Re: Garrard record player deck identification.
The Garrard CC10 record changer
In the 1960s, BSR introduced a "cheap and cheerful" record changer which has been popularly referred to as the BSR Minichanger. It featured a chassis that was substantially smaller than the regular BSR (and Garrard Autoslim). To achieve its small size, it had a miniature platter and a downsized control layout...the speed change control was inaccessible during play of a record larger than 7". But functionally it was the equal of the larger record changers, playing records at any of the four standard speeds, and having automatic record size sensing (though not full record-size intermixing).
It really couldn't be installed in as small a space as its compact dimensions may have suggested, because a 12" record would overhang its chassis on three sides. Nevertheless the BSR Minichanger became popular on many low-priced phonographs.
Garrard followed with an equally compact four-speed minichanger called the CC10. It differed from the BSR in having manual record size selection, and in putting all its controls on a unified panel that was accessible during play of any size record. Otherwise its appearance was similar to that of the BSR Minichanger.
The CC10, which was marketed in the UK as a standalone record changer under various names, "Elfin" being among the more frequently seen, didn't prove as popular as the BSR minichanger. It was said that it cost more, so phonograph manufacturers, seeing the two competing models as commodities of equal value, opted for the lower price. It arrived just as Garrard's USA representatives, British Industries Corporation, was entering the lowest-priced market with its "Module" series of record changers, with cartridges preinstalled, and the unit prepackaged with base and dust cover. The CC10 minichanger was sold in the USA as the incongruously-named Module X-11; incongruous because the lower-numbered Module X-10, sold at the same time, was a larger, more expensive record changer built on the Autoslim chassis. The biggest impact the CC10 minichanger made at Garrard was as the basis for the next design of full-sized record changers. That's a story to be discussed in a future installment.
Photos:
Garrard CC10 "Elfin" minichanger.
Garrard "Elfin" control panel
Garrard "Elfin" tonearm head
The competition: a BSR Minichanger
Last edited by GP49000; 23rd Nov 2012 at 5:32 am.
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