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My Garrard Lab 80 Obsession

Listen to it first, then decide. They sound better than you may expect. Fair warning though, if you aren't able to do the rebuild work yourself, that gets expensive. I wouldn't pay someone to rehab a turntable just to sell it, though I would rebuild one myself with the intent to sell. I actually bought mine intending to fit it in a console, but like an idiot I didn't think to find out how big it ws before buying and it doesnt' fit in the spot I wanted to put it. Now its my workshop rig, and it sounds quite nice out there.

Value, good question. This isn't really the place to ask but its going to depend on cosmetic and functional condition, your location, and willingness/ability to ship. I'd pose that in the D&S forum.
 
pw5599 said:
If I get it working properly and without a cartridge whats a fair price to ask for it?
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$50 - $70, tops.

A Lab 80 in good shape with dust cover just sold for $45 on eBay.

Not that you asked, but I have a Lab 80. I removed all the unnecessary hardware to make it fully manual, then cleaned and lubed it up, and dampened the platter, and put a $20 cart on it.

It sounds so good I'm selling my VPI Scout to get a better idler-wheel table.
 
Thanks and I do intend to try it once working. Altho I've always had a thing about T-tables, I can see how some specs can help the sound but there's nothing but wires between the cartridge and the preamp so what can make one sound much different than another, as long as both are decent quality. I have a Marantz 6170 that I've used for years and it works quite well....plastic but well.
 
Here is my Garrard Lab 80 MKII---fully rebuilt by the late Joel Thorner of
"The Turntable Factory".
 
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That Lab 80 Mk II tonearm housing indicates it's a later production Lab 80 (Mk I).

The Garrard Lab 80 sold VERY well; enough that Garrard ran out of certain parts. By the time this happened the planning and parts production was already underway for the Mk II, so the way to expedite production was to substitute the Mk II tonearm housing already in the parts bin.

Sounds like you've got the process underway to get the Lab 80 working properly. Once it's all made right, it's a remarkably good performer. While my Garrard 301 was out for its yearly-or-so maintenance, I substituted my Lab 80. I found that UNLIKE prior times when I substituted a suspended-chassis belt drive turntable, I did NOT have the urge to get the 301 done as quickly as possible so I could get rid of the substitute. The Lab 80 did THAT well.
 
pw5599 said:
Thanks and I do intend to try it once working. Altho I've always had a thing about T-tables, I can see how some specs can help the sound but there's nothing but wires between the cartridge and the preamp so what can make one sound much different than another, as long as both are decent quality.
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Thats a highly loaded question. Its not just the electrical side of the house you have to think about. The wiring from cartridge to amp does have some effect, mostly in regards to resistance and capacitave loading on the cartridge. The entire rest of the machine affects acoustic resonance points with the cartridge. There is a relationship between cartridge compliance (basically how easy it is to move the stylus) and the mass of the arm that will result in a resonant peak at some frequency. Theres a formula to figure that out. Then you have vibration transmission from the motor to the platter and to the tonearm, very minute fluctuations in speed caused by loading and tracking of the stylus, rumble from the bearing transmitted into the platter and into the base, on and on the list goes. In a nutshell, almost anything you can possibly imagine can have some effect on the sound, though obviously some things affect the sound more than others. Thats both the beauty and the pitfall of analog mechanical sound reproduction. You're dealing with very very small movements of a stylus to reproduce a lot of sound information. It doesn't take much at all to skew that.
 
pw5599 said:
Not so sure I want to keep this table. If I get it working properly and without a cartridge whats a fair price to ask for it?
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In the condition you describe, probably an Ebabe "no bidder". Working properly, almost priceless to an idler lover. :music::music:

I have two and consider them almost a poor man's equivalent to a 301/401. :sigh::sigh: Regards.
 
Good explanation Gadget, thanks for that.
I will certainly give it a good audition once I hook it up to the system.
 
efhjr said:
Not to threadcrap, but... 301s need yearly maintenance? Is this a general relube or a take it apart and put it back together job?
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They don't generally NEED it. I just like doing it. The bearing is especially checked to make sure it is topped off with lube. This is especially necessary for the grease bearing once the grease fitting is bottomed out, as it's the only way the lubricant is kept in the top of the bearing. Otherwise it will run dry. I use a very thick oil rather than automotive bearing grease, as that's closer to what came in the tube supplied by Garrard; it was more a very thick oil than a grease.

Garrard, in its Plessey-ownership days, actually put out a print about converting a grease bearing to oil. The problem was that if you followed the instructions precisely, it would have been almost inevitable that the top bearing would run dry. Maybe it was some rookie from some other Plessey division who wrote that, because later on, the mistake got corrected. The oil-bearing 301s and all 401s had a fitting to add oil from the top, so it's easier to keep the oil topped up on those machines.

Otherwise I verify that everything is working as intended, check whatever adjustments there are, check the grommets on the idler assembly for uneven sagging (the weight distribution is apparently uneven on the three grommets, as on an old 301 there is always the same one that has taken a "set" and has become thinner than the others) and that all the grease on the linkages, etc. is fresh. Mine already got the total disassembly a few years ago.

Of course, I also have fun swapping out other tables when the 301 is out, and playing with them!
 
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Joined the club tonight, walked by a console on the side of the road, on it's side, and inside a Lab 80. Just need to build a plinth and get a plug on it instead of the round 3 prong plug, and a stylus. The manual and changer spindle were also there.:thmbsp:
 
Great find. Did you manage to get the mounting board out, as a head start on your new plinth?

Keep us posted on your progress, if you have any questions, just ask!
 
Yep---Don't be bashful ---We in the club love our Lab's and are not shy about helping one another.
 
I didn't have a saw, and hammer with me, so I will have to build one. I already downloaded the template:thmbsp:
The last thing I needed was another turntable/project, but I am just a sucker for both pretty design, and vintage audio.
Look forward to getting it going.I just love the look of the wood arm.
It has the round three prong amp plug on it, can I just maret a power cord to the wires if i cut them or should i pick up a new molex? I salvaged the cord from the carcass....
 
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barebones said:
I didn't have a saw, and hammer with me, so I will
It has the round three prong amp plug on it, can I just maret a power cord to the wires if i cut them or should i pick up a new molex? I salvaged the cord from the carcass....
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PROBABLY (not definitely...depends on the console manufacturer and how it wanted the console to operate) the three-wire setup provided power to the console, so that when the user started up the Lab 80, the console would turn on automatically; when the Lab 80 finished playing records, it would shut off, and so would the console.
 
Must have been a decent console to have a Lab 80 in it. Was there anything else inside worth saving ?
 
gadget73 said:
Must have been a decent console to have a Lab 80 in it...
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Packard Bell had Garrard do a custom paint job on the Lab 80s supplied for their top-line consoles. It was a sort of beige-gold color with white trim and headshell. See post number 32 in this thread.
 
Ugly Clairetone, amp was in nice shape, speakers stamped drivers, cabinet was beat. I don't need any new projects, so I left it.The whole thing vanished 10 mins later.:smoke:
 
gillsev said:
(in a post several pages back) Here is the ad that verified its patent on the new Antiskating feature ...

antiskate.jpg
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Rather a late reply here...but I posted some information about the patent on the sliding-weight antiskate device, to another AudioKarma Lab 80 board a couple of months ago. Here it is, again:

The "sliding weight" antiskate first introduced on the Garrard Lab 80 and Type A70, and used in several different versions on later models, was patented in the USA by Edmund W. Mortimer (chief engineer of Garrard) and assigned to Garrard Engineering Limited.

Patent application was filed October 26, 1964 and patent was issued May 9, 1967. A prior British patent filing was dated October 31, 1963.

Details, abstract and drawings of the US Patent:

http://www.google.com/patents/US3318603
 
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