General Service

Many turntables can be made to work smoothly with a general service costing $70-150. Turntable designs vary in different ways than amp designs so what is done depends on the model. Here’s some common things I check and address.

  • clean old dried up grease and apply new grease
  • change hard wired RCA cables if needed
  • check speed and clean speed controls
  • center speed control range with internal trimpots (sometimes the correct speed drifts outside the range of the speed controls)
  • check cartridge alignment
  • inspect stylus
  • set counterweight and anti skate (note I recommend learning how to do this yourself as well)

Recapping Turntables

Turntables can be recapped just like amps if they have electronic circuits inside. In the case of turntables it is done for long term reliability as there is no circuitry in the signal path, just wires. Electronics in vintage turntables are for controlling the motor and functions. Some turntables have only a basic circuit, and some have a lot of circuity so I can’t quote this without knowing the turntable in question.

Dual Turntables

1970s Dual brand turntables are a special case as they have a very unique design. They have a fully automatic mechanism that uses all mechanical parts. They are very solid tables once working correctly, but usually need a few routine things to get them working well. There is only the one level of service for most of these and it normally costs around $150. Dual turntables from the 80s are more like other turntables, but there are still some things that are unique about them. Here are things I do when servicing these.

  • clean old dried up grease and apply new grease
  • disassemble and oil motor
  • replace steuerpimpel if applicable (this is a little rubber nub some models have, it deteriorates and arm doesn’t move)
  • other applicable things from generic list above