Vinyl Technical Difficulties

[andydanger85]

Good afternoon;

I've got an older turntable - a Sony that used to be my grandfather's (it's from the 80's, I think). The only issue I've ever dealt with regarding my turntable is replacing the needle a few years ago. The other day, I went to sample my copy of LOTGA and the tone arm skated across the entire record. I tried another side - same thing. 

Okay, maybe it is the record, I thought. I put on a Sigur Ros vinyl that I have played without issue many, many times and had the same problem. Any idea what could be wrong and what I'd need to do to fix it?

Edited March 14, 2016 by andydanger85

[Guest Idioteque]

Does your tonearm have any knobs for calibrating or is it the straight forward "pick up & drop"?

 

Look up: "Turntable anti-skating"

 

It's common. You'll need to buy a special tonearm for this, something with a bit more weight to it.

 

I'd suggest using a really crappy record you don't care about & an old needle that's still decent, press down gently on the arm & see if it plays. Also the needle you have in now might be shit so the arm just shoots across the record, mine does that sometimes.

 

But if it's constantly skating even after everything then it could be something wrong inside of the record player which would suck.

[andydanger85]

Does your tonearm have any knobs for calibrating or is it the straight forward "pick up & drop"?

 

Look up: "Turntable anti-skating"

 

It's common. You'll need to buy a special tonearm for this, something with a bit more weight to it.

 

I'd suggest using a really crappy record you don't care about & an old needle that's still decent, press down gently on the arm & see if it plays. Also the needle you have in now might be shit so the arm just shoots across the record, mine does that sometimes.

 

But if it's constantly skating even after everything then it could be something wrong inside of the record player which would suck.

Cool, thanks very much. I will try that with an older record, good suggestion! It's always been a bit possessed. I've gone through phases where it does something weird and then just stops....

 

It does have a calibration knob, but adjusting it isn't doing too much right now!

[andydanger85]

Does your tonearm have any knobs for calibrating or is it the straight forward "pick up & drop"?

 

Look up: "Turntable anti-skating"

 

It's common. You'll need to buy a special tonearm for this, something with a bit more weight to it.

 

I'd suggest using a really crappy record you don't care about & an old needle that's still decent, press down gently on the arm & see if it plays. Also the needle you have in now might be shit so the arm just shoots across the record, mine does that sometimes.

 

But if it's constantly skating even after everything then it could be something wrong inside of the record player which would suck.

UPDATE:

 

After maddening investigations, the anti-skate was loose and kept moving out of position  :colbert:

[Guest Idioteque]

Haha glad to hear it's working now at least! My record player actually just gave its last spin last night, couldn't handle Metallica. So I'm excited to go shopping for a brand new player sometime next month. 

[andydanger85]

Haha glad to hear it's working now at least! My record player actually just gave its last spin last night, couldn't handle Metallica. So I'm excited to go shopping for a brand new player sometime next month. 

Haha exactly ... what matters is that it works.