Beogram 4500 – 3 hopefully quick questions

[Jonathan McCall]

1.) The stylus doesn’t return to the start position after finishing a record.

2.) How do I operate the stylus up and down to set the correct tracking force

3.) Any tips on cleaning the arms ? They’re slightly tarnished, but I don’t want to damage the finish.

Any solutions in any order gratefully received. I’ve done quite a bit of searching but not come up with any answers.

Many thanks

Jonny

[Dillen]

1. Record ends can be troublesome.
   Whereas there are clear standards for where the lead-in grooves are located (with reference to record center), there are no standards for lead-out.
   Is the problem present with all records?
2. In standby place a tracking force scale under the tonearm. Press and hold >> for a few seconds and the tonearm will lower onto it. When done, press STOP.
3. Depends on what stuff is on the arms.

Martin

[Jonathan McCall]

Thanks Martin – really appreciated.

Tracking force set to 1.15g (SMC2) and sound fine. Holding down the > arrow to lower the tonearm worked, as my deck is a Beogram 4500.

Only issue now is the stylus sits in the runout groove irrespective of what record is being played. Just like a conventional TT. It should return to the standby position ?

Edit – having tried to play a full record I’m now getting another issue. Previously I’d just used the < > buttons to position the stylus and play a short bit of the record to check there was decent sound. Now, when I try and play a record from the start, the carriage doesn’t move the tonearm assembly along. It works fine with the < > buttons.

I’ve used a dry lubricant Molykote D321 R on the carriage rods. Could this be binding up the whole mechanism?

Cheers

Jonny

• This reply was modified 3 days, 16 hours ago by Jonathan McCall.

[Dillen]

Sounds like a problem with the tracking system.
It’s a opto sensor and a lamp, with an interrupter in between.
Either the lamp has died or the sensor has gone bad (they can deteriorate internally).
Some times both.
(Electronic faults in this circuit are rare).

The Molykote you mentioned is a fast-hardening coating.
That’s not what you want here. You need a long-term (decades rather than weeks),
grease to make the carriage move smoothly and jerk-free.

Lamp, sensor, correct grease is all available from Danish Sound Parts.

Martin

[Jonathan McCall]

Thanks Martin – will clean up the guide rods and investigate the sensor situation. The start of the record is found correctly, does that operate the same way ?

[Dillen]

No. The start-up sequence is all mechanical.

Martin

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