GE Console Question (Update)

What kind of changer do I have? This is a GE 730 from the late 60s. Notice the back is finished. Were there many of that type produced? How do I adjust the player needle arm balance weight (not sure how to describe)?

Assuming the counterbalance is not a fake you would back it off until the arm suspends itself on a level plane. Recalibrate the slip ring to "0". Then turn ring and counterweight together to the proper number in grams. What the tracking force is on this unit I don't know. Hope this helps. Do not assume the stylus is good.

Your Console is actually from about 1973.
I can't tell from the picture, there were two versions of that changer, one woth a magnetic cartridge, and one with a Ceramic cartridge. The magnetic tracked at about 2.5 and the Ceramic tracked at 3.5.

How do I adjust the needle arm's weight? On the back of the arm there is an adjustable (slides in and out of the arm) weight or it looks like one. The arm says "tonal 1" and the player frame has "diamond stylus" on it.

You don't--unless you have a gram gauge, and know what the correct weight should be--
Ron Rich

Majority of these consoles were "fixed" as far as tracking pressure, and no need to go about adjusting them.
The factory knew what they were set at, to perform properly.
Us service techs do too.
If needle-hopping or mistracking/distortion is an issue, it's not a needle pressure problem.
Most likely the mechanics are bound up from age, oil turns to glue over time.
The tonearm can't track properly under these conditions.
And records get damaged because of it.
Needles also wear after decades of neglect and abuse, and records vary in condition.
All this won't be helped by messing with needle pressure. - trust me.

Bottom line.... time for an overhaul.
The electronics need attention as well. - I don't care if "it sounds good" you most likely never heard it when it was new, so anything sounds better than an Ipod - when you get it overhauled, it'll sound much better. - as well as be much more reliable.
I get them in the shop all the time with age-related issues like this.

This console has been setting in our family room for over 30 years. For some reason the other day I decided to see if it still worked. I plugged it in and powered the console on. It works! Well I did find a couple of things that needed tweeking. First thing was the record player follower arm (the technical wording is not my forte) didn't allow the records to drop very well and never let the last record play. The record dropped and the player turned off before playing. I posted on this forum and was pointed in the right direction. Slightly bending the follower arm shaft leveled the records as they sat on the spindle. The follower arm shaft was binding as it entered the player . A little lubricant on the shaft resolved that issue. Accomplishing both actions resolved the record drop issue. Next was the tone arm did not position itself on the leading edge of a record. Adjusting the adjustment screw on the tone arm cured that. With both items done the turntable functions without an issue. The tone arm tracks even on records that are in pretty bad shape. My question about the weight on the tone arm was more out of curiosity. Two lights are out around the tuner dial. It looks like there are 4 screws, one at each corner of the tuner that hold it in the console. If I remove those screws will the whole tuner assembly come out of the console without a having to remove or disconnect anything else? All the switches were very intermittent when toggling but after a lot of use they "cleaned up" and now work OK. I added an external CD player. We purchased the console new prior to 1972 when we moved into a new home. Who is the maker of this turntable? Where many of these consoles made with the "back side" of the console finished as the picture shows?

Your questions seem endless, but for the record, the best thing you can do is have the unit professionally serviced - because those little band-aid fixes are useless.
Your dealing with a unit decades old, and surely in need of a going over, not just a screw-turn here or there.

I know this because I see them come in the shop all the time.
You want it to be reliable and perform properly for a long time - get it overhauled.
You want to mess with quick fixes? - you'll soon see my point.

I thought asking questions was a common practice on forums. Seems not to be, at least not on this forum. Maybe that's one reason why there's not much activity here. Comments such as "take to a tech" is an easy out response. Looks like I need to move on. Have a nice ay.