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Old 7th Nov 2012, 9:17 am   #46
GP49000
Hexode
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Sonoma County, California, USA.
Posts: 405
Default Re: Garrard record player deck identification.

The Autoslim goes belt-drive, then bows out

The Autoslim-chassis was designed as an idler-drive and remained that way for most of its life. However, the market began to favor belt drive, which was also cheaper to build than idler drive, having many fewer parts.

In the late 1970s, Garrard re-engineered the Autoslim chassis to belt-drive, in single-play automatic turntables priced above the SP25. Both were powered by Garrard's Synchro-Lab motor, with a rubber belt driving an aluminium platter made out of multiple stampings...no die casting, no machining. Speed change was accomplished by a "fork" which shifted the belt between different-sized steps on the motor pulley according to a lever at the left front of the unit.

The 125SB had an S-shaped tonearm, with an adjustable counterweight with calibrated scale to set tracking weight. Antiskate was by an adjustable spring. The 125SB shared the C5 cartridge clip with the DD75 and 86SB Mk II single play turntables and the 990B multiple-play model.

Automatic single play was possible at either 33 or 45rpm. Any of the three standard record sizes could be chosen through a record size selector lever, located where the speed selector was on the early Autoslim models. Another lever alongside the tonearm at the rear, allowed the user to select automatic repeat play, if desired. Its viscous fluid-damped cueing control was by a lever identical to that on the SL65B and similar models.

The 35SB was like the 125SB but had the straight tonearm of the SP25 Mk IV, fully counterweighted and dynamically balanced, with a separate dial for setting tracking weight. It took the C2 cartridge clip. Drive system was identical to that of the 125SB. Specifications for rumble, flutter-wow and minimum tracking weight (1.5 gr.) were the same.

At the introduction of the 125SB and 35SB, the SP25 Mk IV remained in the line as the last Autoslim-chassis model with idler drive. That changed with the SP25 Mk V, which took on the same two-speed belt-drive as the 125SB and 35SB. It also adopted the S-shaped tonearm, combining that armtube shape and the C5 cartridge clip with the familiar AT60/SP25 tonearm pivots, and a new counterweight on a rubber mount that slid along the armshaft, without a locking screw. The SP25 Mk V tonearm continued to be fully counterbalanced with a spring for applying tracking weight, controlled by a calibrated knob. A minor revision in decorative trim to the SP25 Mk V resulted in the SP25 Mk VI.

Photos of the SP25 Mk V and SP25 Mk VI were in one of the earlier posts about the SP25 series.

Photos:

125SB
125SB tonearm detail
35SB (catalog illustration)
35SB tonearm (catalog illustration)
35SB tonearm detail showing repeat/single play switch, same as on 125SB
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