Sl1200/10 GR - How far should you pull the lock lever?

On mine, the vta dial is very stiff and needed hot air blow drying to adjust, however there was still a little wobble of the dial without using light force on the lock. I tapped the lock lightly once with a hammer, maybe that was wrong, it seems to have worked out this one time fortunately. The lock is still nowhere near all the way, it is similar to the technics photograph shown earlier.

 

Sorry, but you’re just trying to jam the lock lever into a position you’ve seen in a photo. It doesn’t matter if the photo was produced by Technics, a marketing specialist, an audiophile or the man in the moon because you should only move the lock lever into a position in which it makes positive contact with gentle pressure, and no farther. If you continue to try to jam the lock lever into the same position you’ve seen in a photo, you’ll break the mechanism and end up with an expensive repair.

The lock lever you’re posting about controls only the gentle pressure needed to lock the tonearm height setting in a given position. It has nothing to do with rigidity of the tonearm tower or the rigidity of the arm wand. Stop jamming something into a position that is incorrect and that will break the mechanism. Move the lock lever only until you feel firm pressure and then take your hand off of it. It will be properly locked.

Just because something doesn’t audibly click into place or snap into place or move into a lock point that causes a tactile bump, doesn’t mean it’s not locked in this design. Don’t break your turntable.

 

It’s not a snap lock or detente lock, it’s a pressure lock.

Never use a hammer to hit any sort of lever or adjustment on a turntable. It’s also helpful to acknowledge that the angle at which a photo is taken can often be deceptive. That means trying to duplicate a dial or lever position is often inaccurate.

Gentle, positive pressure is all that’s needed to lock the arm height control at a given setting. There is no click or snap and bump - just a bit of pressure. That’s how it’s designed. Jamming it hard past that gentle pressure position will warp or permanently damage or completely break the mechanism.

Technics (and every other reputable turntable maker) don’t produce designs that require a hammer for any reason.

 

Thanks, that’s the clarification I was hoping for. I wasn’t sure if you were saying it should only take gentle pressure to get it to the position instructed in the manual, or if you were saying it only actually needed to go as far as gentle pressure takes it. I find it strange that Technics would specifically say it must be locked all the way, with force, and show a drawing of the position all the way at 3 o’clock when that is not correct. Instruction manuals have been inaccurate before, though.

At this point, mine is locked all the way to the right as pictured in the manual. Would you think there is any advantage in unlocking it at this point? Is just having it sit in an over-tightened position harmful to such a mechanism?

 

100% agree on not using any tools, but to clarify, it’s not a photo, it’s a diagram drawn from a direct overhead perspective, specifically instructing to be sure it is locked all the way to that position (shown in post #5 of this thread). I see the manual for the G does not have this diagram, which leads me to think Technics may have see that G owners were not locking all the way and felt it necessary to specify when creating the manual for the GR. Or maybe there is enough difference between the G and GR that this insturction is not exactly the same.

I would still believe this may be a case of the manual giving incorrect instruction, but it is not a case of trying to interpret an angled photo. None of us are trying to jam anything too far, we’re trying to follow explicit instructions from the manufacturer. It seems like there may be some misunderstanding about what is driving this line of questioning.

 

The instructions are not explicit. I haven’t seen a diagram that states the lever should be locked in a specific position in line with an indicator (with an arrow pointing to the indicator position). That’s because there is no indicator position because it’s a friction lock.

The Technics SL1200 G/GR/GAE designer, perhaps foolishly, thought that simple resistance would indicate to end users when the lock lever had been moved far enough to lock the arm height setting. I’m sure the designer did not anticipate end users over-tightening or jamming or hammering the lever in order to match a photo or diagram or to find a hard stop.

The gentle pressure that indicates the lock lever has been correctly positioned seems intuitively obvious, and I don’t recall another thread of this kind in all the years that the SL1200 has been around. I am sorry to hear that some SL1200 owners have had problems with the lock lever position.

 

I appreciate and do not question your technical knowledge of how this type of lock works. I’m sure you are right, and I thank you for taking the time to respond.

What I cannot agree with is that the instructions and diagram are not explicit. They say “to the end as shown” and then show a diagram with the lever clearly parallel to the bar that houses the anti-skate control. It does not snap into place, but it does go that far and is visually verifiable against what the diagram shows. They say you may need to apply some force to do so, which is true (though they certainly do not say to use a hammer; I was able to do it with force using my fingers). I just cannot interpret these instructions as saying stop at resistance when they say to use force. The instructions may be wrong, but they are clear.

I just feel like you are implying it is stupid to push it past the point of resistance, which is unfair when the instructions are definitely saying to do so.

 

On page 20 of the SL1200GR user manual there are two drawings of the arm height lever-lock. The drawing in (1) shows the lever at the 2:30 position, while the drawing in (3) shows the lever at the 3:00 position.

I just tried to move the lever lock on my SL1200G to the 3:00 position. It won’t go that far. Trying to force it any farther can (and eventually will) result in a thumb or finger slipping and banging hard into the tonearm and doing some real damage.

The user manual states (pg. 20, instruction 3), “Be sure to turn the arm lock knob to the end as shown in the figure below. You may need to apply some force to do so.” Based on the experience I’ve had with electronics and mechanical devices of this sort - especially with small mechanical controls in tight spaces immediately adjacent to damageable components - and with my own SL1200G, a friction lock is sufficient.

With a friction lock, the lever and the arm height on my SL1200G haven’t budged even a tiny fraction of a millimeter between cartridge changes (sometimes months apart and with a lot of LP playing. That makes sense because with a friction lock the arm height dial doesn’t move either.

I’d say there’s a Japanese-to-English localization issue in the user manual. For surety, I’m going to check with the Technics technician at Bay Bloor Radio in Toronto.

 

I’ve never implied that any SHF member’s actions were or are stupid. I never will. We’re just discussing this particular issue. If you’ve taken offence at something posted in this thread, then you mistakenly inferred something that nobody meant.

 

OMG what a bonehead! After reading this thread I checked the manual and sure enough, I have been using my 'GR for the past year and a half with the VTA Unlocked! For some reason I thought counter clockwise was locked.
Well I fixed that and of course the imaging is more solid and blacks are blacker!! But seriously, I do notice a slightly brighter sound which is OK by me.

 

OK good, then we’re on the same page. I’m sorry, it’s too easy to interpret hostility these days.

 

I just sent an e-mail to Technics US support asking for clarification, since this thread has generated some credible advice and explanation that really seems to contradict Technics’ instructions. I’ll post what I find out.

 

Yes i know it was wrong to use a hammer, my point to any reader who may have this problem is with my fingers alone i could not tighter the lock enough to keep the vta dial from moving. You may need to find a safe way to use more force as technics suggests, but as everyone acknowledges the lock does not seem to need to be turned all the way to accomplish that. Maybe put your finger on the lock then hammer your finger?

 

The response in my post #22 matches Agitaters experience above, stopping when it feels firm (1200G), whereas both text & illustration from the GR manual do appear to be implying a different conclusion for that table.

I prefer the 'if it feels and sounds right then leave be' approach.

 

Using my index finger to direct lever clockwise from the un-locked position, resistance to movement begins at about 12:00 and, continuing movement, at about 12:30 lever reaches a hard stop. At this hard stop VTA ring is locked. This process does not at all correlate to instructions, which alludes to force being necessary to get the lever to pictured 3:00 position. The word "force" is too vague and the instruction illustration clearly shows the locked position to be at 3:00. No wonder folks are confused and concerned. My thinking is the manual needs to be re-written to preclude some from breaking their new turntable.

 

While I wait for Technics to respond to me, I looked at the online manuals for the other models to see if they also give this instruction (since I already saw the manual for the G does not show this diagram at all). The SL-1000R and SL-1200mk7, as well as the SL-1500C (which has a different arm lift mechanism but possibly the same type of lock), all give the same instruction but with the figure showing the 45-degree/1:30 position. I also tried to find manuals for older 1200 models, and at least the mk5 manual doesn’t have an equivalent diagram. So it seems the GR manual may have been their first attempt at illustrating it in this way, and they may have screwed it up? But then, yes, once they realized this needed to be illustrated differently for subsequent models, why did they not revise the GR manual? It’s not like they are still selling stock that was packaged before the manuals for the more recent models were produced.

I agree with others that it would be intuitive to stop at about 45 degrees, where the lever meets firm resistance and the ring does not move, but the instructions and figure in the manual, as you concur, clearly instructs us to keep going. I was content to have it at 45 degrees, but upon seeing that others have been able to get theirs all the way with just their fingers, thought it was worth another shot. After all, as you point out, “force” is too vague, and it was entirely plausible to me that my fingers may not be as strong as I think they are, or that my idea of what constitutes “some force” is less than what Technics considers “some force.” I was fully expecting to try turning it further, find it still wouldn’t budge, and call it good. On that attempt, though, it was moving, so I kept going, and it did go all the way with just the power of my own hand.

I guess we’ll see what Technics tells me.

 

Yes, please post the communication with Technics.

 

Yes I'm curious to their response too. I'm still too chicken to force it as its shown in the manual.

 

Still no response from Technics (I will certainly share when they eventually do answer), but I needed to make some setup adjustments, so I unlocked it. In my case, it seemed exactly as hard to unlock as it was to lock, and I was able to get it with just my thumb (with, again, more than what I would consider “some” force). The dial turned just fine, and the lock works just fine. I’ve got it locked just at the 45-degree, point of resistance position at least until I hear from Technics saying to do otherwise.

 

If your email get processed through a translator program, then don't expect a coherent response. What I am about to say is a 100% true story:

I emailed Denon a couple of months ago to inquire if they had any intentions of adding the ability for their Heos devices to act as Roon endpoints in the future. And I received a reply back about a week later assuring me that they already had support for "Rooms" inside of all Heos devices and how to access them.

 

I’m hoping it helps that the email address it went to was a “us.panasonic.com” address, but I’ll be curious to see what happens.

 

Response from Technics:

It said to turn the knob all the way to the end and apply a force . A force where you can still turn the knob but stop at the point where you can no longer move it.


So this answers the question about how far it’s supposed to turn, though I still think the “all the way to the end” contradicts the rest of the response, especially considering the diagram in the manual. I’m just responding to thank them for the reply and suggest that the manual could be more clear (which I think they know already, given the revised diagram in the newer manuals...).

 

The response from Technics as it is worded suggests arm ring is adjusted, and lever is moved with a force to the hard stop and if that locks the arm ring then that's where the lever can remain, no further force to move to 3:00.

 

well I did what they said then. I stopped when I could no longer move it. Which doesn't corollate to their diagram in the manual. I still ain't forcing it. scardy cat I am.

 

I think you're smart, very smart. After all, what would be the point of moving the lever to 3:00 if it locks at 1:30 hard stop?