[GP49000]

The "Large Chassis 1968" Garrards

I'm using "Large Chassis 1968" to identify the chassis that began as the SL75/95. I don't know of an OFFICIAL name for it.

The prior large-chassis Garrards dated from the 1950s, a lineage that went from RC80 to RC88 to Type A to Lab 80. They were big, complicated machines with many mechanical parts in the automatic workings, all of which were assembled, one by one, by skilled hands in the Newcastle Street factory.

It has been said by some in Swindon that Garrard were content with slim profits, or perhaps even some losses, on the high-end products like the 301 and 401 transcription turntables, and perhaps even the high-priced automatics Type A and Lab 80, because their prestige would stimulate sales of the mass-market, high-profit models on the Autoslim chassis. But by the early 1960s, Garrard was no longer its own master, having sold itself to Plessey, which saw in Garrard a cash cow. Some of those same Swindonites say that Plessey didn't realize that even a cash cow needs feeding, but regardless, the high cost of manufacture resulted in the Lab 80, as revolutionary as it was, being the end of its line.

A new chassis, whose design would provide for lower cost assembly, and for incorporation of modern features integrated into the mechanism rather than added on (as an example the Lab 80's cueing, no matter how effective and elegant to use, was a mechanical kludge), was needed. The new design would put equal emphasis on single-playing as on record-changing. Key among its operating features would be a tonearm that could be moved freely and placed back on its rest in automatic play, something that could never be done on the old models. The old pusher platform was banished to history, and the complicated tripoise automatic spindle of the Lab 80 was also abolished.

The resulting design used only a few parts that were interchangeable with the Autoslim, and reflected its simplicity more as a principle to be followed than as a starting point for the actual mechanical design.

The first generation was represented by three automatic turntables. Two of them were multiple-record players, the SL75 and SL95. They both were powered by the new Synchro-Lab induction/synchronous motor. Their platters weighed only about half as much as the heavy cast platter of the Lab 80. They consisted of a steel inner drive platter and an aluminium outer platter which brought the final diameter to 12 inches. The claim was made that the synchronous section of the new motor made unnecessary the stabilization of speed through inertia of a heavy platter. For single play with a short spindle, their clean decks were to be unobstructed by mechanisms for automatic play. Record-changing was accomplished with a pusher spindle similar in principle to that on the Autoslim changer models, and much cheaper than the Lab 80's spindle, but it was felt that a record-stabilizing overarm would be out of character for these high-line models. The record stack would be stabilized by a platform toward the right rear of the unit, called "Auto-Rise," which would pop up at the push of a button for automatic play, and retract to clear the unit for manual play. Controls for manual play, automatic play, and speed/size selection were rotary types; and like the 3500 and "Autoslim-B" models, the speed-size selections for automatic play were limited: all three sizes at 33rpm, 7-inch as 45rpm, and 12-inch only at 78rpm (which differed from the 10-inch only selection on the 3500-based models because the side platform could not accommodate 10-inch records). Manually, any speed or size record could be played, and at the end of a side, the arm would pick up automatically and return to its rest. The cueing device was integrated into the Manual control and was usable at any time while playing, whether manually or automatically. The short, single play spindles did not entirely rotate with the platter, but had a small rotating collar beneath a tip of low-friction Delrin®.

The SL95 and SL75 differed only in minor trim colors and their counterweighted, dynamically balanced tonearms. The SL75 arm was an extruded aluminium inverted dual-channel, the SL95 arm was an aluminium channel with an Afrormosia wood trim inlayed into it and a simulated gimbal mounting for its pivots. Oddly, the lower-priced SL75 had a vernier counterweight adjustment and an infinitely adjustable dial for setting tracking weight, while the costlier SL95 had a sliding counterweight and its tracking weight control could only be set to 1/4 gram clickstops. Both had antiskating operated by weights, though they were implemented differently. Both had slide-in cartridge clips, replacing the expensive magnesium plug-in shells of the Lab 80 and Type A70. Inexplicably the cartridge clips differed between them; the SL75 used the C1, the SL95 the C2.

The third member of the new team was the AP75 automatic single-play turntable. It had the tonearm of the SL75, including the C1 cartridge slide...in advertising, the low profile of its pivot housing was touted...and a smaller, 10 1/2 inch platter made of aluminium, recessed into the unit plate, contributing to the low-profile look. The AP75 did not have the Synchro-Lab motor, but the Laboratory Series induction motor. Its controls were identical to those of the SL75 and SL95, except for lacking the interchangeable multiple-play spindle and the retractable record support platform. A major difference: the AP75 platter rotated on a single thrust ball at the top of a stationary shaft, while the record-changing models with provision for a multiple-play spindle needed ball-race thrust bearings, which were slightly noisier in use.

Photos:

AP75
AP75 tonearm detail (antiskate lever flipped to its OFF position)
SL95, note wood-trimmed tonearm
SL75, note aluminium tonearm identical to AP75
SL95, with short single-play spindle and record support platform retracted