Technics SL 1100A & Sl 1210MK2 ToneArm Upgrades

I have an SL1210 M5G (better tonearm wire to start) with the KAB fluid damper and an LPGear Zupreme (probably Jelco sourced) headshell. That improved it quite a bit, but the finishing touch was wrapping the tonearm in some teflon pipe thread tape. Eliminated the upper midrange glare and relaxed the whole sound.

hmmm...never heard of the teflon wrapping technique. does that really work? do you have any pics?

02-06-10: Agypsy
hmmm...never heard of the teflon wrapping technique. does that really work? do you have any pics?

That's because I thought it up myself. I was inspired by another HFC-er who highly recommended the Tonearm Wrap from MusicDirect for $19.99. Knowing that Teflon thread tape is incredibly light, non-adhesive, and therefore totally reversible, I tried that out instead--for about 14 cents. I was very happy with the results and more than a year later it's still there.

For pics see this and this. Notice that I wind around the knurled collar that holds the headshell on as well. I found that ring to be particularly uh... ringy. The tape is so cheap I don't mind rewinding the collar after removing and remounting the headshell.

Johnnyb53,
If someone were to look for that tape, where would he find it? And is "teflon pipe thread tape" the proper name to look for? THANKS!
-Bob

02-07-10: Hesson11
Johnnyb53,
If someone were to look for that tape, where would he find it? And is "teflon pipe thread tape" the proper name to look for? THANKS!
-Bob

I dunno man, it's pretty exotic and expensive. :D

If you don't mind paying a whopping $1.47 instead of 28 cents, you could pick up a roll at Walgreen's.

Here's a summary at Wikipedia. It's variously called thread tape, PTFE tape, plumber's tape, thread seal tape, Teflon tape, or some combination such as Teflon thread seal tape.