Arkay
Lunatic Member
Shortcut for the impatient ones: Answer the big bold question in the 3rd paragraph.
More for the readers among you:
{No pun on "idler wheel" intended in the title.
}
I started a thread here about "What ONE thing would you like to "score" this year?", and within an hour or two there were already two people who mentioned that they had picked up Lenco TTs intending to transplant them into massive DIY plinths... but had never gotten around to it.
It occurs to me that I've read this from other owners before, too, both here on AK and elsewhere. I'm wondering how many people have picked up these old Lencos intending to fix them up, and then never gotten around to doing anything with them? What percentage of Lenco projects are on "long-term procrastination" status?
HOW ABOUT YOU? HOW MANY LENCOS DO YOU HAVE WAITING AROUND TO BE "REBUILT," AND HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN WAITING? HAVE YOU FINISHED ANY LENCO PROJECTS, AND IF SO, HOW MANY? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO GET AROUND TO DOING THEM?
To be fair, I'll start off by sharing my own status with Lenco projects. It's neither an abysmal failure nor a resounding success, as I have done some stuff, but I still have unfinished and delayed stuff yet waiting to be done, some of which is long-delayed. (Just skip this stuff if you're not interested.
)
Altogether, I have five L75s, two L70s, a B52 and an L85. Out of these, only ONE L75 has had a massive new plinth made for it, and that was done in a flurry of interest not long after I first got it. It's not the ultimate "reference" level Lenco project that I plan to make, either: it's more of a "proof of concept" roughly-finished laminated plywood job, done just to get an idea what the big-plinth Lenco sounds like. I can still turn it into something cosmetically nice and do some further tweaks to it, but haven't done so in the two or three years since I made it.
One of the L75s is staying in an original Lenco plinth, because I found a plinth that has unusually beautiful woodgrain. I refurbed it and "filled it in" plus an extra layer on the bottom, to make a plinth that looks like the original on a base, but functions a bit more like the big CLD plinths (but not really big, in this case). This was completed surprisingly quickly and just recently. Finding that nice-looking plinth somehow inspired me to "dig into it" and get it done.
I'm still trying to decide which L75 should permanently inhabit it: the one that came in it is still in good shape, but I have another that is NEVER-used, which came in the original packaging (sans outer cardboard box) looking pristine. I plan to make a "reference uber-Lenco" with PTP top plate and other mods, so I may use the never-used one in the original Lenco plinth to keep it intact, and the next-best one (the used one that came in the nice plinth) for the big project... but it would also be nice to use the never-used, "new" Lenco motor and parts in the "ultimate" project.
All my Lencos got a basic cleaning and minor tweaking when I got them, but that is different from a complete restoration. One B70 will stay in the plinth it is in, because it is a very cool old plinth, sort of like the boxy Empire ones. It has been cleaned and is functional, but is not really properly restored yet, to the standard I want it to be. I want to get another headshell for it, too, and the cart(s) I have for it need new styli.
The L85 got enough work to become usable, but could use a better restoration.
Most of my Lencos lack the original rubber mats; I need to source some more of those. Only some have the nice metal idler-wheels; a couple of plastic wheels should be replaced, or at least rebuilt.
One of the L75s has some rust on the spindle and is generally so-so; it may become a donor for a double platter for the BIG one, but that still leaves me with two L75s and one L70 awaiting their "projects", and some pending restoration work still on a couple others, as mentioned.
Meanwhile, I want to do a much fancier (more work involved) plinth for my Garrard 4HF (H) turntable, which I may do first, so the pending Lenco projects may just pend a little longer!
UPDATE: A couple months later, and now I have two more Lencos (both L75s) in the projects pile. One of them is in typical decent-but-needs-cleaning shape, the other is in nice, clean (almost unused-looking) shape, except someone broke off the tonearm (how do you manage to completely snap off a tonearm, leaving the broken-off stub of the base still in the top plate, and not bend/affect the top plate? Someone must have hit that arm a pretty hard blow, or perhaps dropped it on its side and the arm struck something hard?
). The Dustcover on it was fine when I first saw it, but cracked when I went back to get it, because they stacked too much heavy stuff on top of it :tears:. Both plinths look old, but I wouldn't keep them, anyway. The Garrard 4HF project is still on hold, while I do other things (like work and life...).
More for the readers among you:
{No pun on "idler wheel" intended in the title.
}I started a thread here about "What ONE thing would you like to "score" this year?", and within an hour or two there were already two people who mentioned that they had picked up Lenco TTs intending to transplant them into massive DIY plinths... but had never gotten around to it.
It occurs to me that I've read this from other owners before, too, both here on AK and elsewhere. I'm wondering how many people have picked up these old Lencos intending to fix them up, and then never gotten around to doing anything with them? What percentage of Lenco projects are on "long-term procrastination" status?
HOW ABOUT YOU? HOW MANY LENCOS DO YOU HAVE WAITING AROUND TO BE "REBUILT," AND HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN WAITING? HAVE YOU FINISHED ANY LENCO PROJECTS, AND IF SO, HOW MANY? HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO GET AROUND TO DOING THEM?
To be fair, I'll start off by sharing my own status with Lenco projects. It's neither an abysmal failure nor a resounding success, as I have done some stuff, but I still have unfinished and delayed stuff yet waiting to be done, some of which is long-delayed. (Just skip this stuff if you're not interested.
)Altogether, I have five L75s, two L70s, a B52 and an L85. Out of these, only ONE L75 has had a massive new plinth made for it, and that was done in a flurry of interest not long after I first got it. It's not the ultimate "reference" level Lenco project that I plan to make, either: it's more of a "proof of concept" roughly-finished laminated plywood job, done just to get an idea what the big-plinth Lenco sounds like. I can still turn it into something cosmetically nice and do some further tweaks to it, but haven't done so in the two or three years since I made it.
One of the L75s is staying in an original Lenco plinth, because I found a plinth that has unusually beautiful woodgrain. I refurbed it and "filled it in" plus an extra layer on the bottom, to make a plinth that looks like the original on a base, but functions a bit more like the big CLD plinths (but not really big, in this case). This was completed surprisingly quickly and just recently. Finding that nice-looking plinth somehow inspired me to "dig into it" and get it done.
I'm still trying to decide which L75 should permanently inhabit it: the one that came in it is still in good shape, but I have another that is NEVER-used, which came in the original packaging (sans outer cardboard box) looking pristine. I plan to make a "reference uber-Lenco" with PTP top plate and other mods, so I may use the never-used one in the original Lenco plinth to keep it intact, and the next-best one (the used one that came in the nice plinth) for the big project... but it would also be nice to use the never-used, "new" Lenco motor and parts in the "ultimate" project.
All my Lencos got a basic cleaning and minor tweaking when I got them, but that is different from a complete restoration. One B70 will stay in the plinth it is in, because it is a very cool old plinth, sort of like the boxy Empire ones. It has been cleaned and is functional, but is not really properly restored yet, to the standard I want it to be. I want to get another headshell for it, too, and the cart(s) I have for it need new styli.
The L85 got enough work to become usable, but could use a better restoration.
Most of my Lencos lack the original rubber mats; I need to source some more of those. Only some have the nice metal idler-wheels; a couple of plastic wheels should be replaced, or at least rebuilt.
One of the L75s has some rust on the spindle and is generally so-so; it may become a donor for a double platter for the BIG one, but that still leaves me with two L75s and one L70 awaiting their "projects", and some pending restoration work still on a couple others, as mentioned.
Meanwhile, I want to do a much fancier (more work involved) plinth for my Garrard 4HF (H) turntable, which I may do first, so the pending Lenco projects may just pend a little longer!
UPDATE: A couple months later, and now I have two more Lencos (both L75s) in the projects pile. One of them is in typical decent-but-needs-cleaning shape, the other is in nice, clean (almost unused-looking) shape, except someone broke off the tonearm (how do you manage to completely snap off a tonearm, leaving the broken-off stub of the base still in the top plate, and not bend/affect the top plate? Someone must have hit that arm a pretty hard blow, or perhaps dropped it on its side and the arm struck something hard?
). The Dustcover on it was fine when I first saw it, but cracked when I went back to get it, because they stacked too much heavy stuff on top of it :tears:. Both plinths look old, but I wouldn't keep them, anyway. The Garrard 4HF project is still on hold, while I do other things (like work and life...).
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