Our new, old magnavox console - and questions (?)

I'm so proud of this. I'm an abject beginner. But look what we just purchased:

Photos:

http://merlyonline.com/stereo/

[Updated: changed to my own link so it's not a facebook thing]

As far as I can tell, the console was made in 1965 (based on the sticker on the chassis). The radio plays with room-filling sound.

Anyway, seems like there are a lot of other magnavox owners on this forum.

Here's the best part - - we paid $4.50 for this unit. We were going to pay $38, and my wife wanted to use it as furniture (buffet table or something), but we agreed we could use it if it worked. The people at the thrift store weren't certain that it would work, but they thought so. Then they told me there was no big risk since all "purple tag" items were 90 PERCENT OFF!!

QUESTIONS:

The radio works splendidly.

[1] The phono spins and you can hear the record, but it's much quieter than the radio. Is that normal?

[2] But it skips so bad on each of the two records I own that you can't even track through a song. Any chance a new needle or adjustment to tone arm would fix that, or am I looking at a disassembly + cleaning?

[3] Does anyone know the "name" of this style of cabinet? It's model 1RP664 in Walnut.

[4] Will any 45 adaptor work, or do I need to find the specific one that went with this model?

[5] What is that arm on top of the tone-arm for? The one that looks like a curvey-Y (I did mention this is my first record player, right?)

Thanks,
Matthew

Matthew,
If your changer has the shorter spindle, you would use the beige adapter. If it's a tall spindle, you would use the black one that has a hole in the top. It's about an 8th inch taller and may not align up correctly if you use in on a shorter spindle. Those taller spindles could stack about 12 LP's.


The overarm supports a stack of LP's or 45's. Those records cannot just teeter-totter and self balance by themselves.



If you want to remove the arm, tilt it up and look at the phillips screw underneath in the center of the pic, facing the overarm. It's the only screw securing it to the post, and be carefull not to rip the cartridge wires. There's only so much wiggle room to work with. "Please ignore the Brandy and Coke in the background." LOL

If you look at your turntable again, the 45 adapter may be sitting in its own little well in the upper left hand corner like the turntables shown below. Okay, sorry for the overkill, but was just trying to be a little hep (I mean help) to someone.--BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona




The Adapter and its little hiding well

Thanks so much for all your help.

I got my replacement stylus from garage a records tonight, I adjusted the weight on the tone arm, and then it played! I'm super happy with it. Even though the stylus + priority shipping cost about 4 times as much as my console, I still think I'm doing well.

Time to start buying records.

Hit the thrift stores! There's a goldmine of LP's out there. I don't know what your genre of music is, but I've found dozens of boxed sets (classical) that were still in their original wrappers or seemed to have been played only one time. I've got several thousand LP's that way. And if they have a 10cent sale, you can get a boxed set of 10 LP's for one dollar.

I'm on that 12-step program for the last two years to keep from buying more LP's. I can't say that I'm a hoarder, but would love to go through all these albums and spend my retirement days listening to stack after stack of records. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Bobby, like you I am sure I have more records than years left to listen to them. I had most stored on my second floor studio until the floor was seperating it self from the knee wall. Now they are stored in my dry basement. All told I have about 60,000 records of all types. I had to figure the amount out to calculate the weight on the floor. I have a very understanding wife. People are always trying to give records away. My last score was a month ago when after buying a radio at a church yard sale the owner said he had a lot of parts, and repair equipment he wanted to get rid of. My buddy and I filled the 8 foot bed of my truch and the back seat. Most of the records I got were 78s in excelent condition that belonged to his mother including a few Edison Diamond Discs. One man's junk...

Hey there, Matthew,

This is the closest thing that I could find. It is a Kronborg, "3"-RP664, from a 1966 brochure. I don't know the difference between a 3RP and a 1RP. A beautiful Astro-Sonic 40 and it wasn't cheap back in the day. $450 bucks. Features listed below. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Bobby Basham wrote:If you want to remove the arm, tilt it up and look at the phillips screw underneath in the center of the pic, facing the overarm. It's the only screw securing it to the post, and be carefull not to rip the cartridge wires. There's only so much wiggle room to work with. "Please ignore the Brandy and Coke in the background." LOL

This picture looks very similar to a changer I've got. I did remove the arm by removing this screw. When I put it back together the arm seemed to sit higher than before. I loosened the screw and then it didn't seem to "feel" right. I tightened it back up and put a record on and tried it and it worked.

Does this screw or taking the arm off dictate changing some setting that I need to double check before really using it or is this screw strictly for holding the arm on and the adjustments are elsewhere?

Moxy,

Make sure you have the arm seated to the post properly. In that pic that has the arm turned on its back, you see the big thumb screw for adjusting the counter weight/stylus pressure. The sunken screw just above that adjusts the height of the arm, and the other sunken screw up at the end of the pic adjusts how far in you want the arm to set down at the beginning lead-in track of a record.

If you removed the arm and didn't touch anything else, it should perform as it did before when you reconnected it. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona