Hi Judy. I stil play my 78s on it. Sounds wonderful as well. All the best. Nick

I agree. I was suprised how good it sounds, especially as they are supposed to deterioriate over time.

Johnny rowland if u know the model number u can get needles off ebay

Hi The cartridge can be a problem, as the arm is very heavy and the tracking weight needs to be high. You will need to find a Ceramic type I did give a link to a cartridge to an answer lower down this list. Spare parts. I am not sure you can get any. You will have to look for another one to rob the parts. They do come up on Ebay , but not normally cheap ones.

A very good deck. But it suffers the same as all others. The grease hardens and the mechanism starts to seize up. You will have to remove the rotating platter and then clean/lubricate the moving parts that you can see.Use an old toothbrush and clean/lubricate spray. If that does not work, you will have to do the same under the deck. There is a useful instruction sheet , you can download at: www.vinylengine.com/library/garrard/86sb.shtml

+tubeie07 Hi Yes, it is a 240V UK model. It has the original purchase receipt, dated 26th April 1963. I have never seen the extended pusher, but I do have the big round adapter. I still am amazed by the original GC8 cartridge sound quality, as some say the cartridge does not age well. Just needed an original stylus. All the best Nick

+Nick Adams Yes the GC8s don't age well, the crystal inserts fail if not stored well. I restore many Garrards and have only found one working GC8!. Great vids BTW!

Hi Jeff. I have to admit that there was a hole there, but did not have a rubber grommet. So I did enlarge it to take the grommet.

Should have been a factory installed feature. Garrard completely missed the boat on that one.

Hi Gita Do you mean the whole cartridge or just the needle? There are mono and stereo cartridges still available. Some are old stock and some are Chinese copies (not so good). If you want the needle, then they do come up on Ebay. What make of cartidge do you have? Is it the Acos? The Ronette stereo cartridge with the flipover lever on the front, is still available in the USA for only $25. All the best nick

Hi nick, I already reply via google plus to show you some picture, maybe you can reply my message there thanks

Hi Gita Yes, you can get the stereo cartridge here: www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/part_detail.asp?PNumberBase=EV96&SearchType=MfgNameCartridges&MfgName=Ronette&Categories=

Hi. Playing stereo records with a mono stylus does no damage, in my experience. But the tracking weight force can be quite high on old players, and with worn needles could cause some wear. The LP is a test record that is already well worn. I would be more careful with prized records. The History of Garrard is well documented on a site: A Brief History of the Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company They state that the first deck called "Garrard Number 1" was made in 1918

@@nickadams5411 hhhhhhmmmm.....interesting! I mean stereo records released during the 60s always say that these stereo records should only be played using stereo needles and cartridges as mono cartridges and needles does not move side to side only up and down....I guess it's all marketing ploy...

@@bpabustan Hi. They are referring to the stereo sound will not be correct , as you say, since the needle and cartridge will only read the up and down movement, which will be a combination of the width and depth of the groove. More importantly a mono record should not be played with a stereo needle, as the tip is normally smaller than the mono tip, and so will drop to the bottom of the groove where more dirt and imperfections are present, so the sound will probably have distortion and noise. Also the larger tip of a mono needle will ride closer to the surface and may be prone to skipping on fine groove stereo records.The needle itself will not cause any damage to the record, unless the playing weight is excessively heavy.

@@nickadams5411 ooooohhh. Ok I get it. So how about those recently reissued mono recordings? Does the same principles apply? As you stated mono records should not be played with a stereo needle. Like those recent Robert Johnson reissues and the latest Good Vibrations single reissue - all in mono.

@@bpabustan You can use a stereo needle, but you need to sum the left and right channel for best result. They may be cutting the new mono records with finer grooves to stop the narrow tip stereo needles dropping to the bottom of the groove. New Mono cartridges often are stereo ones that have the coils joined to make a mono output, and then just fit a larger tip mono needle.

Hi I see the M3D was designed to track up to 6gm, but a low tracking force is not advised with this arm, which is very stiff (low compliance) Tracking at 4.75gm will not cause any damage. Test on records show no discernible audio degredation after playing records for hundreds of times. at these tracking forces, which are not that heavy. It may skip on a warped record, but so would a low playing weight.

Thanks: I can now rest assured that I am not causing damage to my old mono LPs by tracking at 4.75 grams. One more question for you. My Type A (identical to yours here) does have a habit every so often of skipping when an LP is just 20 seconds or so from the end of the side. Shall I assume this is an issue with the trip mechanism? Have you seen this before?

Hi I think your're right about the trip mechanism. have you made sure it is not sticking?

Hi-- I have determined that it is not an issue with the records. When the skipping happens, it is invariably with only @20 seconds left. A particular record may "skip" continuously like this one day on this turntable, but it will play through with no problem the next day. Any suggestion as to how I may remedy the problem? Cheers.

Hi The auto trip mecahnism is very sensitive and may need cleaning/adjusting. You will have to remove the turntable and then adjust: Go to the Service Manual and look at Autotrip adjustment.: www.vinylengine.com/library/garrard/type-a.shtml

No.

This record changer spindle is soposed to be that shape

The output wires from the cartridge will be mono. so only one input on your amp (left or right). Ground green will normally be connected to the chassis of the amp. The other connections can be connected either way around to the phono plug. The phono plug outer may be connected to chassis on the amp, so it will then connect to the green wire. If you get hum, try disconnecting the green from the chassis, as you may have a ground connection to the deck via its mains plug.