How can i fix this old record player?

Question

it's from the early 60s it looks like, and has a built in tube operated pre-amp. i googled "hyde park high fidelity" and moded 808, but found nothing about it. it says 120 AC- 60 HZ- 90 W. i think this might be dangerous to just plug in and use? but i did it anyway. the turntable turns at the right speed, but i can hear a loud hum whenever i start it up, and a crackle when i turn one of the speaker k***s. it needs a new needle, but i didn't want to waste time on that unless i can be pretty sure i can fix this. when the stylus drags around it makes a sound. i looked inside through the tweed speaker fabric and saw 4 tubes lit up orange. it's a real beauty, lovely leather suitcase type stereo in great cosmetic condition. i'm pretty handy, and i'd love to rescue it! what do you think?

Answer 1

WOW! Just for curiousity how those electronics in the past work, its challenging to fix that as if you have found the missing link by looking at those tubes? Do step by step troubleshooting, You may touch the needle and hear if the preamp reacts, and if the sequence from preamp, to main audio amp, and to the speaker really function. Remove the stylus and turn it on then gradually increase volume, you should not hear hum since theres no input,..and if there is, then concentrate in the power supply section, you may use modern capacitor and diode for filtering..since we have lots of interference this days..sheilding the preamp is very important and additional chasis grounding may illiminate hum.

The problem:

Replacement stylus is hard to find

Not energy star compliant, and @ 90 watts its its waste of power for such simple appliance. And the heat and gases it radiates may cause illness. My dad used to work in those electronics in the '70's he has skin disease where the doctor diagnosed it coming from radiations/gases of those vacuum tubes. Thats why he's concern in me working in an electronic production line.

Answer 2

You have a bad/noisy volume control and possibly some dud capacitors in the power supply (capacitors tend to go bad after a while, especially electrolytic types). Maybe some other problems too.

You'll certainly need a new stylus (probably the entire cartridge will need to be replaced), and various parts of the player may need to be cleaned and lubricated.

Any rubber parts (such as the idler wheel, the rubber wheel that drives the turntable) will probably have to be replaced also. They tend to either go hard and lose their shape, or go all sticky and gooey after a few dozen years in the attic, especially if the player has been left with the switch in the "play" position for all that time. A strobe disc (you can download and print one out) will help you to find out if the turntable is spinning at a constant speed.

Most suitcase-type record players from those days were based on standard chassis, made by just a few companies such as BSR and Garrard, so spare parts should not be at all difficult to come by as long as you know who made the deck.

Whoever said "they built things to last in those days, you know" was definitely lying! Still, it's good to hear you've got those tubes glowing again after nearly 50 years.

If an electronic item has not been used for many years it's not generally a good idea to just plug it straight in and start using it. The accepted method is to power it up gently using a variac (variable transformer).