Tone arm re-wiring.

Hey folks,

Does anybody have any experience with tone arm re-wiring?

I want to re-wire my SME III but don't want to send it to the dealer and let them have all the fun!

Anybody know of suitable silver wire and connectors?

 

i wouldent mind rewiring my rb300 but at 115 pounds for the kit it will have to wait till next year.

 

re-Wiring a tone arm is a cinch as long as you are very carfull and use your noggin. I rewired an old Linn LVX i had a few months ago for about £28. I used Van den Hull MSS7 Tonearm wire. It is 30awg (i think) and made from silver plated,stranded copper wire, in a teflon jacket. I managed to buy 4 x 500mm lengths in red,blue,green,white for the cost of 2 metres. I got it from Custom Cable , i don't think they had much left at the time though. I managed to get 4 new cardas gold plated copper, cartridge tags for about £6 from one of the DIY suppliers who advertise in HFW diy supplement. if you check out VdH website they detail their different types of tonearm wire, my Tonearm was broken, so i just went for the cheapest option, it sounded pretty good though. Having removed 3 soldered joints and 2 mechanical ones during the re-wire so it should. HTH.

 

Sid,

You've inspired me to have a go at rewiring the RB250 on my Systemdek IIX (remember?). I had been looking at the Origin Live mod kits, but I get the feeling I can do it myself for much less than the £70 they're asking.

The materials side of things seems straightforward, but what about the method? What tools do I need? What's the process? Can you help? I'm keen, but somewhat clueless.

 

i remember reading somewhere about using a guitar string and soldering the wire to it to feed it through the arm.

 

why not just atach the new wires to the old wires,pull out the old and the new ones will be pulled in

 

apparently the rega wires are to brittle and will snap.
personally i would try this first though before using a guitar string.

 

If I get time tonight, I'm going in for a look. Spoke to the Cartridge Man earlier, and very helpful he is too, said it was a relatively simple job and that he can even supply VDH tonearm wire (said I should comfortably be able to get four lengths from a metre of the stuff).

 

I managed to get 4 x 250mm lengths in different colours for the price of a straight 1 metre length from custom cable. i found the invoice last night during a tidy up, it came to £28.
I used cotton sewing thread to pull the wire through, The Tonearm wire it is actually quite tough stuff , considering its diminutive proportions.
The 250mm lengths where more than adequate to re-wire the Linn LVX , only internally though.
I personally think that the way to go with tonarm wires is a complete , un-interupted run from cartridge Tag to Phono plug. When all said and done all a cartridge is, is a small electricall generator, any dodgy connections or increased resistance , due to joints and corrosion can only detract from it performance and capabilities.

many , many years ago in my youth I owned a Suzuki GP100 moped. It had 6 volt electrics and i was the 13th !! carefull owner. I'm sure that every one of the previous owners had done something to the wiring, there where so many joints and extra connections, bits of wire, etc, that the headlight just had a dim glow. I completely stripped out all of this wiring and built a new loom, using new bullet connectors and some rolls of different coloured wire from halfords one weekend, following the diagram in my Haynes 'book of lies' manual. Once fitted the lights and all the other electrical bits worked a treat, there was so much resistance in the previous wiring that the 6volts just didn't have the balls to punch through it .
Imagine the struggle your 0.35mV has.

 

Sid, you had to go and complicate matters. And there was me thinking it would all be so easy. Okay, what you say makes a sort of sense, but how does one go about connecting longer runs of wires to phono plugs? Remember, I am DIY hifi virgin. What bit goes where? And can you tell me where I find Custom Cables?

 

Internal arm rewire

Geo.Cardas 33 wg. or Discovery 28 wg. internal tone arm wire can
be bought for a fraction of the price I've seen quoted here at the
Partsconnexion in Canada.

Both wires are high quality,tho' Garth at AA thinks the Discovery is too thick and supplies Geo.Cardas in his Incognito Rewire Kits.


The cheapest I've purchased G C for was 1 USD per Ft/300mm
and Discovery was $165 for 68ft. plus postage of $2.50,this was some time ago and on special offer.

When soldering I use a 12 watt iron and Multicore tin/lead/silver 26 wg (very thin and LMP) solder which I think is ideal.

If rewiring a Rega RB 250/300 I always remove the Earth clip and give a good polishing where it contacts the arm threads and solder on one of the original arm wires before replacing.

Where the wires exit the arm give a nice covering of silicone grease and the same into the arm pillar and don't omit the grommet.

Before soldering to the external plastic part make sure the wires
are not twisted in a way that will make the arm swing in/out when balanced with zero bias.

Only attempt this if you feel competent to do so.

Contact Frank Pugliano @ PC

http://www.partsconnexion.com/