Vintage turntable playing like it used to

While doing some business at Wonderland Records I had a good conversation with the owner about vintage audio equipment. He gave me Bryan’s card in case I would need any repairs. Little did I know I would. I had recently played Best of BTO, in vinyl, on my 1976 semi-automatic Fisher turntable.
I loaded up the CD changer with the recently purchased same CD and noticed quite a difference in the playback speed. The TT had apparently slowed down. The turntable also had a growl coming from the spindle bearing and the 40+ year old cartridge probably needed replacing. I had been considering a new TT but now it looked liked I really should get one. I found out that to replace mine with one of equal quality would be very expensive. So I gave Bryan a call.

I had a good conversation with him and he explained that my TT would be worth repairing and would continue to play well if serviced. Bryan was also knowledgeable about cartridges and we discussed an appropriate replacement. In about a week he replaced the cartridge and drive belt and lubricated as needed.

First thing I checked upon hooking it back up was the spindle bearing – silence! Next I cued up Queen’s “Keep Yourself Alive”, a very dynamic recording. The old Bose speakers about blew me out of the room. The new cartridge had great stereo separation and sound fidelity! Finally I did a speed test with the TT vs CD player using the Best of BTO album in both formats. Speeds were nearly identical! A new belt and lube did wonders for the slow speed.

I am really glad Bryan saved me from replacing a perfectly good vintage turntable. Cost was reasonable and turnaround quick.