Roksan Tabriz Tonearm - Height Adjustment Question

[malruax]

Hello All,

I wonder if a Tabriz tonearm owner might give me some advice.

In recent times I purchased a Roksan Xerxes turntable with a Tabriz tonearm and immediately noticed that the arm was not parallel to the platter in operation. The obvious step would be to adjust the height but when it came to unlocking the collar to adjust the height it would not budge.

When I looked closer it appears (I may be wrong!) that somewhere along the way the collar may have been glued to the tonearm flange for some unknown reason. I drew a scalpel between the collar and flange and there is some substance there which has made the collar immovable.

Am I missing something here? If so, how on earth would one separate the collar from the flange? I am posting a couple of images to show the problem.

Luis

 

[lazycat]

You're not missing anything.

It's been glued for whatever bizarre reason. Some careful work is needed to unglue it.

Worth the effort, IMO. I have used mine for 7 years - a substantial upgrade over a fettled/improved RB300.

 

[Fishead]

Hello @malruax and welcome to AK!

Hard to say, but perhaps some heat (think heat gun or hair dryer) applied right there where you see what looks like glue will allow it to move and then be taken apart for a more thorough cleaning. I suspect tonearm wiring will be present inside that column, so a very careful and gentle hand will be needed to do no harm. One wonders why the glue was applied in the first place, i.e. what it was intended to "fix" and if that condition might then present once more. In any case, even if it should, I suspect there will be a more appropriate way to address what is wrong. Good luck and let us know how it goes amigo.

PS - I'm not at all familiar with this arm, but I see that there are two allen set screws. Have you loosened both? Just a thought.....

 

[lazycat]

One wonders why the glue was applied in the first place, i.e. what it was intended to "fix" and if that condition might then present once more.

Aye. The only reason I could think of was something wrong with the grub screw. But one would imagine that it's an easy replacement.

That or some audiophool idea of increasing rigidity....

 

[malruax]

You're not missing anything.

It's been glued for whatever bizarre reason. Some careful work is needed to unglue it.

Worth the effort, IMO. I have used mine for 7 years - a substantial upgrade over a fettled/improved RB300.

Many thanks. Such a puzzling thing to do as it made the set up virtually impossible.

 

[malruax]

Hello @malruax and welcome to AK!

Hard to say, but perhaps some heat (think heat gun or hair dryer) applied right there where you see what looks like glue will allow it to move and then be taken apart for a more thorough cleaning. I suspect tonearm wiring will be present inside that column, so a very careful and gentle hand will be needed to do no harm. One wonders why the glue was applied in the first place, i.e. what it was intended to "fix" and if that condition might then present once more. In any case, even if it should, I suspect there will be a more appropriate way to address what is wrong. Good luck and let us know how it goes amigo.

PS - I'm not at all familiar with this arm, but I see that there are two allen set screws. Have you loosened both? Just a thought.....

I will try a little heat. Thanks for the tip!

 

[malruax]

Aye. The only reason I could think of was something wrong with the grub screw. But one would imagine that it's an easy replacement.

That or some audiophool idea of increasing rigidity....

I did wonder that it might have suffered during the 80's when people were epoxying cartridges to the headshells for more rigidity!