Great news! At first test, the transplanted motor seems to work nicely. The sound issue was a nice easy one, the connections to the DIN plug were completely botched so I actually removed the DIN plug completely and just connected it up to RCA plugs for testing purposes. And it worked very nicely - although Søren is completely right, it needs a preamp both because it's quite quiet and also because it needs grounding to remove hum.

After reading through the manuals a bit more, turns out that the 1200 takes a preamp "card" that slots into the bottom of the unit. The thin grey cables that I thought were battery cables in fact connect to windings in the motor to produce 15V to power the preamp. I can't use that any more because the motor from the 1203 doesn't have that 15V winding. Not to worry, I'm sure an original preamp card for the 1200 wouldn't be that convenient to come across, so I'm just going to buy an external one. I decided to get a cheap one at first until everything was working nicely then I might invest in something a bit nicer.

Next steps (apart from waiting for the preamp to arrive) are to reconnect the switch and affix the mains terminal block to the chassis. I noticed a slight rubbing sound when the turntable is spinning (once per revolution) so would like to see if I can figure out what's causing that too. Then a final polish and hopefully we're in business!

Here's the mangled DIN connections:

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We're very nearly there! I got a cheap pre-amp (for test purposes, although the same pre-amp sells for a wide variety of prices so not really sure if I got a bargain or if other people are being ripped off!) and hooked it all up ... it sounds very good through my home system!

Unfortunately the soldered connections on the cut-out switch snapped off, and it will be a couple of weeks before I get my soldering iron so I'm just going to be patient.

I also need to calibrate the speed, from my initial audio tests it sounds like it may be a fraction slow.

So, probably no posts for a few weeks (added complication of my parents-in-law staying in the spare room which is normally my workshop!) but I hope the next post is the triumphant culmination!

Another Steely Eyed Missile Man in the making!

Well done so far, and continued good luck.

I'm totally intending to post some photos of the machine in action, but realistically know that I won't get around to it for a while.

However, I want it on record that as of Easter Saturday, the record player is working perfectly! I soldered the on/off switch back together, adjusted the speed, gave everything a good clean, adjusted the platter as it was scraping ever so slightly on the deck and hooked it all up for some lovely dinner party entertainment.

My first record / track?

Track: Under the Bridge

Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Album: Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Grateful thanks for the words of encouragement along the way!

Congratulations, and well done!

And thanks for checking in and reporting, too.  All too often folks will come in, ask a few questions, and then never let us know how they've done!

josh134 wrote:

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Good one for the dinner party, congrats to a good job done, enjoy. Ran my 1202 yesterday with my BM 4400, these old decks has their own personality.

Very nice job!

I have a modded BG1203 - very nice TT, with one of Axel's Nude Shibata styluses. I am very partial to the sound!

Don't throw those spares away!

Menahem

Brilliant thread. I just joined this forum to find something just like this... I have a 1203 and a 1200, neither work properly but I am hoping to combine the 2 into one working player. The 1200 looks brand new but doens't turn, the 1203 has taken a few knocks and is falling apart... I'm new to all of this and have no real clue what to do but threads like this area great push in the right direction...

Welcome to the forum Chris, just get on with it, and we are here to help. And dont throw anything away, there is always someone in need of spareparts.

Welcome! Glad you've found it interesting. My deck has been running nicely ever since and all my spares are packed up somewhere, I'll have a look in the next day or two to see if I have anything that could be of use.