Custom Plinth for a 1960's Garrard Record Player

[scott spencer]

This project started out as my favorite uncle's old Garrard Type A MkII record changer from the mid 60's. It played, but made a lot of noise and needed some TLC to ever work correctly. Since it has more moving parts than the space shuttle, I opted to strip it down to the basics, build a custom wood base, add a better Marantz tonearm, and use it as a fully manual single play turntable. The main part of the base is cherry, and the inner frame is curly maple. I'm using the original Garrard motor and rim drive system, and the original aluminum platter. I removed the original spring suspension, and added some vibration isolating rubber feet in it's place. I added the clear acrylic slip mat and a decent hyper elliptical vivid line stylus to make it sing. It should hold it's own against some pretty decent tables.

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[Mark Rainey]

Vintage! Classic turntable nested in fine wood.

[Stan Calow]

Nice! I remember the days when you could order the higher-end components with or without a wood housing.

[Bruce Page]

Love it! Picture #5 brought back some good memories.

[Charles Taylor]

Very nice! In my childhood we had the same turntable installed in a 1920s phonograph cabinet with a Knight tuner and amp and a reel-to-reel player underneath. I still have the cabinet, and reunited it with the original phonograph, but I don't know what happened to the Garrard turntable.

Knight was a maker of assemble-yourself electronics kits, similar to Heathkit.

[Phil Mueller]

Very nice, Scott. I wonder if making something like that would improve my old dusty pioneer turntable from the 70s. Ha, most likely not...but it sure would look good. Thanks for sharing.

[scott spencer]

Very nice, Scott. I wonder if making something like that would improve my old dusty pioneer turntable from the 70s. Ha, most likely not...but it sure would look good. Thanks for sharing.

If you do make a plinth for it, upgrade the cart or stylus, lube it, replace any belts....that'll improve it! Hope you do it!

[Rob Luter]

Nice job Scott. Interesting tidbit: I have a Garrard table from the late 1940's that was my Grandparents. It came with a set of plans so the cabinetmaker could make a plinth for it. This included a template for the top cutout. My Grandmother told me she had a guy at a cabinet shop make it for her. I also have the Stromberg-Carlson Tube Amplifier and floor standing Jenson Bass Reflex loudspeaker in an Art Deco mahogany cabinet they bought with it. As a kid we would spin stacks of 45's when we visited.

I had the same task as you last year when my Thorens turntable suffered some water damage while in storage. The thread is here.

[scott spencer]

Nice job Scott. Interesting tidbit: I have a Garrard table from the late 1940's that was my Grandparents. It came with a set of plans so the cabinetmaker could make a plinth for it. This included a template for the top cutout. My Grandmother told me she had a guy at a cabinet shop make it for her. I also have the Stromberg-Carlson Tube Amplifier and floor standing Jenson Bass Reflex loudspeaker in an Art Deco mahogany cabinet they bought with it. As a kid we would spin stacks of 45's when we visited.

I had the same task as you last year when my Thorens turntable suffered some water damage while in storage. The thread is here.

That Thorens is a beauty! (looks like a Grado cart on it?)

Ironically, I also have a Stromberg Carlson tube amp in the basement that I restored last winter. Somebody was kind enough to post it cheap on FB because they didn't want to toss it. It's an ASR-120 (10-12 watts per channel with four 6L6s.) I'm going to hook up a 2nd system using the Garrard/Marantz TT, Stromberg Carlson amp, and an older pair of Merlin 3B+ speakers I rehabbed last summer. I may build a wood frame around the Stromberg amp if I get ambitious.

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Even more ironic is that shortly after I finished up the plinth on the Garrard, my cousin from the same family gave me her grandfather's Thorens TD-124 Mk1 made in Switzerland in 1958. Too good of an offer to pass up. I'm in the middle of restoring the innerds now to get it running, and hope to build a nice custom plinth for that one as well. 2020 was a tough year in general, but a good year for audio!

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[Rob Luter]

Nice! My table is a TD166 MKII from 1982. We bought it with Wedding money. My bride thought I was nuts until she saw it would track any warp you could throw at it. It’s a Grado cartridge. Good eye. My Stromberg Carlson needs some love. I’m guessing a new tube set would have it up and running again. It uses a pair of 6F6G power tubes for about 6 watts mono. They were mismatched when I took possession of the amp, With one a vintage JAN coke bottle tube and one a metal jacketed replacement. The JAN has found a home in one of my guitar amplifiers that will run on a single tube. It sounds killer at very reasonable volumes.