Garrard 301 restore

I looked for a great rebuild of a 301 for many years.

When I finally found a Woodsong 301 in their highest level plinth and $3500 Jelco arm I was v happy to buy it for $5300. You might ask for advise from Woodsong, but Chris Harban is great at what he does and not cheap. But he is a v nice guy and I’m sure will help on the phone.
The original price was $12K. To do one on the cheap is possible, and possible to get pretty good sound. 
I have seen nice plinths on EBay for a few hundred. The Denon 103 is a very good cartridge for the price. You might also look at Grado. A better arm is a good idea.

Do you have a phono stage or preamp with a built in phono? This is probably where the lion’s share of your money goes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=garrard+301+plinth+for+sale&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS675US675&oq=garrard+301+plinth&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i457i512j0i512j0i22i30l3.8372j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

There are a number of plinths on eBay. I would get one with a removable arm board in case you change tonearms. My reason for this is the plinth will be the biggest PITA to sell if you upgrade. So I would plan to not upgrade the plinth later.

I think you should buy plinth in the $800 - $1,000 range. A friend recently bought one and eBay and it was very nice, but not as nice as the ones from Woodsong.

You should spend the least on the cartridge, and maybe tonearm with a plan to upgrade later.

If it all does not fit in your budget keep the existing plinth until you can afford to buy something you will want to keep long term

jperry:

The USA rebuilders I Googled charge $450-$650 plus parts (figure an additional $200-$250 for there/back shipping).

As mentioned, the deck first and then what's leftover for the tonearm.

The OP has a functioning base, which is fine to get it up and running.

I (being a pot licker) would then experiment by "stuffing" the hollow base/plinth with various inserts/layers of plywood, probably using double sided tape in the beginning to hear how the added mass alters the sound.

The use of tape would give it somewhat of a constrained layer, which some seem to prefer in high mass TT plinths, plus it would allow easier experimentation.

DeKay 

@dekay +1

I think my real point, although not well articulated, was don't buy a base that you need to upgrade.

I agree with you, and I am always happy to see another person put a Garrard back in service.

I have one and I am very happy with my Garrard 301.

jperry:

I owned Thorens TD121/TD124 in the late 70's and preferred my TD160's.

This was long before plinths/arm board material was a consideration.

This said, I did like the stock 301 back then, but never found one on the cheap (paid $25-$35 for the Thorens idler/belt jobs @ local house sales).

I used all the decks with SME 3009 II non-improved and 3012 arms (depending upon the base) but even though the older Thorens decks were fuller sounding in the bass/mid-bass they lacked definition there and the mids/highs lacked the reverb quality I got with the 160's.

The TD121/124 were cabinet finds in crappy bases with slide out rails on the bottoms (one was a long base though).

I recall using white glue on the corners of the bases as both were starting to separate/fall a part.

Never heard a "modernized" 121/124/301, but would like to.

DeKay