[Radio Wrangler]

The turntable is the round part that the record sits on. The whole metal construction which includes the turntable and the arms, which actually plays the record is the 'deck'.

Starting from the groove of the record and working upwards, you have a stylus which is a lump of polished sapphire/diamond on the end of a tiny metal lever (the cantilever) this little assembly is replaceable as the stylus wears out eventually.

The stylus assembly is mounted onto the cartridge. The cartridge is a blocky thing at the underside of the end of the arm which plays the record. Inside tha cartridge's housing are the piezo-electric or magnetic devices which convert mechanical vibrations into electrical signals. Cartridges can be replaced too. There will be screws or clips holding it to the arm. Some cartridges are well known failure points and proved susceptible to moisture.

From the arm, thin wires carry the electrical signal to the amplifier.

The record deck is usually bought in from a specialist manufacturer by the manufacturers of the record players. Likely Garrard or BSR.

THe other arm is the over-arm which is used to steady a stack of records balanced on the top of the spindle. These decks are 'autochangers' the user stacks a series of records on top of the spindle, places the overarm onto them, and sets the machine going. It drops one record to the turntable, plays it, moved the arm out of the way and drops the next, then it plays this one.... and so on until the stack has been played.

You get to hear one side of each disc in succession!

David