Mystery Turntables Sugden & Garrard

[The SGD]

greetings, i have for your perusal two items of interest.

firstly a sugden connoisseur disc cutter (??) with a mystery leak tonearm

secondly a garrard 401 turntable with a mystery tonearm (no marks i can see but a decca headshell.

info on the sugden cutter plus both tonearms would be appreciated.

please send me a pm or reply here (or both!) if you know any of the items intimately.

 

[REDone]

Amazing Sugden Photos

I know nothing except it is a true museum piece - Sugden was involved in pioneering stereo recording techniques. The British Museum may have his papers.

How come you got this? Source ?

 

[Zodia]

WOW, museum piece indeed, where did you unearth that relic?

 

[Beobloke]

Blimey - the Sugden is rather impressive! The arm on that is the 'Leak Dynamic Pickup and Arm' which dates from the early 1950s - it gets a mention on the bottom of this page here - http://44bx.com/leak/Leak/products.html


The arm on the Garrard is one of the versions of the Decca FFSS arm that matches the pickup heads.

Where did you stumble on these beauties?

 

[Nat]

Hope you have the platter for the Garrard. Great table, and the Decca, if in good shape will astound you if you have never heard one before -- that astonishment may be both good and bad because within their tracking limits they are absolutely wonderful, but beyond that, they are horrible, rather like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead.

 

[The SGD]

hello all, thank you for the info, i got a bunch of decca ffss cartirdges with the garrard too which i shall photograph.

my brother picked these up in an auction, not pictured is the platter for the garrard and a clear plastic hose for the sugden.

along with it came a leak varislope 2 stereo preamp, a pair of leak 25+ tube amps, a coles vintage microphone, vintage mono headphones and a whole bundle of LPs. get the impression an old collector died and the family wanted to sell up. the garrard, amps and LPs all came in a leak made cabinet which must have cost a fortune.

 

[Big Bill]

... I got a bunch of decca ffss cartirdges with the garrard too which i shall photograph.

 

[Nat]

A bunch of FFSS cartridges -- what a haul!
While the later London series incorporated some improvements, the stamped sheet metal bodies they were in were so resonant and non rigid that they really didn't represent a step forward -- note that the current (and staggeringly expensive) Deccas have solid bodies like the FFSS series. I'd look very carefully at those FFSSs and consider having one rebuilt with new stylus.

 

[The SGD]

additional pics as promised

any info on the decca cartridges would be welcome, they all have ffss on cases with roman numerals visible on some and different color decca badges on the top.

 

[Redboy]

Wow.

Just wow.

 

[The SGD]

does anyone know what the different colour decca badges on the cartridges mean?

i assume the roman numerals denote their mark.

i think zodia is right in that the sudgen may find itself donated to a collector as it is a big bu**er. thankfully i have a old boy electrician on call who puts the I in enthusiast (his misses recently demanded that atleast the spare shower room be cleared of vintage hifi LOL!) and he has everything going back to the 60s so hopefully should help me get this lot up and running.

some of the LPs are quite tasty stuff (like a mint cheerping crickets record made before buddy holly became the headline act) and i cant wait to listen to them through the system.

 

[REDone]

You may find The British Science Museum could be interested in the Sugden (or any other science museum)

 

[thilaseen]

I have an Australian built Orpheus Silex TT, 1959 vintage I think) which came fitted with a Decca London tonearm and ffss cart (plus a spare) and I think it's the most detailed and revealing setup I've heard. I can't squeeze it into my normal setup unless I build a new plinth and I'm not sure about that. :scratch2:
The Orpheus in apparently in the same or similar mould to the Garrard 301.
One cart has a red bottom and is No. D8098
and the other is cream bottom and No. D15873
and FWIW I can't pick and difference between them.

 

[Nat]

Not to state the obvious, but the double circle and the ffss both mean stereo. I believe the colors distinguish styus sized for 78s or for microgroove.

 

[The SGD]

just as a follow up for future reference,

red badge= mono
green badge= 78
arm is a decca professional mk1 (note the weight on the arm and notches)

john wright united kingdom (01746 761739) can service these cartridges.