Turntable purchase advice sought

@lewm Price is $1K and mods are as follows:

Linn mount (Silver color) and SME Tonearm armboards Technics SL-1200, SL-1210, SL-1200GAE, SL-1200G - black - dave-cawley - retail for $133 each
MCRU Linear Power Supply for Technics SL1200/1210 Linear Power Supply | STEP2 - retail for $340
Technics SL-1200 SL-1210 New Precision Audiophile Bearing Ruby - dave-cawley - retail for $350
Audiophile Mat 1 - dave-cawley - retail for $116
Isonoe Audio Isolation System with M6 Thread (Set of 4) - black - dave-cawley - retail for $141
Bren1 Record Clamp - $76

The fact you don’t mind fussing around should lead you to trying it.

Count me as an SL1200 believer. Like any turntable, changes are very possible and you should be able to assess whether or not different is better as you experience an other machine.

In addition to DC’s Timestep, Kevin Barrett @ KABUSA has much info as well as cost effective mods that are great for jumping in.

The original SL1200 MkII unit up through 2010 production should prove over time to be one of the more relevant turntables ever IMO. MUCH performance can be pulled from its well executed design.

@boothroyd Thank you for the advice. My one last hesitation is that it has fixed RCA cables coming from the tonearm. Assuming I keep that tonearm for the time being means I'm stuck with whatever quality those output cables have. Should this be a concern? I'm using Morrow PH4's at the moment. 

I agree with what boothroyd says.  In fact, Technics pulled more performance out of the SL1200 when they introduced the G series.  But as far as I know, the least expensive G series TT costs about $1700 retail.  So there is a gap in cost that might make the older TT worth the plunge/

@simao if the captive signal leads are a concern, there are options of attaching an RCA breakout box or direct replacement to some other preferred cable - many videos & sources are available for such work including KABUSA.