Yes... I contacted Kevin and he said it was either the bearings or the AS mechanism. After playing around, I concluded the AS spring was bad. When configured, the tonearm would swing out to about an inch from the outer edge and stop. If I set the arm down at the outer edge, the tonearm would swing in an inch and stop. If i increased the AS setting, the arm would swing violently outward against the arm rest. This was very disappointing... The player was in excellent condition.
I have checked several MK 5's and people are really trying to rip you off. A few were in really sad shape, others were missing all kinds of parts or were damaged with bad bearings. Almost all had AS issues. They all want $600+, even with no dust cover, rubber platter mat. Almost all were selling with no headshell/cartridge. The best ones were the sellers who insisted the deck was never used for DJing but the speed slider was all shot or sloppy or they were decked out with slip mats.
Hey, Jon. Man, I can’t believe the luck you’re having! Wtf, huh? Why can’t people be honest sellers? Unfortunately, most 1200’s have been DJ’d within an inch of their lives. At least you’ve got the AK family. Everyone seems to be a good egg here. You could also put up a listing in the wanted section of BT for a new tonearm or even a MK5. I’m sure you know you’ve gotta be a subscriber to get into BT though. It’s well worth it. I’ve bought and sold so much stuff there, and people have reasonable prices too. Occasionally a 1200 will pop up for sale there too.
At least you spoke to Kevin and got to the bottom of things. Did you ask him about how to replace the AS spring? I’m sure there’s gotta be a replacement part for what the issue is, and at least it doesn’t seem to be the bearings.
Are you dead set on a MK5, cuz if a MKll would work for you, I may be able to find one for you. A friend of mine, who’s also a great electronics and turntable tech had 2 MKll’s from the late 80’s (I think) a bit ago for $400 each. One of my old buddies, who now lives in ME, took one of them, but I can check if the other one is still available if you’d like. They had only been used in a studio setting. They both had dust covers and headshells with some kinda cart with em, but they weren’t Technics headshells, if that’s what you’re looking for. You can of course still always buy a new mat and a headshell. Those aren’t a big deal. I’m sure you probably have a certain cartridge in mind anyway.
Now, the possibly shitty part. I saw that you’re in Hawaii, and I’m not sure he’d be willing to ship it, which would obviously not be cheap in the first place, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. First let me know if you’d be interested.
- Nick