Working on a philco L-1427-124 no audio orignally.

restored the amplifier circuit, whats wierd, it has power tubes only. no preamp on this amplifier. im guessing its a high gain high impedence crystal pickup?

Anyway... after restoring the amp, verifying all wire connections, the amp works, but its got almost like a ground fault like noise in the speaker, and no audio comming through at all.

Removed the turntable, and hooked the RCA connections to the amp into a CD player. buzz went away, however audio is extremely weak, which is probably normal since theres no pre-amp circuit. just a power stage, thats it.

Anyway, does this mean the pickup is bad? it has 4 wires, stereo pickup, i cant get a reading on any pins between any pins in any direction. so im assuming its bad.

If so, where can i get schematics or a new pickup for this unit? its sentimental. thanks.

Those single tube amps without a preamp use a high output (around 3 volts) crystal cartridge. There is a very good chance that it's bad. The low output of the amp while connected to a CD player is normal. The CD player kicks out not over 1 volt output, which is not enough to drive the amplifier.

yea thats what I figured.

anywhere to get a new cartridge?

Try these folks. Get all the numbers off your Philco and off of the cartridge and contact them. Should be able to help.

Reece

http://www.canadianastatic.com/

Only problem with getting the stylus cartridge out and read its numbers, is there is a little set-screw that goes inside of the flip handle, that flips the cartridge around, has 2 needles. one on each side, guess one does 78s, and the other does 33-45

I cant get the set screw out to remove the cart, i stripped it. dunno what to do now. hehe.

May have to go buy a fine drill bit and drill out the screw. The new cartridge will have the flipper knob and all, anyway.

Reece

May have to go buy a fine drill bit and drill out the screw. The new cartridge will have the flipper knob and all, anyway.

Reece

Assuming i can find the cartridge, they dont list it on thier site. so i just emailed in the model numbers.

the whole cartridge flips around to play between 78 and 33/45 instead of just the needle. I havent seen one like that before. has needle installed on both sides of the cart.

but ill try using a dremel.

It also looks like I am going to have to re-grease everything. when the mechanics of the record changer kicks in, the turntable stops. I have to "push" the table while the mechanics are changing the record. othewise the table will stop spinning. once the mechanics get done, the table spins fine.

It also looks like I am going to have to re-grease everything. when the mechanics of the record changer kicks in, the turntable stops. I have to "push" the table while the mechanics are changing the record. othewise the table will stop spinning. once the mechanics get done, the table spins fine.

You need a new idler wheel. That's what drives or runs the whole mechanism. Sometimes a good cleaning can revive the old rubber idler surface for a while, but the best solution is a nice new idler wheel with fresh rubber. You can try this site: http://www.kenselectronics.com/lists/phonodrive.htm
They have a pretty good selection and if they don't have it, they can custom make a new wheel surface on your old one. Good Luck! Bob

ok, thanks man. ill see what i can dig up. First comes first, i gotta see if i can get the high output cartridge. otherwise, ill have to use a pre-amp and a standard magnetic type retrofitted in the tonearm

You may be able to get the cartridge rebuilt and new needles installed at West-Tech Services in Ohio.

http://www.west-techservices.com/

He may be able to resurface your idler wheel too.

--Bob

Another possibility: there may be a Ronette cartridge that will work here. They made some high-output cartridges that flipped over with needles on each side the way you described. Whichever cartridge vendor you choose may be able to cross-reference.

Reece

ok, thanks for the advice guys. ill see what i can come up with.