Voice of Music

So I found this V-M record player in the alley that runs along the backside of my house. I have a soft spot in my heart for old Console units. This is just a record player, but I absolutely love the look of it. I opened the lid and was surprised to see that the turntable and all the controls are in excellent shape. Looks like it sat in a basement for a long time due to the surface rust on the stand. The power cord was damaged, but totally reparable. Hopefully I can get it operational. This is also a 1965 Tri-O-Matic Model 1285 which means it's a 4-Speed unit.

That is a cool find! Do you plan to create a build thread for it?

In reply to paranoid_android74:

Haha maybe. I need to get my garage cleaned out and reorganized before I can even tackle this.

I also found that there are several suppliers of vintage record player parts and a lot of them carry stuff for V-M players.

Awesome!

I think you will find the filter capacitors will be past their best by date. When you plug it in you will get a strong 60 cycle hum. Filters are an easy job but the low mfd, high voltage type you will need probably won't be available locally.

What tube set does it use?

Snap a pic of the inside of the chassis for me. I'd love to see it.

In reply to Jumper K. Balls:

When I get to that point, I will. This wasn't a planned project and seeing that I'm not getting the downtime that I thought I was, I won't be getting to this any time soon.

Garbage picker FTMFW.

I'm pretty sure my older sister had one just like that when I was a kid.

78, 33 1/3, 45...

What's the 4th speed?

Let me know if you need any tubes. I have way, way too many.

SVreX wrote: 78, 33 1/3, 45... What's the 4th speed?

Reverse...for heavy metal.

Standard internet disclaimer:

Tube amps contain lethal voltages even when they are unplugged!

I will admit to having destroyed a handful of these VOM phonographs by harvesting their transformers for guitar amp projects. I can't remember if it will have a multi cap for the filters or 3 separate electrolytics but these will by the critical capacitors to make it start working. They are also the ones that want to shock the hell out of you so make sure they are discharged, although at this point I doubt they will hold many electrons.

You will also most likely find a bunch of the old waxed paper in oil signal capacitors. They tend to look like this

I would recommend swapping those out for modern Sprague "orange drop" capacitors. They are readily available in the values you will need and sound good.

From there any burnt or drifted value carbon composition resistors can be changed out and it should be good to go!

In reply to Jumper K. Balls:

Digging for a schematic for this, and I notice a potential tube lineup of a 12AT6 50C5 35W4, which would leave me to believe that it doesn't have a power transformer. I'd be concerned with running it without being isolated from the grid, or maybe it's not as much of a concern since there is no exposed metal?

SVreX wrote: 78, 33 1/3, 45... What's the 4th speed?

16

RossD wrote: In reply to Jumper K. Balls: Digging for a schematic for this, and I notice a potential tube lineup of a 12AT6 50C5 35W4, which would leave me to believe that it doesn't have a power transformer.

It might have an isolation X-former but I doubt it. Installing a proper grounded plug would make it safer. I usually cut the GFI cord off of thrift store hair dryers and wire that in. If the original non polarized plug is still on there and it is plugged in upside down any metal that is touchable would be on the hot lug of the house wiring and that just ain't cool.

The AA5 tube set means that overall voltages are lower and the average electronics store will carry what you need, so that is cool. It also means pretty low fidelity and just over one watt of power before clipping. It is still a rad old phono but hi-fi it won't be.

That case looks a little large for an AA5 lineup. I am betting it will have a single ended 6V6 mono amp. Most of them did.

In reply to Jumper K. Balls:

I have not had a chance to open this up, but the power cord looks like it got snagged on something and then snapped in half, so it will be needing a new cord.

When I go to start making it operational, I will make a build thread and you guys can chime in, right now you guys are speaking Chinese for all I can tell.

Definitely make a thread for it and link to it here! I've been working on and repairing vacuum tube electronics for a bit and would be happy to share some knowledge. I may also have some of the tubes you need in case the ones in this record player are dead.

In reply to RexSeven:

Oh I will.

Also here's the site that carries many parts:

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

SVreX wrote: 78, 33 1/3, 45... What's the 4th speed?

16

16 2/3, to be exact.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Turns out I don't have the tubes RossD mentioned. I first thought he said 12AT7 (which I have plenty of because they are popular for hi-fi and guitar amps), but I sold my 12AT6s along with much of my tube stash that isn't used in hi-fi equipment. I do have tube testers so I can give you an idea of how much life is left in the tubes from the record player. Vacuum tubes don't go bad with age like old capacitors and resistors can.

This is some good reading on how to recap old electronics: https://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

What Jumper was talking about are these metal can capacitors. Often they contain multiple capacitance values instead of just one:

I recently listed a few different values of Sprague orange drop capacitors on my employers eBay store. Priced very competitively with a 100% feedback rating. I'll throw a link up if it's deemed kosher.

Here are the values in no particular order:
.1uF 100VDC ±10%
.01uF 100VDC ±10%
.01uF 1000VDC ±10%
.0015uF 100VDC ±10%
.033uF 100VDC ±10%
.012uF 1000VDC ±5%