Yet another all-in-one dump save - National this time....

Markoneswift

Quartz locked n ready to rock
Hey all,

My contact at the hospice shop called me to ask if I could sort out a couple of laptops for him. I called in to pick them up and whilst there was offered this all-in-one console system for nothing. The system actually works - the amp goes, the tuner receives signal, tape deck plays tapes and the turntable plays records !

The reason it was free is because the Garrard SP Mk V tone arm gets stuck about three quarters of the way through a side and the guys at the shop don't have time to fix it. The unit is kind of cool, it has twin VUs and all the dials light up a nice blue when it's going.

My plan is to possibly gut the amp out of it and put in a recently assembled class D chip amp board. All being well the amp is separate from the rest of the internals but I'll have to see. I'm thinking of building a tube preamp kit too, so I might put that in to feed the chip amp.

Pictures to follow :)
 
I fixed the issue with the turntable, typical Garrard sticky mechanism really that wasnt allowing the auto return to reset properly.

I'm picking up a tired old Garrard Lab 80 later today which I'm thinking of dropping into this console if the mounting points are the same. I might replace the console lamps with LEDs which, coupled with the Lab 80 wooden tone arm, might look quite cool.....
 
With that turntable I'm betting the console dates from the mid to late 1970s. By "National" do you mean the company we in the US call "Panasonic", or is this some other "National" that I'm unfamiliar with? At any rate, that Garrard is better than the typical drop-in turntables that you'd see in all-in-one stereos of the day, so you might be lucky there. But typically the speakers in consoles of this vintage were less than ideal.
 
With that turntable I'm betting the console dates from the mid to late 1970s. By "National" do you mean the company we in the US call "Panasonic", or is this some other "National" that I'm unfamiliar with? At any rate, that Garrard is better than the typical drop-in turntables that you'd see in all-in-one stereos of the day, so you might be lucky there. But typically the speakers in consoles of this vintage were less than ideal.

Yes, National was the original manufacturing name in Japan for (what we know now) as Panasonic. I'm not sure the National brand continued on in some markets (presumably NZ / Australia) and to add to the mix this unit is also branded Fisher & Paykel (F&P). On the back, it states manufactured by Allied Wireless (which I think was AWA) in Auckland ! It must have been a licensed build-up like a lot of units back in the day here, to avoid the huge import taxes. The components inside are generally nicely laid out and look quite 'Technics / Panasonic'. The Garrard deck is indeed preferable to other common decks like the BSR series, although it seems to have the usual Garrard issues that need investigating.

The mainboard has two separate power amp sections with discreet outputs, which is nice to see. The last console system I had was a newer National and that had an STK chip amp. That unit also had a Technics branded TT in it which was nice.
 
Here's the console with the Mk V Garrard....
Ah, I see now. In the US we'd call that a "compact" system. A "console" would be a huge wood cabinet enclosing all the equipment, including the loudspeakers. I'm not sure that the electronics within this system would warrant replacing the turntable, but it couldn't hurt to try.

BTW, we do have Fisher & Paykel in the US, but they're known primarily for higher-end appliances rather than electronics.
 
Turns out the 'compact' system was too crap to bother fixing up. The TT had a lot of issues, the tuner knob had a bent shaft (which should have been referred to a doctor) and the tape deck wasn't running. Despite looking quite cool, I've got a few other more interesting projects going on so I elected to dump this one. I felt a bit guilty, but shortly after dropping off at the recyclers I saw a guy with a couple of kids loading it all into his car.....happy trails my friend !
 
The problem with the tape deck was almost definitely the belts, but fixing a bent tuner shaft is difficult. It's probably best that you moved on.
 
The problem with the tape deck was almost definitely the belts, but fixing a bent tuner shaft is difficult. It's probably best that you moved on.

Yeah it just wasn't special enough to commit lots of time to, especially when I have other better projects in hand :)
 
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