technic 1200 repair question

keithvanhorn

a year ago i accidently pulled too hard on the rca cables and dislodged them. i got it repaired but even when it came back from the shop, i still had to twist the cables a little (actually just the white one) in order to get a signal going in Microwave. anyway, now it doesn't work at all. is it possible that there is an internal problem or did the repair guy just not get it done right? i hope its the latter, but i assume its a bigger issue because how hard can it be to attach an rca?

TheBeatGoes

i need to figure out how to solder on my own cables, i paid some good $$$ to a repair shop a year ago and still have problems with a channel shorting out once in a while.

also, could i file another 1200 question in this post:

does anyone know a place online that sells the type of 90 degree screwdrivers that are the right size for installing a new tone-arm clamp. i tried to support local businesses and they just sent me to radioshack.

volumen

It's actually pretty tricky work since the cables are attached directly to the circiut board and there is not much space between the right and left attachment points on the board. It's pretty easy to get too much solder on there and make the 2 points connect. If you feel qualified I would pull everything apart and check the guys work. Or just take it back and have him re-do it.

residentgiant

I bought a used pair of 1200's back in college for $400, only to discover somebody had done some shoddy repair work on one of them and wired the RCA's out of phase. Took me a while to figure out why one table had such shitty bass response.
I was taking a class on studio-repair at the time, and ended up replacing the RCA's, the sketchy european power cord, the cue light, and taking the little "zero click" bearing out of the pitch slider. It's not that hard once you get comfortable with a soldering iron, and satisfying to know you can fix shit yourself and save some money on repairs.

eliminate the fear, open up the gear.

bthav

It's actually pretty tricky work since the cables are attached directly to the circiut board and there is not much space between the right and left attachment points on the board. It's pretty easy to get too much solder on there and make the 2 points connect. If you feel qualified I would pull everything apart and check the guys work. Or just take it back and have him re-do it.

small soldering tip + flat head screw driver helps keep solder in the right place on a circ board. but kvh:

all you need to do is cut the rca ends off and replace em (IMO). google soildering RCA connectors and that should hook u up.


or wait for electrode to chim in for a second opinion.

JimBeam

KVH- it doesn't sound like the guy replaced the cables at all, just resoldered them inside the turntable, which is crap. If you're having to jiggle the connection at all to get a signal, you need to replace the cable entirely. It's actually a pretty straightforward repair, the one thing you do have to look out for is not getting too much solder on the leads, because of the aforementioned signal crossing. One problem I've seen is that people neglect to use the clamp on the cord which bolts into a circular sheet metal housing. The little plastic clamp is ESSENTIAL, because it, and not the solder, is what holds the cord in place. If the clamp is missing the bottom half (it's two parts), replace it. Another thing people do is replace the cables with huge, super-insulated cords from a stereo supply place, which is totally unnecessary, and renders the clamp useless.

The main tip I tell anybody who tries this repair (I've done a ton of them for people) is get one of the little suction devices to suck up the old solder as you heat it, and remove the old cord. You want the pc-board totally clean for your new wires... Those pc boards are cheap, and easy to replace too, so if any of the coating is flaking from cord-pulling or shitty previous repairs, replace it. You can get any of the parts you need from labcabin or 1200s.com, (you don't need the $30 technics RCA cable though, that's horseshit, a cheapie works fine.)

This whole thing shouldn't cost you more than $15 if you've got a soldering iron laying around. Holler if you've got any questions.

JimBeam

does anyone know a place online that sells the type of 90 degree screwdrivers that are the right size for installing a new tone-arm clamp. i tried to support local businesses and they just sent me to radioshack.

Look in your yellow pages for 'electrician supply', it's a pretty specialized screwdriver when it gets that small. Radioshack online sells stuff like that, too.

Honestly- superglue works great, and if you break another clamp in the future, use a syringe or dropper to drop some nail polish remover into the screw hole to loosen up the glue, and replace again. You'll spend more time trying to get that screwdriver than it's worth.

djkingotto

It's actually pretty tricky work since the cables are attached directly to the circiut board and there is not much space between the right and left attachment points on the board. It's pretty easy to get too much solder on there and make the 2 points connect. If you feel qualified I would pull everything apart and check the guys work. Or just take it back and have him re-do it.

small soldering tip + flat head screw driver helps keep solder in the right place on a circ board. but kvh:

all you need to do is cut the rca ends off and replace em (IMO). google soildering RCA connectors and that should hook u up.


or wait for electrode to chim in for a second opinion.

its actually pretty easy. i've replaced mine several times throughout the years. but yeah, the tricky part to it is keeping the solder for the two seperate channels from touching. once you do it you'll be pissed that you paid someone else to....

i'm thinking about just putting an RCA jack on the back of my 12's so instead of taking it apart to replace the worn cables, i can just buy a new RCA to RCA and plug that sucker in!