Mark Walter's bitchin' new custom Sumiko Premier FT-3

[thedelihaus]

Just finished up Mark Walter's custom Sumiko Premier FT-3.


Here's the arm, disassembled and with a few wire options on the table. Old wiring, with It's numerous interruptions and different gauge at different stages, was removed.

 

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Another shot. Note a few spare parts bumping around, and the foam "noodle" (goes inside the arm tube for damping purposes) that has been removed.

 

[thedelihaus]

Jelco built the Sumiko arms. They also built the Audioquest arms.

With the Audioquest arms, there was also an external damping sleeve.

I purchased some high quality 3M shrink tube and fitted it on the Sumiko arm, emulating the Audioquest...

 

[thedelihaus]

Pulling out my adjustable temp heat gun, I shrunk the tubing snug as a bug on the arm tube.

 

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A quick, careful hit with the dremel opens up the headshell mounting hole. This hole is slightly larger from the factory to allow azimuth adjustment.

 

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The black paint on the headshell always gets marred from mounting hardware.

Though it's hard to tell, I stripped the paint and polished the headshell. I also removed a tiny, tiny amount of material to offset somewhat the weight of the shrink wrap. I did this with absolutely no compromise of strength or stiffness.


It doesn't look nearly as good as it does in person.


A dremel and jeweler's rouge was used to polish it.

 

[thedelihaus]

Underneath the headshell, I added a black rubberized paint for damping properties.

This is in theory with some of the high end damped Japanese headshells on the really high end arms offered in the 70's and 80's.



The freshly polished top and sides of the headshell were masked off.

 

[thedelihaus]

I opted for the Cardas gold plated clips- pricier and more delicate than other clips- and also smaller.

I did this for weight reasons, though I admit it's a marginal savings.


The smaller clips mean you need to be careful when handling them.


I chose the Isokenetik wire, a quality Litz wire, over the Cardas, as it's a bit more flexible and not quite as thick a gauge.

The Sumikos have a very small guide hole for wiring, and the thicker Cardas could cause binding and affect bearing pivot.

 

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Nice, tiny, shiny Cardas silver solder....

 

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Wire soldered (note the mini shrink wrap shielding around the clip/wire junction and color coding up left at the headshell) and braided. Also, added a dab of flexible black silicone in the two slots that the tone arm wire channels through...

 

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Braided again...

 

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Prepping the foam for re-insertion into the arm tube, and anchoring/reinforcing the wire at the end, for additional support.....

 

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Re-inserted in the (now shrink-wrapped) arm tube.....

 

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Right before re-assembly of the pivot, feeding the wire path, and before adding the black ground wires.


Note the three holes on the pivot cap- two for the black screws, one to snake the wire through.

The silver screws hold the black fluid damper bridge onto the base....

 

[thedelihaus]

Attaching the two black ground wires and the four color coded cart wires (I mark 'em with a Sharpie) to the internal din plug (fits inside the base shaft).

The wire gets clipped shorter before soldering. It makes it easier to work with if a tad longer at first.

Measure twice, cut once....

 

[thedelihaus]

Back together, and continuity checked three times- all wiring correct and no funny business. Notice the polished headshell- much nicer looking here. Time for a beer!

 

[thedelihaus]

Oops- need to put the arm lift lever back on.

That can wait for tomorrow. I have a date with a girl. A St. Paulie Girl.....

 

[Balifly]

:ntwrthy:

 

[poppachubby]

Well done man, that thing is going to sound great.

 

[rkay5]

So very cool!