Linn Bedrok LP12 Plinth Upgrade

@newton_john Your assumption about the Linn training was my assumption too. That was drastically altered once i heard what the new ’fettler’ was able to accomplish with my table. Not that the old tech was bad, just that there were a few things that he obviously did that weren’t 100% correct. Minor detail things that clearly the new ’fettler’ got 100% correct. ( I can’t explain exactly what these were, but the results speak for themselves). Probably this is why folk in the UK seek out the likes of Peter Swain and others of his experience level.

Here in the US, as I alluded to before, these ’fettlers’ are unfortunately a dying breed. Not sure if they are being replaced, but it does not seem so. That is one of the biggest aspects that concerns me going forward with the table, to be very honest.

You question why the table takes a few more sides to come into tune...that is a great question! Maybe it is something like this:

My new ’fettler’ showed me that the oil level in my Karousel bearing was not quite correct, it had oil in it, but not quite enough. So, IOW ( in other words) my old ’fettler’ put in the oil, but didn’t have enough experience to know exactly how much was required. He put enough in to not do damage, but that was not quite correct. Perhaps something like this is occurring with your table?

I had never heard the word "fettler" until reading this thread. I am aware of the term "fettle", as in the term "fine fettle", which I guess means everything is copacetic for that individual or that object. Wikipedia has several disparate definitions for fettler, only one of which seems applicable to the care and feeding of an LP12. See definition #3 here.  And even that definition does not specify that the thing is done well.

Is fettler a term adopted by Linn explicitly to refer to a tech who is qualified to work on the LP12? If so, an inept fettler does not leave your LP12 in fine fettle.

A fettler is a British term for a maintenance or repair worker, or someone who sands or grinds small imperfections from metal or ceramic. 

@daveyf

Thank you.

Just to explain, it wasn’t the same LP12. I sold my original turntable in a fit of madness five years ago. About two years ago I started to have a yearning for vinyl again. My dealer lent me an LP12 that had been traded in. It was essentially the same as my old turntable, except it had Urika II instead of Urika I.

It sounded streets ahead of my old turntable. So eventually after much soul searching, I bought it at a reasonable price. I put the improvement down to the Urika II working so well with my Klimax DSM/3 Hub. In the light of your comments about LP12 fettlers, I do wonder if there might be more to it than that. Of course, there may same other factor in play.

Funny you mention bearing oil. I was just watching a video of Linn’s Gordon Inch building a Bedrok LP12. He adds a few extra drops of oil in the Karousel to get exactly the right level.

I’ll ask my dealer about the warm up time. Now I think about this, it  has been most noticeable since I had Radikal and Karousel upgrades fitted. Also, that coincides with winter.

Linn and its dealers cultivated a mythology about the need for "fettling" of the LP12.

God knows, I fettled enough of them to know, and to curse why the damn thing was so badly designed/toleranced in the first place.