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General Electric VRII mono cartridge on a modern tonearm?

beatcomber

beatcomber

AK Member
Let's talk a little about the classic 1950s General Electric VRII mono cartridge, specifically using it on a modern tonearm.

Conventional wisdom says that these perform best on a high mass tonearm, and that has been my experience as well.

This past summer I brought home a '50s Garrard RC80M record changer equipped with a VRII, and I immediately replaced the stylus with a new one. I was quite shocked at how good mono records sounded on this rig through my stereo! There was definitely some magic happening.

The Garrard, being a clunky old record changer, has its age-related mechanical challenges, and I really don't feel like disassembling all those parts in order to restore its performance. I decided to see what the VRII sounded like on my Technics SL-1200MK2.

I took a Numark headshell and drilled a big hole on top to allow room for the big red knob on the GE, and mounted and aligned the cart. At the recommended minimum of 4 grams, the sound was just OK - kind of blah actually. Not nearly as good as it sounded on the Garrard.

I'd still like to find a way to get top performance from the VRII on my SL-1200. Should I increase the VTF to, say, 6 grams? Or should I come up with a way to increase the mass of the headshell? Would the use of BlueStik between the cart and headshell improve its performance?
 
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Yeah, but those weights would be in the way of the big red knob on the cart. I'll probably try attaching a 3 gram penny with BlueStik and see if that makes a sonic difference.
 
beatcomber said:
I'll probably try attaching a 3 gram penny with BlueStik and see if that makes a sonic difference.
Click to expand...

Attach as much weight as you can while still being able to dial in the 4 gram VTF with the counterweight. Should be an interesting experiment.
 
I'm happy to report success! I re-installed the VRII on the modified Numark headshell and BlueStik'd a penny to the top to increase the mass. (You will also note that the tonearm in my SL-1200MK2 is damped with shrink tubing.)

Set at exactly 4 grams VTF, it sounds very, very nice on vintage mono records! Much better than you would expect from a circa 1958 cartridge! Very rich, smooth, authoritative bass, thick mids, and plenty of treble extension - and as expected, reduced surface noise.

Over the next few days I plan to do some comparative listening between the VRII and the Shure M44-7 I had been using for mono playback.

VRII.jpg
 
beatcomber said:
Over the next few days I plan to do some comparative listening between the VRII and the Shure M44-7 I had been using for mono playback.
Click to expand...

I like the old GE VR and RPX cartridges for mono playback and I also use an original Shure M44 for old stereo playback. Nice to see the increase in effective mass helped with the VRII.
 
My Shure M44-7 is from at least the '70s, if not earlier. I've never tried it on stereo records!

What table/tonearm do you use your GE carts on?
 
Scuzzer,

Your Japanese Oil Damped Gray Labs clone tonearm was made by no less than Grace Labs in Japan. Beloved of Okie Sugano, founder and guiding light at Koetsu (of Moving Coil fame). Best known for their 1970's 707 tonearm. :tresbon: Equivalent in quality to a real Gray Labs made oil damped tonearm. The Japanese love those arms and they fetch good money due to that.
 
beatcomber said:
Plus it looks cool as schitt!
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Like Kent said the arm is actually well respected so when I saw this table listed on ebay very cheap a few years back I bought it. Once it arrived I realized the whole thing was just way too cool to part out so I fixed it up and put a GE RPX on it.

In hindsight that may have been a mistake since I now get more excited about finding cool old 78s and goofy 50s LPs than "normal" records. Yesterdays thrift finds were a couple of Cugat 78s and a funky jazz/classical mono LP by Skip Martin.
 
If the little red button thing is gone on top, does it affect much? A friend of mine is giving me one of these carts but it doesn't have the red key on top. I plan on using it for mono, I'm not worried if I can't switch to 78.
 
The only purpose of the little red button is to turn the T bar. If you're only using one stylus it won't make a difference.
 
Scuzzer said:
In hindsight that may have been a mistake since I now get more excited about finding cool old 78s and goofy 50s LPs than "normal" records. Yesterdays thrift finds were a couple of Cugat 78s and a funky jazz/classical mono LP by Skip Martin.
Click to expand...

:thmbsp:
 
Scuzzer said:
The only purpose of the little red button is to turn the T bar. If you're only using one stylus it won't make a difference.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'm not even sure which cart it is yet except that it's a GE and is missing the red knob. It's bound for a Lenco L-70 or Empire, and this thread has got me salivating.
 
The little vinyl sleeves on mini toggles switches make great turnarounds for the GE VR cartridges - without having to drill out a huge hole for the turnaround.
I went with the Stanton DJ headshells and modified them. With stock "scratch" weights (4 grams & 2 Grams) - I also fabricated a stainless steel 1 gram weight.
When the tracking force is dialed in at 2 grams - the single gram weight tracks on a modified VR II stylus (.7 mil) at 3 grams. The turnaround has a 1 mil conical and the weight gets bumped up to 4 grams (by substituting the 2 gram weight).
With a GE RPX for 78 play (either 2.5 mil or 3 mil) - I dial in an AT 1009 tonearm to four gram tracking - then add the 4 gram weight to the Stanton cartridge.
Pictures include a run-of-the mill Jelco and a Sumiko MFT-4 that were quite compatible for GE VR play with these modified Stantons.

Stanton.jpg


Bottom.jpg


Grouptop.jpg


Groupside.jpg


Jelco250-MFT.jpg


RPX-AT1009.jpg


Best,
Mario
 
I'm digging the Metzner Starlight. How's the infinitely variable speed mechanism working for you and your VRIIs? I would imagine they'd be quiet enough for mono usage.
 
I'm glad you jumped in here, Mario. I'd seen your earlier postings on this subject, and you inspired me to try it myself.

When the tracking force is dialed in at 2 grams - the single gram weight tracks on a modified VR II stylus (.7 mil) at 3 grams.
Click to expand...

How did you modify your stylus to track at 3 grams?

[The turnaround has a 1 mil conical and the weight gets bumped up to 4 grams (by substituting the 2 gram weight).
Click to expand...

Great idea! It never occurred to me to replace the 78 stylus with a 1 mil! I already have a .7 mil stylus in the "LP" slot.

Those Stanton H45 shells look a lot nicer with the GE than the Numark I sacrificed for my experiment...
 
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