A mate of mine came round on Tuesday night. In fact he's been coming round every week for the past 10 years. See what happens when you feed strays!

Anyway we share a mutual interest in country music. I can hear all the shouts of "So that's who they are!" :)

So pretty much every every week for the last 10 years we have been talking and listening to country music as well as me having tried to educate him into listening to some blues and jazz. He always marvels at how my good my LPs sound on my turntable, tube amps and BBC monitors system.

He came round this week and he had a problem with his computer that he wanted me to sort and whilst I was at it he also asked me to look at his turntable as it didn't sound very good.

He has a Technics SL-BD21 (he's a big technics fan :puke: ) with a lowly P-mount cartridge. When we were talking the day before he didn't realise that you had to actually set the tracking force and was incredulous as to fact that it makes a difference to the sound. When I had a look at the deck the cantilever was so bent it must have been around 30 degrees out of line :yikes: no kidding! And, there was the biggest dust bunny that I had ever seen. When i removed the dust bunny the stylus tip was almost indistinguishable from the dust that was caked hard onto it.

So when I suggested he throw that stylus away and get a new one he said "What? It's almost new". When I asked how new he said he'd only replaced it 10 years ago :wtf: As luck would have it he did have a brand new and unopened stylus so I fitted that for him and now all is fine.

What surprises me is how someone who has been into music since the 1940s can know so little about even basic handling and maintenance of LPs and decks. And, given the fact that he has listened to my high-end stuff for the past 10 years and seen me doing basic maintenance a number of times, just how little has actually registered despite me making a point of bringing it up in conversation on a number of occasions.

Perhaps now that his TT is performing well, he will recognize the difference that a little bit of careful adjustment and cleaning made to the overall sound of his system... and that may provide the motivation to carry on.

Does he have basic LP cleaning and stylus care accessories on-hand? A carbon-fiber LP cleaning brush, and a stylus cleaning brush would be the bare minimum.

It would be interesting to re-visit the situation 6 months from now to see the result.

Does he have basic LP cleaning and stylus care accessories on-hand? A carbon-fiber LP cleaning brush, and a stylus cleaning brush would be the bare minimum.


Well not yet but next time I visit the local audio store i'll be picking up some stylus cleaner, and Goldring exstatic for him to use.

But I suppose in the end you can only take horse to water yada yada yada.

It doesn't seem the dude has been very observant, or really even care for that matter. Maybe the next time he comes over instead of just listening to music, you can give him a tutorial on proper vinyl and stylus hygene, and tell him if he doesn't follow these steps strictly, you will confiscate his equiptment and records.

I hope it wakes him up.

A work colleague of mine recently asked me if i knew why his Technics SL1210 DJ decks weren't tracking very well and sounded crap. Turns out he didn't know about the whole arm balancing and tracking force setting thing either :sigh:

Now he's set them up properly he says they've never sounded better! :twak:

This'll sound waaaay off topic for minute, but bear with me and hopefully it'll explain itself.

I have a garden tractor with well over 750 hours of run time on it. It's a cheapie that I've promised to replace with a much nicer model when the thing finally dies. Trouble is, it won't die! Why? Cause being the anal retentive moron I am, I change the oil, filters, plug, etc. twice or three times a season. Sharpen the blades once a month, and blow out the engine housing twice a year. So, the danged ol' thing just keeps chugging along, way past the manufacturers expiration date (500 hrs).

I have a friend, who bought a very nice tractor year before last, and has never, ever, done anything with it except mow. This flabbergasts me. I've begged him to let me do some maintenance, but he just shrugs and says "I'll get around to it". I've given up on him, not as a friend, but as a educatable tractor owner.

Some people will never learn, he wears out cars the same way. Just runs them into the ground. That which brings us together here at AK is the same reason we're particular about our gear, and it's maintenance.

Trawlerman, I hope your friend isn't as stubborn as mine, hopefully you've opened up a whole new world for him. I like to think you're never too old to learn. :)

Well, he's coming around tomorrow.... erm, today (its 2am now) :)

Hopefully, he will have used it some during the week and will have heard a difference. I'm gonna give him a crash course in basic setup and maintenance as you said www.records and take it from there.

It saddens me really that people can treat their gear with such contempt. It doesn't bear thinking about how much stuff has been trashed by careless owners.

Good Luck!

Let's face it Mick he is from Hull, I take it. It was 16 yrs after I left before I discovered and got some understanding of Hi Fi and even then I was guilty of trying to bend the metal armboard of a late 70's Qsomething TT to a better position. I though I knew better than the factory. Just because I had an interest in music didn't give me the insight into the workings of a Hi Fi system, I'm still working on that.
Let's hope that with your guidance he will develope a sensitivity to his system and fully appreciate it's capabilities when given a little TLC.

I see you have an interest in the River Humber, do you have any knowledge of the E.P. Hutchinson, she was owned by the Humber Conservancy Board.

I have a nearly identical friend. He is a fairly brilliant guy, but he doesn't realize that a.) the stylus needs cleaning when it starts skipping, b.) the tubes need changing when the volume needs to be set at 10, c.) his camera lenses need cleaning when the pictures are fuzzy, and d.) the oil needs chaning BEFORE the car stops running. He has 3 college degrees, but has never managed to figure out simple mechanical items. Go figure.

I see you have an interest in the River Humber, do you have any knowledge of the E.P. Hutchinson, she was owned by the Humber Conservancy Board.

Yeah, I have a big interest in the river. Most of my interest is centered around the fishing industry of Hull in particular but also Grimsby and other middle/distant fishing ports. I've been involved in the restoration of the Arctic Corsair for 15/16 years now http://www.arcticcorsair.f9.co.uk/corsair

I also have a website on the no.12 Spurn Lightship http://www.arcticcorsair.f9.co.uk/spurn but i'm not familiar with the name E P Hutchinson. Presumably she was a buoy yacht / tender of some sort. If I could lay hands on my 1938 book from Humber Conservancy Board I would almost certainly have a picture and the details. I'll have a look around for it to see what I can come up with.

Hell, just have a look around at some of the garage sales in my neighborhood. Whenever, I find some vinyl for sale, its pretty rare that is doesn't look like its been chewed up by a grinding wheel. I'd say that this particular "disease", at least as it relates to the care of vinyl, is pretty common.

Let's face it Mick he is from Hull...

Hey, are talking about Mick Ronson? Cuz HE is from Hull as well!

This'll sound waaaay off topic for minute, but bear with me and hopefully it'll explain itself.

I have a garden tractor with well over 750 hours of run time on it. It's a cheapie that I've promised to replace with a much nicer model when the thing finally dies. Trouble is, it won't die! Why? Cause being the anal retentive moron I am, I change the oil, filters, plug, etc. twice or three times a season. Sharpen the blades once a month, and blow out the engine housing twice a year. So, the danged ol' thing just keeps chugging along, way past the manufacturers expiration date (500 hrs).

I have a friend, who bought a very nice tractor year before last, and has never, ever, done anything with it except mow. This flabbergasts me. I've begged him to let me do some maintenance, but he just shrugs and says "I'll get around to it". I've given up on him, not as a friend, but as a educatable tractor owner.

Some people will never learn, he wears out cars the same way. Just runs them into the ground. That which brings us together here at AK is the same reason we're particular about our gear, and it's maintenance.

Trawlerman, I hope your friend isn't as stubborn as mine, hopefully you've opened up a whole new world for him. I like to think you're never too old to learn. :)

I am big into vintage audio and portable transistor radio. AND like Garden Tractors. Maintain and they last..run it until it drops. A lady friend has a Sears tractor that was 10 years old and "died" Mind if I look at it. She had replaced with a Cub. Got it going 5 years ago. Finally the carb needs help. Got to learn carbueration. Between us we have four of these beasts, three run and one of these days I will get around to fixing it. And the brakes on my TEAC 7010!! At least its out of the system and one the diningroom table :D
Neither are a major priority. The other two rtr's work perfect. :D

Go figure with some folks. Audio, tractors, anything. Bought a used Ford F150 four by four. Fifteen years old and taken care of. Got it last year. Shocks,brake job, radiator flush and wipers. Regular oil changes and thats it.
A little rough, first Ford owned. Best damned motor vehicle I have ever owned. Go figure. Kind of classy like my vintage Pioneer and Teac stuff!

Eric

I think we must either be a breed on own or just sick. Other people just toss stuff in the garbage when the slightest thing goes wrong yet we revell in getting our hands dirty (or not as the case me be) in fixing what is old junk to some poeple.

Personally, I learned much of my trade from my elmer when I was into Ham Radio. Spent some time studying and then took my RAE exam and then spent the next 2-3 years learning valves (sorry... Tubes :)) and restoration of old radio kit. I've got it in the blood, and while I don't have room or time for a workshop I do appreciate the fact that we keep all this old stuff running. A lot of knowledge would be lost without us.