Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? or is it a Pioneer PL-7 Turntable?

[Tom Elliott]

I recently bought a very early (1960) Pioneer PL-7 turntable. I managed to track down a complete set of original paperwork and I'm very happy with it all. Frankly I think it's a Japanese knock off of a Garrard 301. It's very simple, built like a tank and employs idler wheel technology.

However Pioneer seem to have made another PL-7 that's nothing like mine. A simple Google search will take you to a semi modern unit with all the bells and whistles.

My PL-7 was also named the PL-7UB, the only difference being that the UB version came mounted in a, quote "simple" plinth. In full disclosure, the picture I posted of an original PL-7 is not my actual turntable.

Have any of you run across this odd situation? Do you have any opinion of the "Original" PL-7 turntable?

 

[Grbluen]

There are threads here on the forum!
You're a lucky man!

The word "sleeper" comes to mind!
Congrats!

 

[vinyldavid]

I have an original PL-7 like that in the picture, with paperwork, though my base isn't as nice as yours, conditionally!

In no way is it a knockoff of a Garrard 301, other than it's a 3 speed idler drive turntable! There's no pitch control, the tonearm is supplied, fixed, and integrated, it has built in cuing, and is of much, much lower quality than a 301.

The PL-7ub is a VERY stylish and retro looking turntable-someday I'll even have to listen to it!

 

[Tom Elliott]

Hi Dave, Obviously you are correct in your comments. What I really meant was the Pioneer is way over built and should last a lifetime, just like the 301. Also it's simplicity reminds me of the 301. I also have a 301 and frankly there are a few things I prefer about the Pioneer !!

I'm a charity shop hound by the way and I found my Garrard 301 a couple of years ago, sitting in it's box complete with all it's original paperwork. It also had the accompanying Garrard TPA-12 tone arm and a Garrard tracking weight scale. I thought I'd take a chance on at at $50.00 ... It's still sitting in it's box but my eventual plan is to mount it (dual arm) with an SME tonearm and use the original Garrard arm for playing 78"s.

 

[Nat]

You are right about Pioneer recycling the model name. The later PL 7 and the other tables in the range were pretry good sounding, and as I recall, they came with both standard headshells and Pmount headshells. But every one I've encountered has had a tendency to suddenly jump to incredibly high speed rotation. I cleaned the pots etc, and they behaved for a short while, then started going bonkers again.
Yours has the very great merit of doing what it does with no likelihood of misbehaving.

 

[Tom Elliott]

Hi Nat,

Simplicity is the key to early PL-7's.

Basically there's very little in it to go wrong. It's just a motor that manually turns off and on, and a tone arm that is also manually operated.
But even being as simple as it is there's still a multi capacitor that dries up over the years causing the speed to become unstable.

So maybe the continued link between the original PL-7 and the later version is that they are both able to fail !!

Thank you for your input,

Tom...