sam562
Member
I recently found a cheap Pioneer PL400 so I could scavenge the dust cover for an old Pioneer PL420 that I already own. But after reading some nice reviews here on AK I decided to try and rejuvenate this deck so that I could compare the sound.
Luckily the turntable was completely functional except that it was missing the counterweight and the stub that it rides on.
Here are some pictures of an intact counterweight support stub courtesy of restorer-john
Apparently this series of Pioneer turntables is prone to have the plastic counterweight stub/shaft snap off the tonearm if they are dropped or jostled around too violently.
There are a number of very informative old threads here on AK about this problem along great solutions contributed by users like boreas, EngineerNate, kylemac etc..
What follows is a description and pictures of my hacked-up version of the fixes I've read about here.
I bought a counterweight from "the online auction site" and was fortunate that the seller still had the counter weight stub which he included for free. The stub for these turntables is actually a thin plastic sleeve about 1 1/2" long with a long black rubber grommet/bushing insert that fits over a shorter, thinner solid plastic stub that extends from the back of the tonearm gimbal.
At the time I did this fix I hadn't yet found restorer-john's pictures of the intact stub and rubber bushing so my flying-blind, improvised stub is a bit shorter than the original stub. I guess I didn't feel comfortable digging out the rubber insert because I thought i might accidentally destroy the sleeve in the process. Instead I simply inserted a wooden dowel into the hole until it stopped and used that to define the length of my new stub.
I used a 1/16" drill bit to drill a hole in the back of the gimbal where the old stub failed. Then I used a small finish nail inserted through a piece of wooden dowel (actually the whittled end of a chopstick). I then drilled a hole through the dowel to accommodate the finish nail. I left the head on the nail because it seemed to help secure the dowel. I snipped off the pointed end of the nail so that it wouldn't extend too far into the gimbal and damage the wires. After dry fitting all of the pieces I then mixed up and applied a liberal amount of JB Weld to the holes, the nail, the dowel and the inside of the rubber bushing then pushed all of the parts together onto the gimbal.
Use a straight edge ruler, some clear tape and a permanent marker to make an alignment mark to help with drilling the new hole. Be sure and align the the other axis as well. Oh, and don't drill too deep or you'll chew up the wires leading to your cartridge. You will feel the drill resistance give at about 3/8" so STOP.
A whittled chopstick inserted in hole to guage depth. Cutting the chopstick after successfully drilling a straight hole (my 2nd try after first was crooked)
Guaging the nail depth to make sure that it didn't extend too deep into the gimbal. Stub is probably a bit too short but I didn't have a reference at the time.
It looks like part of the original stub might still be inside the rubber bushing / grommet so hopefully all of the extra JB Weld will tie it all together.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of applying the JB Weld or finally fitting it together but it's pretty straight forward; the nail went through the wood into the gimbal and then the sleeve/shaft went over everything. It was very tight so I had to hold onto the gimbal with one hand for leverage and wiggle the shaft onto the new wooden stub with my other hand.
Here is the result moments later.
In hindsight it would have been better to stop after gluing the nail and wooden dowel to the gimbal and just let that dry overnight before pressing on the sleeve/shaft, but I ended up putting everything together right away. Also, I didn't tape, rubber band or support the fresh repair with blocks either because it all fit together so snugly it didn't seem necessary. The plastic sleeve/shaft is very lightweight.
After curing overnight I put the counter weight on the next morning and spun some sweet vinyl.
This turntable sounds really great.
The revelation for me was how surprisingly good the included Numark Groove Tool Cart ($15 new lol) performs compared to the ATS12 on my other turntable. I don't know if its the turntable or the cart but the high frequencies are a bit more prominent and sound really nice.
This guy on youtube has some shootout videos comparing different carts and the Groove Tool definitely holds its own considering the price:
Cartridge Shootout: Audio Technica CN5625AL vs Numark/Ion Groove Tool - "The Girl From Ipanema"
There are eight other videos where he compares the Groove Tool to other cartridges:
https://www.youtube.com/user/wpbilderbackgmail/search?query=Numark
Overall the repair is a success (so far) so I think the whole process was fairly forgiving.
Anyway, I hope this helps someone.
This fix also applies to the following models which are black versions of the ones listed above: PL400x PL300x PL255x PL250x PL200x PL100x
Also, some guy on thingverse has made a 3D model of the gimbal for these tables. Unfortunately he hasn't included the counterweight stub:
https://www.thingiverse.com/make:630615
Luckily the turntable was completely functional except that it was missing the counterweight and the stub that it rides on.
Here are some pictures of an intact counterweight support stub courtesy of restorer-john
Apparently this series of Pioneer turntables is prone to have the plastic counterweight stub/shaft snap off the tonearm if they are dropped or jostled around too violently.
There are a number of very informative old threads here on AK about this problem along great solutions contributed by users like boreas, EngineerNate, kylemac etc..
What follows is a description and pictures of my hacked-up version of the fixes I've read about here.
I bought a counterweight from "the online auction site" and was fortunate that the seller still had the counter weight stub which he included for free. The stub for these turntables is actually a thin plastic sleeve about 1 1/2" long with a long black rubber grommet/bushing insert that fits over a shorter, thinner solid plastic stub that extends from the back of the tonearm gimbal.
At the time I did this fix I hadn't yet found restorer-john's pictures of the intact stub and rubber bushing so my flying-blind, improvised stub is a bit shorter than the original stub. I guess I didn't feel comfortable digging out the rubber insert because I thought i might accidentally destroy the sleeve in the process. Instead I simply inserted a wooden dowel into the hole until it stopped and used that to define the length of my new stub.
I used a 1/16" drill bit to drill a hole in the back of the gimbal where the old stub failed. Then I used a small finish nail inserted through a piece of wooden dowel (actually the whittled end of a chopstick). I then drilled a hole through the dowel to accommodate the finish nail. I left the head on the nail because it seemed to help secure the dowel. I snipped off the pointed end of the nail so that it wouldn't extend too far into the gimbal and damage the wires. After dry fitting all of the pieces I then mixed up and applied a liberal amount of JB Weld to the holes, the nail, the dowel and the inside of the rubber bushing then pushed all of the parts together onto the gimbal.
Use a straight edge ruler, some clear tape and a permanent marker to make an alignment mark to help with drilling the new hole. Be sure and align the the other axis as well. Oh, and don't drill too deep or you'll chew up the wires leading to your cartridge. You will feel the drill resistance give at about 3/8" so STOP.
A whittled chopstick inserted in hole to guage depth. Cutting the chopstick after successfully drilling a straight hole (my 2nd try after first was crooked)
Guaging the nail depth to make sure that it didn't extend too deep into the gimbal. Stub is probably a bit too short but I didn't have a reference at the time.
It looks like part of the original stub might still be inside the rubber bushing / grommet so hopefully all of the extra JB Weld will tie it all together.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of applying the JB Weld or finally fitting it together but it's pretty straight forward; the nail went through the wood into the gimbal and then the sleeve/shaft went over everything. It was very tight so I had to hold onto the gimbal with one hand for leverage and wiggle the shaft onto the new wooden stub with my other hand.
Here is the result moments later.
In hindsight it would have been better to stop after gluing the nail and wooden dowel to the gimbal and just let that dry overnight before pressing on the sleeve/shaft, but I ended up putting everything together right away. Also, I didn't tape, rubber band or support the fresh repair with blocks either because it all fit together so snugly it didn't seem necessary. The plastic sleeve/shaft is very lightweight.
After curing overnight I put the counter weight on the next morning and spun some sweet vinyl.
This turntable sounds really great.
The revelation for me was how surprisingly good the included Numark Groove Tool Cart ($15 new lol) performs compared to the ATS12 on my other turntable. I don't know if its the turntable or the cart but the high frequencies are a bit more prominent and sound really nice.
This guy on youtube has some shootout videos comparing different carts and the Groove Tool definitely holds its own considering the price:
Cartridge Shootout: Audio Technica CN5625AL vs Numark/Ion Groove Tool - "The Girl From Ipanema"
There are eight other videos where he compares the Groove Tool to other cartridges:
https://www.youtube.com/user/wpbilderbackgmail/search?query=Numark
Overall the repair is a success (so far) so I think the whole process was fairly forgiving.
Anyway, I hope this helps someone.
This fix also applies to the following models which are black versions of the ones listed above: PL400x PL300x PL255x PL250x PL200x PL100x
Also, some guy on thingverse has made a 3D model of the gimbal for these tables. Unfortunately he hasn't included the counterweight stub:
https://www.thingiverse.com/make:630615
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