Pilot Encore record player

[Techman]

I was given this Pilot Encore R102 record player by a local radio operator pal last weekend. It came complete with three 'valve' tape recorders as shown in the first picture below. I was told that one of the tapes had footage of one of the 60s pirate radio stations actually being taken off the air, but skimming through the tapes and particularly the one on the recorder that he thought it was on, I haven't actually been able to find it. The tape seemed to have the full top twenty 'pick of the pops' with Alan Freeman on both sides of the tape, with 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' as the number one on one of the shows, which pretty much dates that tape. Another recorder had, amongst other period music stuff, an informal interview/chat between a very young Ken Dodd and the then up and coming Beatles, with Ken being asked to give advice to them on how to get on in show business, which ended with their latest single of 'She Loves You' being played, so that dates that particular tape. Then there was a home recording of a couple of youngsters singing that same song - those youngsters will probably now be pensioners...if they're still with us.

So much for the three tape recorders, so now onto the Pilot record player. It's fitted with a Collaro RC-456 record changer. This model of changer seems to date from 1957, but may have had a production run into the very early '60s - it's a 4 speed rather than an earlier 3 speed deck, or were they all 4 speed?

It's been decades since I've had my hands on a Collaro record changer and I've never owned or worked on one before, although have had plenty of experience with their tape decks, so was really pleased to acquire this record changer. I would have liked it to have been the Conquest model with the dancing pickup arm, as an old school pal had a table radiogram at home which was fitted with one. I have memories of going to his house after school and we used to play all his elder brother's singles on it. He'd left home but had left all his records behind. These were all Shadows, Tornados, Swinging Blue Jeans, Dave Clark Five etc. etc. I remember it sounded really rough, probably due to a very worn stylus, but we didn't care!

I was told by the person who gave me the player when I went to collect it that the 'black' resistor had smoked when he applied power. He said he'd replaced a couple of 0.01uf wax capacitors with 0.047uf, which was what he had to hand and that he thought that was why the amplifier wasn't working. The player was in a partly dismantled state, but he gave me a small bag which seems to contain most of the removed screws, clips and washers. When I got it home I found that the smoothing can was completely disconnected (I think he'd realised that this was probably causing the dropper resistor to run hot and smoke due to electrical leakage). Looking closely, I found that one of the replacement capacitors that he'd fitted hadn't had its excess lead cut off after soldering and was shorting to chassis, hence him saying that he couldn't get the amplifier to work and him thinking that it was because he'd fitted too high a value replacement capacitors - actually, the capacitors that he's fitted are both coupling capacitors and it's unlikely to matter very much that they're 0.47 rather than 0.01, but I may fit the correct value replacements. The amplifier is a two stage triode pentode UCL83 with a UY85 rectifier and the record deck motor field is in series with the heaters.

I reconnected the smoothing can just to see what how bad it was and the amplifier came to life. Monitoring the HT at the reservoir it struggled to get to much over 170 volts and a small flash over within the rectifier valve indicated that there was some serious leakage current being drawn. I only ran it for not much more than a minute or so and to say that the can was warm, it was actually hot, so no chance of that one ever reforming!

Out of interest, I disconnected just the reservoir section of the can and tacked in a 47uf capacitor (should be 32uf, but was what I had to hand) and left the other 32uf smoothing section of the double capacitor can still in circuit. This time the HT came up to nearly 300 volts and the can was staying cool, however, the voltage on the smoothing section was only 50 volts and I noticed the 15K resistor feeding it starting to look a bit hot under the collar. The smoothing section of the can was obviously as bad as the reservoir section, just the fact that the 15K resistor limiting the current prevented it from warming up too much, although it probably would have done in time - that's if that poor old resistor held out long enough! The amplifier seemed quite lively with a 'buzz test', even with that reduced voltage on its triode section and the pentode screen grid. So I disconnected this section of the can and temporarily tacked in another electrolytic that I had to hand, not the correct value, but it'll do for the time being. This time the voltage rose to the higher two hundreds - It does tend to show that the original can rated at 275 volts was working right at its limit, although the capacitors that I've temporarily tacked in are higher values than the original can values.

The record deck wasn't working at all. After a bit of a strip down, the main cause of no turntable platter drive from the idler wheel (both of which happen to be in good supple condition still - that's lucky) was caused by a totally seized up pivot on the part shown in a photo in the next post below this one. Both motor bearings also received a few drops of clock oil while it was removed from the deck.

It's all working, although a proper replacement smoothing can needs fitting, which I think I have in stock. The whole player needs some general restoration and I have now cleaned all the decades of fluff and muck that can be seen particularly in one end of the cabinet, showing that it's spent many years stood on end in storage somewhere for it all to accumulate and be stuck along one side. I put a sacrificial single on and it sounded dog rough! It actually sounded a lot better when I played the single with the 78 stylus side of the cartridge. The cartridge is a Collaro 56 Studio-O, does anyone know why these cartridges can be numbered as 54, 55, 56 and I think possibly 57, mine being the 56?

On looking at the LP stylus, I could see that it had been bent sideways and had deformed the rubber transfer mount hard over to one side. I loosened the fixing screw and bent the shank and tightened it in the opposite direction to try to push the rubber mount back to where it should be, this made a big difference, although a new stylus at least would really eventually be needed. The old Collaro Studio-O cartridge does seem to have reasonable output, although from a very small melt mark on its casing I suspect that it's had the dreaded soldering iron on its tags while they were still connected and it may also have an intermittent internal connection, as it sometimes loses output when turned over from LP to 78 or vice versa. I may well end up cutting down or otherwise grafting a more modern stereo compatible cartridge into that rather restricted pickup head shell - we'll see!

Pictures below, but I've basically three questions, firstly the date - 1957 or later? There's a distinct lack of cabinet ventilation on this player, which reminds me of a certain early '50s Grampian model that I have.

The second question is what do those different two figure numbers indicate on the Collaro Studio-O cartridges, are they the year dates or something else?

Now the third question is the important one. Although the record changer is working well, I've noticed that the idler that drives the autochange mechanism is always left in contact with the motor spindle. What I mean is that when the auto mechanism has finished, the idler wheel disengages and jumps away from the constantly revolving 45rpm section of the motor spindle, but then comes to rest under light spring pressure just resting against the rotating spindle, not enough to try to drive the mechanism, but enough to cause slight noise vibration when playing and obviously this is not going to do the wheel any good over time. I've got an exploded diagram of the deck mechanism and I'm going to do what I usually do and take a close examination of what's what, as I'm guessing that this is not as it should be or is designed to be?

[Techman]

Three more pictures, the first showing the part that was seized and causing no idler drive to the platter. The second showing how the right hand autochange drive idler wheel is left resting lightly on the motor spindle after disengagement. The last picture shows the old Studio-O cartridge with the bent stylus shank to re-centre the rubber mount/ear.

[Techman]

Just to add a bit more - I suspect (but I could be wrong) that the output transformer may be a replacement - its mounting nuts and bolts aren't tightened up properly. Also, how its terminations are marked possibly indicates a replacement type. The white porcelain connector block joining the record deck motor supply wires had been temporarily added by me, as the previous owner had cut them and had just twisted the stripped back and uninsulated ends back together - I didn't want any unnecessary short circuits!

[Edward Huggins]

The Collaro RC456 was introduced in the Summer of 1956. I would date your player as being built in early 1957. Is there a date on the Smoother cap? The RC54 which preceeded the RC456 was 3 speed. I have two of these and they do sound very good with plenty of volume from the diminutive UCL83. That OPTX looks like a replacement - so make sure it has the correct anode load impedance. The RC456 was discontinued in 1957 when the RC457 came out. The "Conquest" (swinging tone-arm) replaced these in 1958 due to BSR Copyright infringement as to the record size mech. I could never understand why a larger speaker was not used as there is room for a 6.5"driver. The 55,56,57 numbering on the cartirdge is the year of manufacture. Hope this all helps you fill some gaps.

[buggies]

I had the box and amp in the loft and was playing with capacitor dropping to see if it worked with a Garrard deck. Got quite a lot of volume out of it. The OP transformer is original, I think - but it had o/c primary (green spot) which I was able to repair only losing a few turns.
Not a player that I would spend too much time/energy on.

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

Hope this all helps you fill some gaps.

Yes, thanks Edward, it does.

Yes of course, I remember the copyright/patent infringement trouble over the use of that side detector that BSR were already using, I think there may have been some sort of lawsuit over it at the time.

You're quite right regarding the speaker size and Pilot could easily have fitted the larger speaker, exactly the same as the one they happily fitted in such sets as the Pilot Navigator radio, and I show below my example for reference only of just how good this player could have been if they'd used that particular speaker. However, as you say, it doesn't sound bad the way it is and it almost seems as if the old Studio-O cartridge is bedding in with the re-setting of it's LP side rubber pad and it's actually sounding better all the time, although the amplifier still needs tidying up with the correct components fitting and the tone control track is in dire need of cleaning - the volume control, though, is strangely fine.

I don't know whether you've noticed this with your examples, Edward, but this model record player is one of the very few examples where the base response and 'tonal' quality is better with the lid open rather than closed whilst playing. As can be seen in the below pictures, the only ventilation for heat to escape from the internals is via those slots at the top of the front cover board, which I think more by accident than design are acting as a sort of bass reflex and shutting the lid actually blocks them off, also blocking off any cabinet ventilation. Many record players of this type had a large slot at the rear of the lid for both secondary heat ventilation and accidental tone enhancement when the lid was closed. It's virtually unknown to find smoothing can failure in a player of this type when there's sufficient cabinet ventilation, but this is the second time I've come across it in cases where lack of cabinet ventilation has been a common denominator

[Techman]

Originally Posted by buggies

The OP transformer is original, I think - but it had o/c primary (green spot) which I was able to repair only losing a few turns.

Yes, I agree. Your transformer certainly looks more like what I would normally expect to find in this type of player. The one in my player has all the terminations marked up, rather like you'd expect to see on say a Radio Spares replacement type, so I think that's a lucky bonus on my player - just need to double check the connections and tighten up those nuts and bolts holding it to the speaker frame.

The 'D' clip is also missing from the speed selector knob on the Collaro deck, so I need to look in the 'knob box' and see if I can pinch one off another knob or failing that I'll just make a replacement. Although the mechanism is now freed off and properly lubricated, there's still a lot of stress put on the plastic, so even though it's not broken now, it soon will be without the proper reinforcement of a 'D' clip round it, or even winding it round with bus bar wire would probably do the job, but I may well be able to fid or make an appropriate clip.

An interesting and strange thing that I noticed with this Collaro deck was that when I dismantled it I noted that only one of the three motor mounting bolts had a locking washer under it. My first thought was that it had been apart before and someone had just lost the other two washers on reassembly. I noted that the washer is on the bolt shown just above the auto drive idler shown and seen in a previous picture. I also noted that this bolt hole and one other are actually drilled holes, whereas the third hole is more of an open ended slot. Upon reassembly, being clever, I though if the locking washer was going to be anywhere, it would be best fitted under the bolt head on the open sided hole - the washer was looking a bit distorted anyway, so surmised that it had maybe been in this position before. I'd done all this before I found and downloaded an exploded diagram of the deck mechanism, where on close inspection only one of the three bolts is shown with a washer under its head and it's the bolt where the washer originally was. I can now tell you that all was well with the washer on the other bolt and playing 45s was no problem and it was only when I went to play a 78 that I found out that there was a VERY good reason why the washer should NOT be on that particular bolt

The exploded diagram actually shows the one single washer as just a disc and not particularly as a locking washer. It's rather strange to have this single washer on just one of the bolts and I've still got to sort out why the auto drive idler rests against the motor pulley when not engaging the mechanism. Most people would probably be happy with it as it is as the deck performs faultlessly, autochanging records and stopping and starting as it should, but I'm not happy with it the way it is and it can't have been designed like that, so when I get a moment I'm going to pull it apart again and suss out what's happening. I can't remember what it was originally like as the deck wasn't working at all, so I'm unsure if it was like that already or whether it's something that I've done during dismantling and reassembly - we shall see

[Techman]

Originally Posted by buggies

I had the box and amp in the loft and was playing with capacitor dropping to see if it worked with a Garrard deck. Got quite a lot of volume out of it.

Yes, the little amplifier isn't bad in that respect, it's lucky they decided to make it a 'two stager'!

I notice that yours seems to have a physically larger smoothing can. I see it's a Dubilier, whereas it's a TCC in mine. I've found a possible replacement (shown below and also the original), it's a good old 'old stock' Hunts and, as we know, unlike their paper types, their electrolytics were some of the best ever made, again, that's probably more by accident than design at the time. The other option is for one of those tape recorders to possibly 'donate' one

I've now found the original 'D' clip off the speed selector knob, it was among the screws and washers in the bag of bits that came with the player. It's got one end broken off, but is complete enough for a strengthening 'wire-round' job using the appropriate gauge t/c wire (shown below). I didn't feel like going up and rummaging in the loft for my box of spare knobs, so this does the job perfectly until I'm next up there looking for something else...in truth it'll probably stay like that as the knob is now a firm fit and the plastic is no longer under any stress when turning it.

I've yet to work out the function of the black plastic disc stuck to the pickup wire from the deck to the amplifier. I don't know if it's there by design or by accident - last picture below.