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Technics Table, cueing won't lift...

bystander

bystander

Active Member
I have a 1200 MkII and a 1210 MkII, and just recently picked up a nice 1500 MkII. Like the 1200 and 1210, the 1500 is also fully manual.

On the 1500, the cueing lever moves up and down freely but the cueing function itself is not working. The cueing piece that actually lifts the tonearm does not move at all.

Is this repairable?
 
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The cuing fluid has hardened. The arm needs to be removed to get the cuing mechanism apart. Clean the old junk out then use a silicone grease or dampening fluid to replace it. Don't use too much or it won't cue down!
 
yes it is BUT it's very expensive to do as the part that needs to be replaced was a bad design and the arm section where that part is located is a pain in the arse to get at. Turntablefactory use to do a permenant repair on those you could e-mail them to see if they still do it, but be prepaired to pay at least 150 to get it done. My best advice would be, to use the table as is or replace the arm as that is the one thing that is nice about those, the arm is replaceable.
 
Sorry i missed understood your question but at least you know down the road the part that engages the cuing will in the future break as it does on all of those. Ok I went back and reread your question sounds to me like your problem is my firts response.
 
On the Technics 1300-1500 mk2 series there is a part buried pretty deep in the mechanism that failed due to a design flaw. There was only ever 1 guy I heard of that could fix these- Joel at The Turntable Factory. He passed away and I don't know if his helper can do it or not. He's not doing many repairs these days anyway. So in answer to your question about if it can be fixed- basically, no. It's a shame, cause those were pretty nice tables.

I had my 1300mk2 repaired by Joel before he left us, but now it has 2 issues- the damping in the cue has gone away somewhere and I have low output in the left channel, which I can't figure out.

The only way to use your 1500 is by total manual operation of the tonearm. Sorry I don't have better news for you.
 
stuckinthe70s said:
On the Technics 1300-1500 mk2 series there is a part buried pretty deep in the mechanism that failed due to a design flaw. There was only ever 1 guy I heard of that could fix these- Joel at The Turntable Factory. He passed away and I don't know if his helper can do it or not. He's not doing many repairs these days anyway. So in answer to your question about if it can be fixed- basically, no. It's a shame, cause those were pretty nice tables.

I had my 1300mk2 repaired by Joel before he left us, but now it has 2 issues- the damping in the cue has gone away somewhere and I have low output in the left channel, which I can't figure out.

The only way to use your 1500 is by total manual operation of the tonearm. Sorry I don't have better news for you.
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That was pointed out to him two posts above. Not picking at your post or reply just seems like there are a lot of repeat posts covering the same topic.
 
I have studied the tonearm blowup diagrams on the SL1500 and SL1500MkII. The MkII is much more complicated than the MkI. It really takes a lot of things to be removed (and no less than 3 springs) before the cueing lever is accessible. I guess there is probably plastic where brass should have been used.

I would really like to find such a faulty tonearm to fix.
 
SaSi said:
I have studied the tonearm blowup diagrams on the SL1500 and SL1500MkII. The MkII is much more complicated than the MkI. It really takes a lot of things to be removed (and no less than 3 springs) before the cueing lever is accessible. I guess there is probably plastic where brass should have been used.

I would really like to find such a faulty tonearm to fix.
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Yes the part is plastic and technics discovered it in early production that is was bad. The piece they replaced it with was just as bad.
If you go to turntablefactory site it shows and explains just what it is.
 
Ok, making a mistake isn't that bad. Finding out about it soon enough is good. Correcting it with another mistake, well that's plain stupid.
 
Wow, thanks everyone for your replies and advice. I figured this would be just an easy fix but I see this problem is near legendary!

Thanks for the reference to The Turntable Factory, I just read the "manifesto" on this particular issue. No contact info there (or none that I can see), and it looks like the successors to Joel will continue to work on Technics tables but only very selectively. Anyone know how to contact them to see if they could take this one on?
 
bystander, buying another TT would probably be far less costly than paying someone to fix yours. These services don't come cheep. And the cost of 2way shipping with built-in damage risk. Unless you are a 'money-is-no-object' kinda guy. Then gofur-it.
Just something to think about.
 
I looked into fixing my SL-1300MK2 but was looking at over 175.00. I will say even with no cueing, this is my favorite table :)
 
Stanton681EEES said:
That was pointed out to him two posts above. Not picking at your post or reply just seems like there are a lot of repeat posts covering the same topic.
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I didn't intend to repeat what others had already told him, however in looking at the post times of your's and mine, they are roughly the same. Yours weren't there when I started typing.
 
Just replace the arm. As I said it's what's nice about those, in fact the SL150MKII which is your table with out an arm were quite popular in the UK with an SME arm.
 
Stanton681EEES said:
Just replace the arm. As I said it's what's nice about those, in fact the SL150MKII which is your table with out an arm were quite popular in the UK with an SME arm.
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I agree with John. It's already manual so it's not like you're losing automation. A new SL-1200MK2 arm only costs about $65 and comes with the helicoid VTA adjustment.

Of course, having grown up with cheap, old tts without cueing I got used to not using it. Use your pinky to stabilize your hand and you can manually cue.
 
That's probably the best idea, just swap out the whole piece for a new Technics arm and related cueing mechanism.

The 1500 MkII is so gol-danged purrrty, it'll be worth the effort and a lot more affordable than the surgery described on the turntable factory site. I'll check it out and report back!
 
You can get mounting plates i believe for rega arms the Linn arms SME arms do a google search as there is a lot of info on those tables or arms. If you would opt for a 1200 arm be aware you will also have to but the base and parts associated with it.
 
I agree with Hakaplan's suggestion of manual cuing; it's just too easy once you get used to it, as I did years ago on a Thorens. And, it's free.
 
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