Tellux record player

[AC/HL]

Worded better: They can be joined at the tag strip under the turntable chassis, to make a stereo cartridge produce mono for your player. (see photos)

[ChrisChilton]

Originally Posted by Michael Maurice

Yes that's correct.

I tend to favour these cartridges the should fit the bracket you have.

Ouch!

I’ve seen an unused original for £35 but are you suggesting that could also be faulty?

Or one made by Ampmace

[Edward Huggins]

It's a prevailing fact that good replacement cartridges can sometimes cost far more than what you might have paid for the record player. What is "ampmace"?

[Herald1360]

What about the usual red'n'black Chinese Cheapy, with mounting clip, with or without extra preamp if needed?

[ChrisChilton]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

It's a prevailing fact that good replacement cartridges can sometimes cost far more than what you might have paid for the record player. What is "ampmace"?

It appears to be a company that made replacement cartridges.

[Max Ripple]

Ampmace was a distributor of electronic components ,based in Coventry,but long out of business now.They probably supplied replacement cartridges repackaged with their own branding.
Michael's earlier suggestion of the X5H copy is interesting,but a bit pricey at £45 for this project?
Any "new old stock",or worse still "salvaged" items are likely to be more trouble than they are worth.
Look on the "auction site" for ceramic pick up cartridges,and many suppliers will appear,but you need to source one that comes with the mounting bracket,many don't!
Nick

[ChrisChilton]

I’ve been offered a NOS for £32 inc postage and a 30 day guarantee.

[Edward Huggins]

An NOS what - what make/type/model number is it?

[ChrisChilton]

Bsr x5 m exactly the same that needs replacing

[ben]

A number of us have successfully repaired those BSR carts. What happens is that the internal contacts tend to tarnish and give the intermittent audio problem. Maybe you could ask in the services wanted section and see if anyone local to you could fix it? Would be cheaper than a new cart.

[Edward Huggins]

Originally Posted by ChrisChilton

Bsr x5 m exactly the same that needs replacing

That's a fair price. If the Seller will honour the Warranty, I would buy it.

[ChrisChilton]

Originally Posted by ben

A number of us have successfully repaired those BSR carts. What happens is that the internal contacts tend to tarnish and give the intermittent audio problem. Maybe you could ask in the services wanted section and see if anyone local to you could fix it? Would be cheaper than a new cart.

Thanks Ben, your help has been invaluable, what I might do is buy the replacement and keep the original in case anyone comes along who can refurb it for me.

[ChrisChilton]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

That's a fair price. If the Seller will honour the Warranty, I would buy it.

Thanks for your advice and encouragement.

[Techman]

I agree that buying a direct replacement will save you from having to reset the tracking weight, assuming that it's set correctly in the first place. If the original is mounted in a 'clip', then you'd get away with buying one of the same type without a clip (because you've already got one), which are normally cheaper, but I guess there's not a lot of choice these days. Definitely keep the old cartridge for a day when you feel like having a go at repairing it. At least a couple of forum members have successfully repaired these cartridges and I've got several myself that I'm going to have a go at one day when I've got nothing better to do!

You could have got a cheap Chinese black with red stylus type that I said were £1.50 including postage, but when I checked, I noticed that the prices had started to rise, but they can still be had for around £3 if you look hard enough. You'd need to make an adapter to be able fit it and you'd need to adjust the tracking weight, so you'd need to buy a balance to do the job - so in your case it's best to stick with the exact replacement.

[ChrisChilton]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Not such bad news.

You can get all sorts of parts for fixing transistor amplifiers, but finding good replacement cartridges is harder.

We live in peculiar times. Models of record players that I could never have afforded back in the day can now be bought for reasonable prices. However Dansette players which were towards the bottom of the market back then are in great demand and prices have balooned as a result, because people think 'I want a Dansette like I had in my teens'. As a result, the best stuff is now cheaper than one cheap and cheerful make.

So if you just wanted to listen to records, we'd all be trying to steer you onto something once posh.

But you want to get a family heirloom going again because of the memories it holds. This blows all considerations of performance and value out of the water. Quite rightly so!

If the cartridge does prove to be bad, then there are some cheap 'red-and-black' ones out of China which seem to be quite OK.

You seem to have a fault in the amplifier, though. That ought to be fixable. At a pinch a different amplifer could be substituted.

You'll learn a fair bit along the way.

Photographs of the insides in general, and a shot of the components on theat printed circuit board would be a start.

I don't know that model, so I'm wondering if it has a mains transformer or whether it's powered from a tap on the turntable motor. If the latter, the internal electronics will be directly connected to the mains and could be dangerous if you touch it. It was a technique used to cut costs, and it was made safe by all the live stuff being inside the cabinet.

The sound is quite typical of a transistor amplifier in a bad way, but not completely dead. It's not too surprising that you only get sound with the control towards its top end. Don't bother trying further to clean the volume control, it may be perfectly OK. The amplifier needs fixing first before we can tell whether the pot needs cleaning.

I also think the cartridge is showing enough signs of life to be going on with.

The standard questions, so that people can pitch advice at the right level are; what's your knowledge of electronics like? and do you have a multimeter?

David

Thanks for all of your help David.

If I was to also want another turntable that was “once posh” and have an amplifier and speakers, what would you recommend please?

[DMcMahon]

The fact that you get some sound albeit distorted when you wind the volume up could possibly point to the volume control itself being dodgy (maybe have a badly worn track that cleaning does not help).

I would try gently pulling on the wires that connect to the volume control and tapping the volume control body to see if any better sound can be obtained, keeping clear of any mains voltage connections for your safety.

Interesting that you lost the sound all together at one stage, maybe there is just a loose/bad connection in the wiring somewhere or maybe a dry joint in the amplifier electronics or maybe a component breaking down.

Update - probably ignore this post, when I wrote it I had only seen page 1 of the thread, had completely missed somehow that there were another 4 pages of the thread.

[ChrisChilton]

Update.

The NOS cartridge arrived today and it works like a dream, fair volume on it too!

Thank you to everyone who helped out a complete stranger quite so readily, it means so much to me, thank you.

[ChrisChilton]

Next question (non technical) does anyone know if you can add Sputnik legs to these players? There are screw threads in the base.

[John10b]

I don’t know the answer to your question but if you take a look at Dansette.com they have Legs etc for sale.
John

[Edward Huggins]

These were never designed to be used with "Dansette" (generic) type legs as the base was not reinforced. If there are bolting plates already fitted, then make sure they have a wooden strengthening plate inside as the base is only 1/8" thin hardboard.