Miracord 50HII - need advice

[caferacer59]

An unfortunate accident (involving kids) resulted in my beloved Miracord crashing to the floor and getting destroyed. I started looking for another and have found a replacement, the guy is far away and I have a buddy picking it up (so no audition), the conversation I had with the seller was good, and I was all set to pick it up.

The guy was decent enough to call me back after I asked him to take some time to confirm all functions were working properly. After doing so he called and said that the speed changer, wont go from 33 to 45, that it is stiff and he didn't want to force it (good!!). I really want this thing but I do not want a project at all. Any thoughts of what might be causing this. The table otherwise works well according to the seller. Its cheap and has several things I didn't have before, namely a perfect dust cover, and the elusive 45 auto changer spindle.

I am just wondering what the experts have to say about how serious that problem could get to solve.

Thanks all, I truly loved my old Miracord and it killed me to see it get trashed.

 

[sberger]

Dried grease in all likelihood. Great table but you'll probably need to take time to clean parts. Lots of folks here can give instruction so depending on cost might be worth it to take a shot yourself or give to somebody local that has some familiarity with turntable restoration.

 

[Dave B.]

An unfortunate accident (involving kids) resulted in my beloved Miracord crashing to the floor and getting destroyed.

I had a new 50H back in 1969. They are gorgeous machines and I loved mine dearly.

Your parenthetical "(involving kids)" made me cringe. When my two young ones were of "unfortunate accident" age, I "counseled" (a far too charitable term) them on the consequences of their contact (accidental or otherwise) with my equipment. In fact, the first question I would ask upon my return from work, in response to my wife's worried admonition, "Something happened!" was, "Does it involve my stereo?" It never did.

"Counseling" works.

Dave

 

[caferacer59]

Kids are cute, a while back they both decided to surprise me and wash Dads new BMW, with a bucket of soapy water, and a scotchbrite sponge.

There aren't any matches in the house so we've got that going for us.

 

[MRL_Audio]

Wondered how you get that cool patina’d look on a Beamer.

 

[revox-b77]

Just have them keep washing until it looks like a Delorean.

 

[stereofisher]

The 50H is a nice deck. Dry grease is the problem. Sorry you are in Md. I would have you going quickly. Funny when my kids were little the stereo was off limits. But I taught them how to use a VCR correctly. The tv was fair game. Never had a broken stereo.

 

[Nat]

As long as the speed selector is stuck in 33, and you don't play 45s, you may not care. But fixing it is fairly easy. Warm the shaft of the speed selector to loosen it, take it apart, clean and relube, and reassemble.

 

[caferacer59]

I have a lot of LP's that play at 45. Seems that many of the newer records I sometimes buy are being recorded as such, Lately I've picked up Joe Strummer 001 (great record by the way), A Justin Townes Earle and a Father John Misty LP all of which were pressed at 45 rpm. The Guy called me again and said he'll get it completely fixed and then sell it to me, my sad story, seems to have struck a chord with him and he wants me to have it. I am also excited to get the 45 spindle for fun. I am assuming my sled from my 50h will fit the h2 so I'll be able to have an everyday stylus and something a bit more exotic too.

 

[Winters]

If that is a possibility, avoid 50H2. Look for regular 50H or 750.
I've serviced both and 50H2 is worse quality than the earlier 50H apart from better on/off switching mechanism. The motor is not as good as the original Papst hysteresis motor found in earlier tables, it's more prone to failure. The speed selector is, as far as I remember, made of plastic. Grease is a lot worse, turns to sticky goo. The main platter bearing is also worse than the one found on the early 50H.
But if you're not afraid of that and want to buy it, make sure that it has the strobe disc on the edge of the platter. If it doesn't, it will be much harder to dial the speed in. The strobe discs on these tables were made of thin plexiglass which tends to break. Also, the pitch control is rather flimsy (plastic again) and tends to break if stuck because of the old grease.

What exactly happened to the 50H? These things were built like tanks. I've actually repaired one where someone had pulled on the tonearm until the bearings broke, slightly bending the chassis in the process. All I had to do was to replace several small parts in the tonearm and straighten the chassis. Works to this day.

 

[62vauxhall]

I agree about the earlier 50H motor being superior to that of a 50H II. When the 50H II was current, there became a 770H with that better motor but at a higher price point.

There was a similar differentiation with the earlier 10 and 10H. Same table - different motor. When new, there was a $10 difference - $89.99 vs $99.99. Ten bucks got you the Pabst.

A few months ago I wound up with a non-H 10 with, it turned out, a bad motor. Coincidently, on a day I stopped in at an audio shop I frequent, they just happened to have tossed a 50H. So I got a working Pabst motor for free and upgraded my 10 to a 10H thereby saving that whopping $10 differential when new in 1963.

It was nearly a straight "plug 'n' play".

If you're going to do much cartridge swapping with a 50, be carefull inserting the slide. I learned the hard way that the set of contacts under the tone arm head can snap off.

 

[Nat]

caferacer59 - I'd forgotten that there are a lot of 12 inch records cut at 45. So I was wondering if you actually listened to donut singles, or, perhaps less likely, disco records which I remember being available. I'd forgotten that the 12 inch format survived Casablanca records.
(I have to confess to having wrongly disliked disco when it was current - now I revel in its guileless immediacy and its R&B/soul lineage, which wasn't obvious to me at the time since I was into the singer/songwriter thing. Ooops.)

 

[sberger]

A properly running HII is every bit as good as an H. I've owned the H and currently own the II, and they're both great.

 

[caferacer59]

well I picked it up and it works perfectly and I am happy, granted the plinth is not as nice as the 50H and there is more plastic but it came with a nice stylus and is clean and without any imperfections anywhere, the strobe ring is intact and she spins at speed both 33 and 45. The only funny part was I was all excited to get the 45 changer which he said he had, he misunderstood and I was presented with a little plastic 45 hole adapter. That was kind of funny, I was really looking forward to scoring the 45 changer. But I am happy.

 

[caferacer59]

What exactly happened to the 50H?

I was pulling it out of rotation because it needed a new stylus, and I was sticking my backup TT into the system, I rested the 50H on top of a radiator for a minute while making the switch. Unknown to me an indoor arena football game was going on (two boys 11 and 12). The turntable got in the way of a hail Mary as it was 4th and 30 with 6 seconds on the clock. The turntable, intercepted a poorly thrown ball and was severely injured. Its in the tent being look at now, the tone arm is jammed, there is a mystery piece of metal that I found and the plinth is busted. It turns, but the arm needs to be fixed as it does not move freely. Final score, Monsters 7- Miracord 0.

 

[jvcforce]

...
If you're going to do much cartridge swapping with a 50, be carefull inserting the slide. I learned the hard way that the set of contacts under the tone arm head can snap off.

I think that's exactly what happened to my Miracord 50H II!
Were you able to repair it? In my case, one side of the plastic broke off (you can find picture here, I uploaded.)
I just left it as it is, but bent the each 5 connectors on the headshell, so that all 5 pins would contact. Not a best way to do it, but so far it is working.
I thought about adding (soldering) a small molex connector between, but it may not be a good idea...

 

[62vauxhall]

I think that's exactly what happened to my Miracord 50H II!
Were you able to repair it? In my case, one side of the plastic broke off (you can find picture here, I uploaded.)
I just left it as it is, but bent the each 5 connectors on the headshell, so that all 5 pins would contact. Not a best way to do it, but so far it is working.
I thought about adding (soldering) a small molex connector between, but it may not be a good idea...

In my case a previous owner was responsible for the breakage. But it was repaired and quite well I might add.

I was unaware of this at time of purchase and enthusiastically swapped cartridges over a 5 year period. And then the repair let go eventually. Since the first repair involved adhesive and a piece of PC board material for reinforcement, the new "break" was far to messy to repair a 2nd time.

 

[caferacer59]

Just a little warning that the craigslist world can be a weird place. I bought this turntable, and brought it home, it was supposed to be working perfectly, however the left channel was not producing sound, I messaged the seller that I wanted to return it and got no response. I messaged a second time a day later and the seller said call me, I did so and explained that the TT was not functioning as advertised. He finally, reluctantly said he would take it back. He later called me and asked me to try switching my old cartridge and see if that would help by any chance, I said sure, so I spent some time cleaning the contacts, putting in new cables, and was able to get 25% sound out of the channel, nonetheless he agreed to take it back. I drove it up, got my cash, and thought all was done. Later that day, i get insane messages stating that I stole his motor out of his 50HII and swapped my motor out of my 50H. It was beyond weird, thought the guy was totally normal and he went off the deep end, I am glad we met in a public place, I do a lot of craiglist and this is the first time I ran into a nut, probably a good reminder. That's it guys, life is weird, keep your guard up when dealing with CL .

 

[audiojones]

The motor for a 50H II or a 770H won't even fit in an original 50H, totally different setup (due to the pitch control, mechanism changes etc). Sorry you encountered a wackadoo but FWIW Miracords often need the contacts in the headshell gently teased back out into position to make proper contact with the headshell contact shoes (I usually use a paper clip). Cleaning and age often pushes the fingers up into the receiver slot and cause channel dropouts (sorry, day late and a dollar short I know).

Ya know, I don't think I've ever even thought of returning anything I bought on Craigslist. Didn't know sellers did that, but I guess I would if someone asked. I'd probably end up fixing it for them or else reselling the item.

 

[62vauxhall]

Surprised the guy conceded to a refund.

I've bought off CL and enter into the bargain knowing I take my chances. And I sure had reason to bitch a few times but a gamble is a gamble. Rarely does a CL seller know WTF they're talking about. Those that are selling gear in my price range sure don't.

It honestly surprises me if a 2nd (or whatever) hand turntable does work 100% whether it's said to do so or not. The local vintage shops selling reconditioned turntables for more than I would pay are a different matter in that they're sold with 6 to 12 month guarantees.

Years ago, in the car business, when asked about getting money back, the answer was "You bought it, you own it". Guarantees for used was "30 seconds or 30 feet" ,