Lazaretto Broke My Turntable! (Maybe)

I'd swear Lazaretto and its play-it-backwards gimmick has screwed up my turntable something fierce. I had no trouble cuing up the Jack White album, but since playing it I am unable to play 45s. I bring the tonearm toward the edge of the 45 and before it even gets there the auto-return throws the tonearm back to the starting point. I simply can't drop the needle on a 45. I also no longer can cue up an individual LP track if it's more than 2.5" from the outer edge of the album.

I have a Technics SL-BD22 that has always functioned just fine. I almost dread the flaming that I may receive here, but considering all the discussion the album has gotten here I had to go on record (no pun intended) saying that since I played that damn Lazaretto my table's not functioning properly. I've been playing records since the '70s, so I know what I'm doing. Sure, the table's old, but this is funny timing. I've gotta wonder if the weirdness of playing a record backwards, even though that's how it was designed, has screwed up my table's auto-return feature. I've never had occasion to play a backwards-grooved record until this.

What do you guys think?

 

I have nothing of substance to add here, but I do think your thread title would make a great T-shirt.

 

Lazaretto 1. Technics SL-BD22 0.

 

Yeah, I can't contribute any worthy advice sorry, but it is a great thread title.
When I saw it I thought you were talking about some dude .
I thought ....... wow, that Lazaretto must be an a$$hole !

 

I smell lawsuit

 

Class action lawsuit.

 

When Checkpoint Charlie put out an album that played backwards they put a warning sticker on the cover.

 

You should see what the LP did to my CD player.

 

Interesting thing is, I hardly play the god damn thing anymore because of that backwards crap.

 

My cousin said his turntable is doing the same thing.

 

Yeah, I've read a few of these kind of posts lately. Something is hung up, or you need to play a few 33 lps to reset the gears that do the auto return. Having said that, I always disconnect my auto returns on tables I own.

 

I knew it!

 

Not laughing at you but, damn, that's a great thread title

Best of luck with fixing your turntable, I hope the situation somehow resolves itself, as krisbee has suggested.

 

That's why I bought the cd. I nay get an LP and leave it sealed as a collectors item.

 

Well I do have the download. But ....

 

This. You probably just have to remove the platter and tinker with the gears to get it to play properly. I bought an auto-return Sansui table recently that was doing the same thing you described, and I was able to fix it just by watching the gear mechanisms and seeing where the problem was.

I, too, disconnect auto-return on all my turntables.

 

I know the inner workings of the BD22, and given the turntables age, its probably time to clean out the old lube and re-lube it. If the trigger for the cam is hitting too early, its probably hung up from getting gunked up. Thats my Technics rhyme for the day.
What you could probably for the time being is this:

• With the turntable unplugged, carry the arm all the way to the center of the platter, as far as it will go.
  
• See if you feel anything give slight resistance (the trigger) on the way to the label (like around the 7" area).
  
• Then bring the arm back and do it again and see if the resistance happens closer to the label.
  
• Either way, carrying the arm all the way to the center of the label should push the trigger where it belongs.

The inner workings look much like this Turntable, which is a QL-3. There isnt much to it. I'd be able to easily fix it for you, but youre all the way in the windy city. Heres the service manual, although I really think your problem is just old Lube. Really hard to diagnose without actually looking at the gears while they are working.
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/Technics/sl-bd22d.shtml

 

Get a manual turntable. Which can play the record correctly.

 

Definitely a good opportunity to upgrade if it cant be easily fixed.

 

WTF? Does that Technics have both an idler and an IC board?

 

No no.... None of the Technics turntables have idlers. They are either direct drive or belt drive.
The turntable in the picture is a Direct Drive Quartz, the OPs BD22 is a belt drive.
But most of the turntables use the same auto mechanisms.

 

I want one!!

 

I've been laughing about this today!

 

Oh man, what a drag!! Also from Lazaretto?? Damn that Jack White...

 

I did lots of attempts to "reset the gears," but no amount of re-education is getting my table to go back to its normal ways. Drat! I definitely want to disable auto-return altogether. I'll post more details in a bit...