Homemade Drop Counterweight for Goldring/Rega
Hello All,
I inherited a Goldring GR-1/Rega P1 table with the Goldring Elektra cartridge installed, never used to my knowledge. I noticed weird tracking problems right off of the bat. I installed it while the SME 3012 off of my Thorens TD-125LB was out for rewiring. I saw that the recommended force for that cartridge is at least 2g. With the counterweight all the way forward the max was approx 1-3/4g. Adjusting the antiskate didn't help and the table was level. I started noodling around for a solution and ran across the British XTCW drop counterweight on eBay. I hadn't yet thought of the washer idea that turns out was in a thread way back in 2004. I have that drying as we speak for further experimentation. Anyway, having been impressed by the originality of the XTCW design and seeing the cost of the Michell I thought hard. I took off for Home Depot and bought an assortment of machine bolts and rod coupling nuts. After some experimentation, I superglued a 5/8"/ 15.875 mm (a 1/2"/12.7 mm was too small for the stub) machine nut to a 7/16"/11 mm rod coupling nut. They weigh a total of 94 g with the machine nut 32 g and the underhung coupling nut 62 g. I wrapped the threaded tail piece with masking tape to take up the slack since the machine nut is somewhat too large i.d, and also maybe provide some damping, then threaded the Contraption on until I got a measured downforce of approximately 2-1/8 g. After extensive listening it sounds good and the tracking anomalies are gone. Rock solid imaging. Cost for the project under $10. I might try wrapping the threads with electrical tape since it's softer than the masking tape and maybe a better damper. I also thought of wrapping the stub threads where it connects to the arm with soft plumber's tape to further decouple it. I'd be glad to email a pic of the Contraption to whomever is interested. I've subsequently read all of the threads on drop counterweights, but this is how my journey started.
Regards
I inherited a Goldring GR-1/Rega P1 table with the Goldring Elektra cartridge installed, never used to my knowledge. I noticed weird tracking problems right off of the bat. I installed it while the SME 3012 off of my Thorens TD-125LB was out for rewiring. I saw that the recommended force for that cartridge is at least 2g. With the counterweight all the way forward the max was approx 1-3/4g. Adjusting the antiskate didn't help and the table was level. I started noodling around for a solution and ran across the British XTCW drop counterweight on eBay. I hadn't yet thought of the washer idea that turns out was in a thread way back in 2004. I have that drying as we speak for further experimentation. Anyway, having been impressed by the originality of the XTCW design and seeing the cost of the Michell I thought hard. I took off for Home Depot and bought an assortment of machine bolts and rod coupling nuts. After some experimentation, I superglued a 5/8"/ 15.875 mm (a 1/2"/12.7 mm was too small for the stub) machine nut to a 7/16"/11 mm rod coupling nut. They weigh a total of 94 g with the machine nut 32 g and the underhung coupling nut 62 g. I wrapped the threaded tail piece with masking tape to take up the slack since the machine nut is somewhat too large i.d, and also maybe provide some damping, then threaded the Contraption on until I got a measured downforce of approximately 2-1/8 g. After extensive listening it sounds good and the tracking anomalies are gone. Rock solid imaging. Cost for the project under $10. I might try wrapping the threads with electrical tape since it's softer than the masking tape and maybe a better damper. I also thought of wrapping the stub threads where it connects to the arm with soft plumber's tape to further decouple it. I'd be glad to email a pic of the Contraption to whomever is interested. I've subsequently read all of the threads on drop counterweights, but this is how my journey started.
Regards
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