A Sharp challenge!
 

An unusual departure for me, a late 1970's music centre to restore!

I acquired this Sharp both-sides-play linear tracking vertical music centre for a couple of quid. It had obviously been stored unused for years judging by the amount of dust on it, a rare beast indeed and a challenge to restore. After hooking it up to some speakers I found that the amp, radio and controls worked perfectly. The cassette showed signs of life too, but the turntable was dead.

On dismantling, I discovered more dust and fluff inside than some of the 60 year old radios I have restored! The reason for the turntables lack of life soon became apparent, the main drive belt had snapped and turned to goo, the linear drive belt was not much better.

After spending the best part of an hour cleaning the black slimey mess from the turntable, I went through my belt collection and found one that fitted fine. I also replaced the linear drive belt and the cassette deck belts. After a good clean internally I checked the operation of the turntable and reassembled the unit. After re-connecting the speakers, I popped in a record and pressed play, joy of joys it played perfectly and so too did the cassette deck! (after re-aligning the azimuth and de-magging the heads).

I am impressed by record deck, it uses two cartridges to play both sides (it stops after one side then the turntable runs anticlockwise to play the other side) Very clever technology for the time, remember there were no CD's when this was made.

After cleaning away 30 years of muck, and giving it a good dose of polish, it is a nearly mint unit8-) and sounds suprisingly good through my 1970's Leak speakers and looks fantastic in my dining room.

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Stuff of this era does not go electronically wrong does it. Rare beast though, and I bet you were the first one inside it. Rare things these now.

Cheers,

Steve P.

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Wow! I love these things, when I was still at school, me and a mate found one, with its speakers too, it sort of worked when we tried it, but as with yours, the turntable belt had snapped, so us being daft replaced it with an elastic band... the results were hillarious! I have no idea what happened to the thing, probably got skipped :( I'd love to find another one someday :)

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Hi all, Yes, i am the first one to delve inside:D Apart from replacing the belts & a good clean, it required no work to the electronics at all, even the cartridges &
stili are fine, not even a crackly pot ;)
These are a rare item now & worth every penny of the two quid it cost me!
It made a change to restore something of this era for a change.
:beer:
Mark

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

I have 3 of this range. great units.
the one identical to yours is back in UK, a sharp VZ3000 I think.
Any tips on disassembly? I now have a slightly older one here awaiting repair but it seemed too daunting due to masses of screws and wiring looms!

In my collection I have the vertical record deck, an 'optonica' hi fi separate, which is much simpler to get inside at and is truly amazing - track auto seek, program etc. bit of rumble, but can't win 'em all!

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Hi Ben, disassembly is not to bad on these, remove all the screws on the back
(marked with an arrow) you will need a long crosshead screwdriver for these,
lay the unit on its back, then remove the screws under the record deck & fish out the large suspension springs, open the front flap & pull the knobs off,
then lift off the front (all the guts are fixed to the back) you can then stand the unit up again & lower the record deck for access to the belts (see my pics) you can leave the deck connected, just ease the cables out of their clips. hope this helps
:beer:
Mark

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Nice work there! Those Sharp VZ's were one of my "wants" way back when. Also turned out to be one of my "never had's". In addition to the "console" models, there was also a portable boombox version. Amazing stuff.

Paul

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Nice one, I like the reversing deck arangement, does it go to individual tracks (using a photo cell or somesuch), that would be neat. I bet it takes less power than a CD player too, double greeness!

On that thought my Morphy DAB/DRM radio takes 8 to 9W the Cossor 234 a couple, boy we have gone a long way with energy economy in the last 80 years, and the sound comes out on time not a few seconds late! With all that aluminium on '70s kit if there is ever a shortage they will start mining landfills for it.

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

I once had one in very poor conditions, i finally stripped it for parts.

Date codes on the ICs and capacitors dated it from about 1983

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

I used to have to repair loads of these when i worked for a Sharp repair agency. Hated them at the time! They just took too long to disassemble and reassemble when you were up against the clock! Yes they were new around 1982/3. However putting my own memories to one side they were a mechanical masterpiece. Does it still have its wooden dowel present to release the Record player door in the event of power failure?

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

the vz-3500 , as pictured by the OP, does not have that track seek facility, but the optonica separate turntable does. It uses an LED -photocell arrangement fitted in the headshells.
Ben

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Well done Mark. People repairing "modern" stuff like this will mean there is vintage stuff in the future. These players were certainly "of their time", and a clever use of technology however you look at it.

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

i have one of these under the stairs same problem snapped drive belt, never had the nerve to dismantle it as it looks so complicated. i may just have a crack at it now, mine is pritty mint bus has sadly lost it's original speakers.

Jay

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Well done, You're a brave man tackling one of those, I was asked to replace a drive belt on one 10 years ago, I gave it up as an impossible job after half a day of getting nowhere with screws and bits laying about everywhere!............:D

Regards, Mick.

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

I think if myself or Jay (or anyone else out there with a sharp sitting idle!) end up doing ours, a photo- based tutorial would be in order!

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Hi all, i am overwhelmed by the interest in this unit :D
Mine also came without it's speakers, but the guy i got it from may still have them, will find out on saturday.
I have to admit it was a bit fiddly, but quite straightforward :-)
I was extremely lucky to have a belt that fitted it though.
I do have some other photos of the insides, and could talk you through it!
:beer:
Mark

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Thanks mark. But I meant to say that whoever next tackled one (such as myself!) could consider documenting it - you've already done enough!:)

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

These date back to the early mid 1980's. We use to repair lots of them at Mastercare. They were quite reliable but could be a pain to repair, especialy if you had to restring the cartridge drive. That was fun. However the VZ3000 was quite tame compared to its sister the "Portable"?! VZ2000 which was a beast of a thing and the linear tracking vertical offering from Mitsibushi was also horrible to work on.

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

I had the portable 'ghetto blaster' version of this from new, bought about 1982. It worked well and sounded good until the early nineties. It developed a fault of playing part of a record (usually an lp) and then rejecting it and returning the playing head to its rest position. The cassette player also stopped working about the same time.

I could only find one repairer here in York who would look at it and there verdict was that it had had it! I hung on to it for a few more years but finally it went during a house move.

Wish I'd kept it now!

Keith

Re: A Sharp challenge!
 

Found a picture of it when new. It was designed to be portable with a large carry handle along the top but it weighed too much to be taken very far. It was something like 30 inches wide! When not used on the mains it could take either 10 or 12 'D' cells ISTR:-). Cost £199.99. The speakers were part of the cabinet and not detachable.

Keith