spring loaded. The fix was to make a dead man counterweight to pull the arm with the correct amount of force, attached to the outside. This required some trial and error, but the results are superior tracking.
Strengths of the Empire: Pabst motor is literally built to last a lifetime (as is the starting capacitor), platter is about 10 pounds (die-cast), tonearm (990) is very excellent (except for anti-skating failure).
Weakness: anti-skating, interconnect cable. The Interconnect cable is a custom made 5 pin din with the pins on the cable. While that end of the interconnect seems to be good, the other end with the RCAs has been trouble several times. The good news is that the center pin is the culprit and it has a hole in the tip that allows more solder to be melted into it, which is what fixes the problem.
Replacement lamps are available. Belts are available.
Wayner
