Quote:
Originally Posted by Half a Mullard
I've looked at the wire again, it measures 1mm outside diameter so I think it should be OK.
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Sorry to say that that'll be way too thick. I've measured genuine original pickup wiring and the outside diameter was around 0.51mm, so half the thickness and twice as flexible. You need to trust me on this when I say that the pickup wire where it passes through the arm pivot at the rear of the arm needs to be so thin and light that the arm doesn't know it's there as it tracks across the record. Using the wrong wire will end up with you spoiling your records, as the poor old wall of the groove will be working against that extra thick and un-flexible wiring (X4), so don't do it! Either look for the proper stuff or keep with the original with the joins, just so long as all four runs that go down through the arm pivot and bearing are the original thin flexible type - it doesn't matter about what actually runs along the arm itself, other than the fact that thicker wire will increase the tracking weight, which will need to be checked with a proper gauge and re-adjusted if necessary to prevent record damage.
I've never found a source of short lengths of that special wire, other than dealers such as Musonic occasionally having original made up wiring sets in stock - probably old stock that's been dug up from some closed down shop. You can probably buy it in bulk by the drum, but you'd need four drums for the four colours and that would probably cost hundreds as it's specialized and there's no call for it these days as far as I know. I've been down the road of old computer wiring such as old mouse cable inner wiring and at first glance it looks about right, but even it's too thick and not flexible enough. However, I did reluctantly use some on the tone arm of one of those crude cardboard box record players on which someone for some reason had completely ripped out the original wiring. It worked fine on that simple player, that by its very nature has a slightly heavier tracking weight to counteract the slightly thicker wire and would only be used for spinning old 45s and 78s, but I certainly would never consider using it on a decent record player such as the one that you've got.
I've not checked out old USB cable for thin inner wiring, but it could be a possibility, so that's something worth thinking about.