Garrard zero 100 turntable
The stock mat of the Zero 100 isn't exactly impressive: a much better choice is our The keys for a perfect result are: extreme care and precision. Before reinstalling the belt and the platter clean and lube the spindle. Clean the housing and the hole of the platter with alcohol, then assemble again the platter and lube the housing with a good motor oil (10W40, better if fully synthetic). Now, if you think you're sufficiently skilled, disassebly the platter and the housing for the spindle which is secured to the platter via three little screws. Gently clean and lube the bearing of the Zero arm, one of the most critical areas of this turntable. Eventually the same tweaks can be successfully applied to other turntables, especially of the vintage kind.īefore you start modifying your Zero 100 SB you should restore it to its original conditions.įirst of all clean and lube it with high quality spray oil, such as the one used for guns care and lubing. Into this article you'll find some tweaks I've applied to this turntable in order to improve its sonic performances. In case you have missed these, please take a look at our Listening tests section. You may have read the other two articles dedicated to the Garrard Zero 100 SB turntable and already published here on TNT-Audio. Garrard Zero 100 SB turntable - TNT Limited Edition Various tweaks Strange noises are coming from the motor and speed is rather slow and wobbly.Garrard Zero 100 SB turntable The only answer is meticulous cleaning off of old grease and re-lubrication.Īt this point I have a turntable which auto start and stops. Zero 100 SB seized linksĪs expected, this was caused by sticky grease on the multitude of links which make up the automatic mechanism. The auto switch still does nothing though. Now the automatic return and switch off at the end of a side worked. I re fitted it through the spindle hole on the top of the deck, lined everything up and managed to get the circlip back on without losing it. Straight trip pawlĬareful attention with pliers, a vice and a rather large hammer straightened the pawl. On the bench it is clear that it is rather bent and distorted. I was able to remove the damaged pawl from the top without recourse to totally dismantling the mechanism underneath.
More important, you can see the circlip that holds it in place. Looking from the top, after manually rotating the main drive cog, you can see the damage. That engages the drive from the platter to the automation mechanism and the magic dance commences. When any sort of automation is required this pawl is moved so that an extrusion on the platter catches on it and pushes the big gear above round by a few degrees.
It’s called a “trip pawl” and is an essential part of the automation mechanism. Trip pawl damageĪ look underneath revealed this rather bent and mangled component. Again this was consistent with the sellers description. The arm didn’t raise or return at the end of play. Any sort of automation was conspicuous by it’s absence.
#Garrard zero 100 turntable full#
Full stereo reproduction was present and correct. The motor turned quietly and at the right speed. I was then able to actually play records straight away. AfterĪfter some more sanding, a couple of coats of paint and removing the masking tape we have this. Here we see the damaged area after sanding down with wet & dry paper.
This paint gives great coverage, sticks to anything, and provides a very pleasing satin black finish with just a couple of coats. I used it previously on my dual 505 plinth project. Warhammer Chaos Black aerosol paint is again my weapon of choice. Is there a knack to this that I haven’t got? I decided to cut my losses and resort to careful application of masking tape to protect it. I had hoped it could clip off, but it seems it is glued together pretty tight. Zero 100 plinth prepared for paintingĮfforts to remove the aluminium surround were fruitless. I failed to cleanly remove this, leaving glue residue and scratched paint. An anti static brush had been crudely glued to the top left hand corner. This will also give the paint plenty of time to dry before re-uniting the deck and plinth. The deck needs to come out of the plinth for repair anyway, so cosmetic and mechanical repairs can commence concurrently. My first impressions of this turntable were excellent, so no this occasion I am confident confident the mechanics will be repairable. Sometimes mechanical repair isn’t possible, so why waste time on cosmetics. This is mainly so that I don’t damage a nicely repaired case during other repairs. I normally delay such work until I have the mechanics sorted. This time I’m going to start with cosmetic issues. However it was described as “faulty”, which indeed it is. This recently purchased classic 1970’s British turntable was, for the most part, in excellent condition.