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Mystery Pioneer turntable - can you ID this?

tropicalian

tropicalian

rockin in the freeworld
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A good friend of mine found this at a yard sale and he did the right thing and took it home with him. Any idea on an ID for this odd duck? I haven't seen a Pioneer that plays 78s in addition to 33s and 45s, and there is no model number present. Was this possibly a pull from a console?


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That's an idler table that I would like to own. Rebuilt I bet it would sound great.
Pull the main bearing, I'm betting that it uses the same bearing pad as a PL-41 and it's probably bad at this point. You also want to clean and lube the bearings in the motor and see if one of the idler tire guys can recondition the idler wheel.
That table is in pretty good shape, it's worth the trouble of a full rebuild.

BillWojo
 
I'm pretty positive that yours has had a replacement plinth made at some later stage of it's life. I could've been a console model as member stormking has suggested or maybe just someone didn't like the look of the original style plinth and cover that it may've originally had. As many of the early tables had a wood and perspex composite lid and plinth set up which truthfully are rather ugly by today's standards. Your mat has also been changed by probably the person that made the plinth up. I'd say that you are probably the third owner as the second owner was a bit more of a HiFi person and made all the changes from what the original owner had.

Also this model table ran for quite some time and thus there were a few running changes made to it's workings, such as motor for starters. The early ones still had a Fukuin motor fitted. Fukuin was Pioneers original name and as such parts using that name were still used up when the company changed it's identity.

Check out this thread and it will give you a bit more idea.

https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=21213.0

Cheers.

PS. This would've been it's original cabinet it was fitted in, see the ugliness ?

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Sorry, but should've said IMHO about the look of it, but if there's one thing I've learnt and that is the uglier something was back then the more lovely everyone seems to think it looks today.
 
This one looks to have been built in February 1966. There was several plinth styles available, my favorite is the solid clamshell type.
 
that is a very lovely PL7e , it is in its original plinth and that could be its weakest point at this stage; i have 2 of these in the same plinth you have, i upgraded one to a more solid and heavier plinth and it did the trick of improving it.
i then changed the arm an placed an SME 3009 , but i must say that there is nothing wrong with its original tonearm which i think is a work of art and engineering.
you are a lucky man
 
BillWojo said:
That's an idler table that I would like to own. Rebuilt I bet it would sound great.
Pull the main bearing, I'm betting that it uses the same bearing pad as a PL-41 and it's probably bad at this point. You also want to clean and lube the bearings in the motor and see if one of the idler tire guys can recondition the idler wheel.
That table is in pretty good shape, it's worth the trouble of a full rebuild.

BillWojo
Click to expand...
The bearing pad is actually smaller than the PL-41 surprisingly. Here is my PL-7 with the original casing.
 

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eiraved said:
It appears the sides and cover are one hinged unit, making cartridge alignment a little easier.
Click to expand...

Unless you have a need to sight down the cantilever closer to the spindle. Almost impossible to do with the cabinet.
I wouldn't be deterred, if the table is as good as the Pl-6a, it's worth the trouble!
 
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