Hello, my first post here! Need advice. These old but good machines are almost condemned if the vertical bearing and pivot screw are (so commonly) damaged. New tonearms are now $300! Mine are damaged, need replacement and at least one of my friends, in the same situation, so that's $600 of expenses. So I looked around and reached out to Audio Origami (About Audio Origami). They told me that it is possible to replace the gimbal bearings, using donor horizontal ones, which are more often available. What do you guys recommend? What bearings to use? Do I take out the raceway part and drop in the bearings and replace the raceway? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
I think 1200s.com offers some kind of service. Not sure about pricing. Might want to touch base with them.
There is a vendor in the Bay Area where I bought a complete tonearm assembly for $300 around 2019. Just popped it right in a 12ooMK2 I had found a pawn shop for $150. It has an internal ground. Technics Tone Arms I have no affiliation with him. You will have to disassemble the table and pay attention to the ground wiring but it is not too hard. Popping this in with the new tonearm it comes with is probably easier than replacing just the tonearm. The very small wires on the tonearm are difficult to solder in unless you are pretty experienced. Plus threading the wires through the base of tonearm before the soldering is done is a bit of a pain too. I would buy the traditional S-curve Technics tonearm assembly rather than his custom straight arm, which I think is more for DJ use. There are some disassembly videos of the 1200 on YouTube. I had the dreaded "skip" problem (more accurately the stuck needle problem) with my 1200. It went away with the tonearm assembly I purchased from DJHenray.
I ordered a replacement tone arm straight from Japan for about $100 and it worked fine on my $80 pawn shop find.
You can try and tighten up the little screw in the meantime. DJHenray is awesome. Kabusa is fantastic, but I don’t know if Kevin is doing any refurbishing these days.
Years ago I bought a SL-1210MKII of eBay. It had been used for DJing. I put a Jelco 750 arm on it. Installing the arm was a pretty simple process and only took an hour. Jelco recently closed there doors but their arms can still be had at a responsible prices for new and used arm. Rega also sells nice arm as well.
Are you still looking to replace your tonearm bearings? I'm in the Chicago area and do repairs. I use miniature race bearings. Here's a video of a recent one: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1W-agmhZTYA
I was able to acquire miniature race bearings for this application. Unfortunately the original bearings are not available anymore unless you find used components with bearings still in them. The method I use allows for you to keep all your original parts and only replace the bad bearings.
Hey! I’ve been on the hunt for a solution to this problem for years!! Where did you find these? I service turntables in Scotland and come across so many bad tonearms that need the bearings replaced!
Good sir, thank you for your interest. Here's the link to the ones I purchased: 100 pcs Miniature Bearings Ball Mini Bearing 2 X 5 X 2.5mm DYNAROLL BRAND | eBay It came with 100 bearings total and I've only used 10 so far. They work great. It's a bit tricky at first to install them. 1. Start by removing the old ones. Use whatever you can which will not scratch or damage the gimbal. I used a screwdriver that was small enough to bend open the bearing hole, just enough for the ball bearings to fall out. Once they are out, the bearing housing or whatever you call it can be removed much easier. 2. Afterwards, you have to sort of measure out what size drill bit you will use to make the holes bigger for the new bearing to fit in. Carefully drill, start with a smaller size at first. 3. Then you can use a small needle file to file out the remainder of the hole. 4. Test out the bearing until it fits snugly. Once it's snug and in place, make sure that it's as deep as the original one and evenly balanced, not tilted. 5. To make sure the bearing stays in place, I use super glue. However, this can be very tricky to apply it. You need to put a small dab on a very small flat-tip screwdriver or even a toothpick. Once you have the glue ready on the tip of your utensil, you can apply the glue to the outer edge of the new bearing where it touches the inner side of the gimbal. Do not get any glue in the middle of the bearing where it spins because then you will ruin it. 6. Once it dries, I let it sit overnight, install it and calibrate your anti-skate. Don't fully tighten the top screw just yet. 7. Once the tonearm is fully installed, I balance the tonearm at zero gravity or remove the headshell with just the counterweight at its farthest setting. As you tighten the screw, the tonearm will move according to the setting that you have the anti-skate at. I like to start the anti-skate at 3 and move the arm toward the middle of the platter. Once tightened, the tonearm should move back to the resting position. I hope this was helpful. I would be willing to make a video of the process but I need a gimbal with worn bearings to show from start to finish.
1200sbygabestar could you DM me I was wondering if you could mod my gimbal or do some other mods. Thanks
@1200sByGabestar can you please message me about this issue? I’ve got an SL-1300 MK2 with a tonearm that “sticks” in a few spots while playing records. If I move the tonearm towards the middle, I can feel the resistance right where it is skipping. I believe it’s the vertical bearing but have never gone through the trouble of looking into fixing it. I’m the Chicago area as well
