RexBlog

Layers of 20mm or 25mm mdf with solid walnut cladding.

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And we are off. I see a clear path with respects to what I want to do with this Lenco deck, and the answer is NOTHING! Well, I'm going very sympathetically restore the deck. This deck is only several weeks older than myself and I just couldn't possibly butcher the thing. It's a bit tatty in places but it's in very good order. I've noticed a few parts missing but I think I have these in storage and the rest should be very easily fixed. Presently the deck sits in quite a flimsy compressed wood plinth with a very flimsy 3mm hardboard base, it's teak veneered (very 70's) with a few scuffs. The base is a matt black colour with some scuffs and some glue marks. The top plate has a few very small areas of pitting. The tonearm is pitted and the back end is broken. I've not even got the thing spinning yet! I've done some very basic restoration work today. I cleaned the rubber platter mat and the rubber plinth feet with Autoglym rubber restorer and they have come up looking very nice.

The tonearm counter weight and slider weight have a very high gloss chrome finish, this was pitted, so today I have polished them both and results are acceptable for the moment, needless to say they will get more attention. And that dear friends is about as far I have got today. It's a slow burn process which I'll do in my spare time. I'm now in a quandry in I want to keep the deck as stock as possible. I'm not going to change any of the wiring other than the mains lead which needs to be properly earthed. I'll service the bearing and maybe the tonearm as well. We shall see!

The back end had been smashed in. The whole point of this experiment is to try and reproduce as close as possible how a stock GL75 would jave sounded in 1973 (when I was born). A smashed plinth is not going to achive this. So, after a little wood glue and a few clamps we have this.


The underside of the plinth is still a very very clean and tidy black, I'll not be respraying this, there is no need, the paintwork is excellent. I have bought some Teak oil. I did manage to oil the plinth and this is now how it looks.


The rubber grommets which help protect the GL75 form vibration are knackered. Here we can see them removed from the deck and are very badly mishapen. The good news is that I have ordered a replacement set from Sweden! These Swedish grommets are about as close as your going to get to the originals.

Gee thanks!

1. The platter has had a little polish. It's still not great and is a work in progress. I'll polish it a little every day or so until I'm happy with the finish. OK this is not strictly going to improve the performance of the deck but it sure looks nice!

2. Speed selector replacement. This deck had no speed selector and luckily I managed to find a fully intact one in my spares, so whilst not original to this deck it's colour perfect for the year the deck was made.

3. The platter mat. This was filthy, so the disc has been polished and the mat has been cleaned and treated to some Autoglym rubber repair.

4. The top plate. The paint work has been T-cut a couple of times and now shines, I notice a couple of bubbles under the paintwork but I like these and are part of the decks history. I polished the metal trim on the top plates base, again very dirty but now just looks factory fresh.

5. The bias weight. The screw was missing from the bias weight and a really helpful LH member sent me a replacement.

6. I've polished the counterweights on the tonerarm.

So, a few things still need doing. The tonearm needs a little cleaning and overhauling, new "V" blocks, better grounding wire, etc. The motor needs stripping and overhauling. I need to install new power cable, and a few other bits and bobs. Slow and steady wins the race.  I've now been told that my speed selector knob is not the correct vintage, so it looks like I will be looking out for a new knob (fnarrr)!

Stay tuned.

Things have been bubbling along nicely with this project, I see the project is getting a fair amount of interest with about 5K reads over the last few weeks. That's pretty good going. One of the great bonuses of being an audio nut is having bits and pieces from other projects kicking around your loft / garage / workshop or whatever. For me it's been a quick rummage in the attic and the garage. In the loft I managed to find two heavy platters from the original Reference Lenco project and some platter damping rings. The garage yielded a nice solid copper / gold plated IEC for the power supply. I did buy a motor from a famous auction site for <£25 delievered, it remains as yet untested. Looks like a bought a bit of a duffer. The motor splindle has signs of rust which isn't a great start but this does not worry me as I know this can be polished and usually made better than factory spec once properly you've gone through all the various grades of wet and dry. The motor also needs some springs so I shall see if I have a spare set in the spares box in the garage, I think I might be lucky! I also have a bearing which will need a full service and shall be used to get the PTP Lenco working, it will probably be changed for something better but it's a start! This could be my fun little project over the next few days after work, maybe modding the bearing.




The first decision has been made about the design of the PTP Lenco and this is if the PTP is going to be sitting flush with the top surface of the plinth which will mean a messing about with a router is shall I just mount it screwed directly to the plinth. Errrmmm, it's getting screwed, or maybe bolted. I haven't decided yet. I'll probably go down the route bolt/washer to make the interface bewteen plinth and PTP as bonded as possible. I did something similar to my Garrard 301 plinth that I designed and I think I got pretty good results with that. So that's actually, possibly, two decision made !?! Now the other side of the experiment, the stock lenco has recieved very little attention. I was going to fit a better power cable this week but just jad no time. I did polish the underside of the platter a little to try and remove 50 years worth of rubber. The picture dosen't really show much progress but I can tell you that it does look a lot better compared to when I first purchased the deck. As ever, slow and steady wins the race with this project, you have to remember I'm doing two Lenco's up at the same time. Anyway, here's a rather uninspiring picture of the underside of the platter.


Well that's about it for this week so stay tuned.

And here we are after a bit of butchery. A proof of concept if you like to see if this will work.




The WBT's are a bit big and will require some re-spacing. I need to re-cut and re-do the plastic mount but it's a slow-blow project so I'm happy with the way things are going. There is no turning back now as I de-soldered all the tonearm wiring from the old SME tonearm cable mount. I'm also going to get the 3009 rewired in silver. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve for the MONO setup, as always these things cost money but that's ok, it's a hobby and I get immense enjoyment from silly projects like this.

Now the 301 infrastructure has had the benefit of Stack Audio footers for a few weeks, I've managed to secure a little more time with these. I will at some point have to re-install all my Townshend stuff and then do a comparison to see if my original thoughts on the benefits of Stack footers actually stack up (sorry for that)! The Paradise is stilll having a holiday in Sheffield being repaired and upgraded. I must say that the Paradise that I borrowed is indeed better than the one I own and I've asked for the upgrades to go ahead. Well I think that's it, so STAY TUNED....

The 301 project is stuck in limbo but plenty of progress has been made. The biggest problem has been finding the bits and pieces needed for the vision that I had for the 301. I will post some pictures tomorrow with some cool new bits and bobs. Presently my SME 3009 is having a holiday up in Glasgow and is been rewired with silver, having new uprated bearings fitted and, a RCA conversion and a lovely new tonearm ground wire made up. I can't reall do much more now until this arrives. I do have a modifcation to make to the plinth to accomodate the newly modded 3009 but that can wait until I get the arm back. My new slider counterweight has arrived from Steve, THANKS STEVE! Finally, this things crops up from Bulgaria.

A new idler wheel! I have an after market AudioSilente idler wheel fitted to my 401. I have tried the AudioSilente idler wheel in my 301 and it didn't sound as good as the original so out it came. Now, do I purchase this as a thing to play around with over Xmas? I'm not really sure. I will have a think about this over the weekend.

As ever stay tuned...

SUNDAY NIGHT - UPDATE NIGHT!


No pictures tonight, just some thoughts. I've not recieved my 3009 back yet but my thoughts have already started to think about upgrades and possiblt a third tonearm for the 3001. I'm thinking maybe a dedicated valve mono phonostage and possibly a SUT for the MONO cartridges. I'd possibly go for a MONO 12" Bockrand tonearm but this is a big NO-NO for me due to the problems and amount of time it seems to purchase and deliver one of these tonearms. I also started to look at dedicated MONO phonostages and have probably opened a real can of worms. I don't know if I'm ever going to upgrade from Ortofon MONO as I think this seems to be the sweetspot for me, so potentially I might try another 3012 or even go for another tonearm altogether, maybe a different brand! I know that Ortofon produce a MONO SUT for the current MONO SPU's, so this might be worth a try as well. I will have to make a mountable outrigger for my latest plinth design, again, a bit of fun should I decide to go down the three arm route. Going down the three arm route means my 3009 could just be used for vintage MM's and this would also stop me having to faff around changing headshells. Expensive but you only live once! Another option is to forsake the option of a specific MONO only phonostage and just simply use the second input into my EAR 834 clone and a "Y" spliiter to create MONO. I have a MONO switch installed on the EAR834 so this could be a cheaper alternative. Decisions, decisions!

I'm thinking that there is probably (for the time being) not really a great deal left that I can do to this 301. A new idler wheel for the far east is a possibility. A new plinth design which will incorperate the decoupled motor design and maybe three tonearms. Each tonearm does something different, one for SPU'S, one for MONO duties and one for vintage MM experimentation. Plinth material is always a comical debate, I have considered by some Cherry wood and maybe trying something like a Shindo build but then you would also need the modded platter, bearing, tonearm and SPU for it to sound anything like a Shindo . IPE is probably going to be the way ahead should I undertake such a task. Working with IPE or Panzerholz isn't difficult but you do need specific tools which can handle the hardness of these materials, so you have to factor in the expense associated with this task. Such a task may results in a plinth which could be enstage with respects to material selection.

Stay tuned!

Not yet! I've not had chance to get the thing mounted yet and I would like to try it on my 3009!