I think you should an award if you have ever re-wired or fixed a tonearm. I bought a Rega R200 from a guy on ebay. He said it tested for continuity, and it did, but the right channel was extremely faint. Don't ask me to explain the continuity thing and it doesn't work, but that was the deal.
Well, once you start taking things apart, you just can't turn back. Soon I had most of the thing apart. I deducted the problem was in the molded attached cord at the bend, so in I went on that. Then I got the stupid idea to take the tonearm wires out. I thought it would be easier to fix. WRONG!
Let me tell you that the smallest gauge wire wound guitar string makes the perfect fish tape. Anyway, I finally got it fixed but that 33 awg wire is a bi*ch to work with. I'm still puzzled how to really cut the sleeve without cutting the wire. I decided to melt it off with the soldering iron. It did work, but the wire seems to have such memory, it's like putting 12 ga. romex thru the stud walls.
Soldering is also a bitch as there is no mass to heat up. you kind of end up with a blob, but I tried to keep that to a minimum. I will mount the thing tomorrow and see how she works.
PS: If you are planning on buying an R200 arm, I'll bet everyone has a broken wire in the IC cable at the bend. I think it's a bad design that's destined to break. The anti-skate belt is also broken, so I will have to get out the fishing tackle box and build another deadman weight like I did for the Empire.
If you have done any of this kind of work on your tonearm(s), you have my respect!
Wayner aa
