Skipping One of my turntables keeps skipping especially at the beginning of the final set of beats. I have got new needles and tried every weight and height adjustment with no luck. I have even fixed a weight to the top of the cartridge which kind of helps but distorts the sound. Any answers would be appreciated.

sounds like missing weight or needs adjustment

It sounds like you need to adjust the need tension (counter-weight thingy on the other end). If the needle is too "light" on the disk, it will float around and over the groove walls. Make sense?
Another thing is th tracking resistance of the stylus arm (if your player has this adjustment).. This one puts resistance on the horizontal movement to keep it from "skipping" when a deep scratch is encountered playing an album.

The higher end players have these and many more adjustments which were made to counter scratches and deformities in vinyl records. My father had one which used a laser instead of an actual needle to read the track groove so that no wear occurs in playback.. (star wars stuff, right?)

Goiod luck to you, but I think those two are your issue.

The needle skipping is caused by (A) a worn stylus. (B) not enough pressure. Which is solved by adjusting the weight on the end of the arm. It can only really be solved by trial and error. You increase the weight slightly, then play the record. You keep doing this till the record stays in the grooves but doesn't make a rumble sound. If it starts to rumble reduce the weight.

The anti skate adjustment. And if you scratch @ all....move the weight all the way in and take off the little extra one that screws in on the back. Also a great tracking needle is a M44G.

Regarding the poor sound quality (and possibly the skipping):
check the needle condition, see if exchanging it with a needle (or the entire pickup head) from a working turntable does any good.

Check the pickup connection pins (contacts on the pickup head and on the end of the wires coming through the arm from the unit), see if there is any dirt or oxydation and clean the contacts if necessary, also check for any damage to the wires.

As for the skipping - a heavily worn needle may affect the sound quality and cause skipping as well - if cahnging the needle (or the pickup head) doesn't make a change, try to realign the weight on the tone arm so that the pickup head will become a bit heavier, this could help somewhat (before you actually try to realign the weight, try to put a small coin or a small weight of some kind on the pickup head while it is playing a record, if the skipping goes away, you need to realign the tone arm weight).

This could also be a problem with the tone arm lifting mechanism (may be obstructed by something or damaged so it won't let the tone arm sit properly onto the record and "grab" the groove).

I just mentioned a few things you might want to check, but don't take anything for granted, the problem may as well be elsewhere in the unit.

regards

Triarcuate

Hi the pennies will mess up the stylus. There should be an anti skate setting at the back of the turn table, a round adjustable bit with numbers, increase the anti skate and then use the balance weigth (weight right at the back of the arm that turns to get the weight right. Set the anti skate with the tone arm light, then increase the weight a bit. Hope that helps

It was the counterweight. I found the instructions a bit confusing for my feeble brain! :) I went back and tried again and must have gotten it right as no skipping now. It works great! I love it.

It sounds as if the cartridge has been dislodged on the end of the tone arm Have you tried setting up the cartridge alignment. A badly aligned cartridge will cause exactly this problem.

How old would you say this turntable seems to look like?

The issue is with your tonearm, and not your tracking. You probably have slight damage to the tonearm bearings, which will cause this. There are 2 options... you can try to adjust the pivoting screw at the top of the tonearm ... However, WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS, because once you mess with this screw, it's EXTREMELY difficult to get it back to the correct setting, as this screw is machine calibrated at the factory. So, we only recommend this when you have no other choice, or it's an emergency (the middle of a set).

You can view a video on how to do this, by going here - http://djprolab.com

Eventually, your going to have to have your Technics Tonearm replaced. This should be done by a professional, as it is not an easy replacement.

- OPTiC
The Technics Expert
Technics Repair
DJ Equipment