Seeburg M100B cartridge

The Seeburg M100B that I am working on has a mono redhead cartridge that has an opening in the winding. I am either going to need it repaired with new needles or find a replacement. Does anyone know of a company that repairs or is there a good replacement available ? Thanks for the help.

Mark

Hi Mark,
In today's market, "the best" is still the Pickering produced 345-03 series carts. However--you are "talking BIG$$$ here--IF, you can find one with the proper (good) needles (made of un-obtainium). Also, to make full use of that cart, one need to either add weight to the top, or remove weight from the counterbalance--and, replace the springs ( if not already done, on B-thru G-W models), AND--very carefully, re-calibrate the tone arm to operate at a max of 4.5 grams.
Today, unless you are "rich", I would use a "Redhead", with the newly released "L" type needles--sounds great, to me--
PM me, with an offer I can't refuse, if you wish, and I CAN dig you one, of either type, up---
Ron Rich

While I generally agree with Ron's suggestions here, if Mark's existing redhead is open he will need a replacement and given the price of a redhead and the new styli, I suggest three options;

1) Vern Tisdale's home made "redhead" which uses two Pickering carts and styli that will be available for a long time to-com.

2) Replace the arm itself with one using the later cart (SS-160 -on). This requires cutting or grinding the original counterweights, but will probably cost less than the first two options and give the best possible sound -although a redesigned preamp is desirable

3) Use an entire later arm/cradle. This will be best for the records but it requires getting one with a cylindrical upper counterpoise weight, or cutting the the round type weight and adding a few washers that will clear the mech cover. You will also need to add a small relay inside the mech to activate the trip as the gentle reed switch in the later arms can not handle the trip coil directly.

Here is a pic of the ideal type:
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Rob-N ... sort=3&o=0

Rob/NYC

Hi All,
While Rob and I agree most of the time, we have "agreed to dis-agree" here--the photo he posted is of an early SS-160 red colored tone arm. This tone arm was considered by Seeburg (and myself), to be a total failure ( see my Seeburg Mechanism Guide). It was replaced, at no charge, for years, with the "blue-green" ( Teal ??) colored one. Construction of the "new" style arm was changed so that the damping fluid remained contained inside the chamber. I would avoid using the red one at all costs !! Use, of a teal colored, or un-painted unit, as Rob describes it, is OK, IMHO, pending availability of "good", needles , and the correct springs---Ron Rich

Well, I will start looking for a Pickering 345-03 and see if I can find one for a reasonable price ? How do you rate Vern Tisdale's homemade cartridge ? Has anyone tried one out ?

Thanks

Mark

Mark, a 345-03D will run $350-400 depending on styli, condition etc. It is still necessary to either cut the arm counterweights (see pic) or as Ron suggests add some weight to teh top of the cart.
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Rob-N ... sort=3&o=8

Here are two pics of VL's w/the later stereo arms:
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Rob-N ... sort=3&o=0

http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Rob-N ... sort=3&o=6

Ron mentions a difference of opinion we have about the usefulness of damping on vertical tracking in Seeburg arms. I have always eliminated it because it adds to the effective vertical mass of the arm and prevents it from following warps -even slight ones as rapidly as the arm is capable of in a fast enough manner. I've used Seeburgs commercially w/out the damping since April 1986. A total of several million plays and no ill effects. I've read accounts where people claim that the arm 'slams" down on the record when no damping is used. In my experience if the arm is properly set up with regards to setback and tracking weight with no burrs or defects on the "fork" the action is smooth and clean.

Personal opinion: Given the limited response of the 15" speaker in the B and if you don't plan to add a tweeter and simple crossover, you might be best served by just installing a Redhead and the "new" styli being made in Europe.

Some opinion of the Tisdale option are here:
http://webreports.netlojix.com/pipermai ... bject.html -scroll down.

Rob

Thanks Rob,

I am looking into my options. Can you give me some more info on adding a tweeter and crossover ? I have been reading that this is done often to these older units. Could you walk me through it.I have not done that before.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark, adding a tweeter is one of the simpler and most rewarding mods for these old machines.

Given the size of the existing speaker it should be easy to mount a tweeter such as this:
http://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PH44/4-x-4-Horn-Tweeter -in front of the speaker.

The above horn is very efficient and that is important to balance the woofer.

Other choices are dome tweeters:

http://www.amazon.com/Audiopipe-Titaniu ... B00C86N9UW
http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-TW18BK-3- ... ZK5Q20T8EB

And possibly this: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/M ... -2-/53-375

The first choice is probably best if you want to keep it a simple two-way (woofer-tweeter) setup. I say this because the tweeter can only go down in frequency so-far and the woofer's inadequacies in treble response are the reason for this upgrade.

Thus, having a tweeter that can also handle a bit of midrange is a good idea.

Most of the tweeters linked will come with a simple capacitor that keeps the bass frequencies out of it. This is a simple 6db/octave arrangement and fully adequate for jukebox use.

A further improvement is to add a choke in series with the woofer. At simplest, it is just a coil patched in series with the woofer's voice coil. This too is a 6db/octave type.

Ideally there is only a slight "dip" in response where the respective response curves of the woofer and tweeter crossover points meet.

I've used a 1.75 mH (milli-Henry) choke for this sort of woofer and whatever capacitor is supplied with the tweeter should be adequate.

If the tweeter is mounts in front of the woofer you'll have to route it's wire through a small notch made in the woofer's fibre rim surround. Easy to do with a knife -just be careful to not damage the cone itself.

Rob

OK Rob,

Thank you. I will order The first Pylepro tweeter you recommend. Where can i get the 1.75 Mh choke ? Help me out with the wiring. Is the tweeter wired in parallel ?

thanks again,
Mark

Ok, for the crossover there are two routes:

Package: Example is :
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-aud ... d--269-114 This would be fine for your use. the only slight complication is having to disconnect and extend the two voice coil wires that currently go to the woofer and run them to the input of this crossover. From it one pair goes back to the woofer, the other pair directly to the tweeter.

I would simply mount the crossover on the front board right near the woofer.

You can get even simpler by using whatever capacitor comes with the tweeter and just adding a choke to the woofer. For this purpose i suggest somewhere around 1 milliHenry: http://www.parts-express.com/erse-10mh- ... r--266-550. it will be necessary to add a terminal strip somewhere on/near the woofer and disconnect on voice coil lead. that lead would go to the terminal strip and split to the tweeter and the choke to the woofer.

As seen here: http://www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Tutorial/Crossover/ -Scroll down to "1 st order Butterworth"-ignore the values given.

A packaged crossover is probably best here.

Rob

Thanks for all the help Rob and for all the time you put into it ! I ordered the crossover and Tweeter. I still have alot of work to do on this jukebox, so it wont be installed for a while, but I will post how it all turns out.

Thanks again,
Mark