Adjusting tracking weight on a Philips AG1014 / Disc Jockey

[hayerjoe]

Hello everyone

Is it possible to adjust the tracking weight on a Philips AG1014? I'm (obviously) trying to lighten it.

Would be good if there was some proper adjuster, but if not thinking of Heath Robinson type ideas namely, use a stronger spring at back of the arm or alternatively adding some weight on the arm beyond the pivot point (FYI there's not a lot of overhang on these arms back there!)

Any ideas?

thanks
Joe

[Edward Huggins]

I may be wrong, but this generation of Philips autochangers were expressly designed to be used with only that Philips head, i don't think any form of optional adjustment is provided. Others may know more. I agree about the lack of overhang and this makes adding more weight difficult.

[Audio1950]

At the very back of the "ball" end of the pickup arm, there is a hole which has a screw in the bottom. This is connected to a small bracket, connected to a spring. Turning tha screw adjusts the weight, but you need a very fine screwdriver to turn the screw. Be aware though, that after all this time, the plastic of the arm will be very brittle, and forcing the screw may shatter the mountings of the bracket.

Barry

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Audio1950

At the very back of the "ball" end of the pickup arm, there is a hole which has a screw in the bottom. This is connected to a small bracket, connected to a spring. Turning tha screw adjusts the weight, but you need a very fine screwdriver to turn the screw. Be aware though, that after all this time, the plastic of the arm will be very brittle, and forcing the screw may shatter the mountings of the bracket.

Barry

Are you sure that's not for adjusting the arm height? See photo of what Barry is talking about. I've looked at the schematic and I can't quite tell what it does!

Also see my screw to the left, this goes through the centre of the tracking weight spring and effectively makes the spring stronger, which therefore makes the arm lighter... just a trial at present but seems to work!

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

I may be wrong, but this generation of Philips autochangers were expressly designed to be used with only that Philips head, i don't think any form of optional adjustment is provided. Others may know more. I agree about the lack of overhang and this makes adding more weight difficult.

I think that's true, but still strange not having any means of refining the tracking weight, I mean Philip's quality control must have been amazing to have every head for this model weigh EXACTLY the same?!

My problem is dead old Philips cartridge, so I've added a new cart in the shell, but new cart would like no more that 4g, but Philips arm is giving me 5.8g

[Audio1950]

The screw on the left which is attached to the spring is the one I was referring to. That adjusts the weight. Philips made two different styles of cartridge for this deck, the infamous "tilting" one, the other being a larger wedge shape, with a red "flip-under" stereo cartridge. That was heavier than the "tilting" version, and required the weight to be adjusted accordingly, hence the screw and spring arrangement.

Barry

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Audio1950

The screw on the left which is attached to the spring is the one I was referring to. That adjusts the weight. Philips made two different styles of cartridge for this deck, the infamous "tilting" one, the other being a larger wedge shape, with a red "flip-under" stereo cartridge. That was heavier than the "tilting" version, and required the weight to be adjusted accordingly, hence the screw and spring arrangement.

Barry

I've had both of those heads but this one used the larger wedge type head with the flip-under but sadly it's output was fading.

The screw on the left is actually a plain set screw from my parts bin and not an official Philips thing, but good to know that perhaps I'm on the right track. The screw meshes well within the spring and even allows some fine adjustment, the big issues are will it maintain consistently the new lighter tracking weight across the horizontal arc of the tonearm when in use, and will it not foul the housing when that is screwed back over the bubble arm (housing not shown in pic 2 but is in pic 1), I'll trial this over the best few days

[Audio1950]

I thought that screw looked a bit odd, it's usually buried deep in the hole, and has no head. No arm that relies on a stretching spring for adjustment will maintain the same weight as the arm rises vertically over the height of a stack of records. It's just something that us fans of autochangers have to accept, but I can't see the problem concerning the horizontal arc of the arm affecting the weight

Barry

[hayerjoe]

ok I seem to have a good solution for this

First I'll explain the factory set up. These tonearms have virtually no overhang beyond the tonearm pivot, so they use a spring to pull down what little overhang there is to lighten the tonearm at the cartridge end, pretty crude and unadjustable.

Solution #1 - fit a stronger spring. Problem with this is finding such short springs at the exact tension you need

Solution #2 - bend up the top tab that the spring is attached to (see photo), to increase the tension. I tried this, at best you get 0.2g reduction at cartridge end, not enough really

Solution #3 (the best) - fit a 12mm M4 set screw inside the tension spring from the top. the m4 threads mesh well with the spring's coils and effectively allows you to ramp up the tension incrementally, which allows quite fine adjustment at the cartridge end. When set lock it with a tiny dab of hot glue. I set my tracking weight to lower than the desired figure as I can allways add tiny bits of weight at the cartridge end (bit easier than removing the tonearm back cover, removing the hot glue and adjusting again)

The one concern with #3 was will the screw head foul the tonearm back cover, mine didn't but if yours does you could always grind the head down a bit, remember it's not the weight of the screw that makes this work its the fact it locks a few coils of the spring and that action increases the spring's strength

Cheers
Joe

[Audio1950]

Why not cut the head off the screw, then cut a slot in the top of the rest of the thread to take the screwdriver? (as per the original)

Barry

[Audio1950]

Originally Posted by Audio1950

Why not cut the head off the screw, then cut a slot in the top of the rest of the thread to take the screwdriver? (as per the original)

Barry

To answer my own question, you can't do that because the arm on yours is of a slightly different design to the one I was describing, which had a threaded hole in the back of the "bubble", through which was a headless screw, which was attached to the spring, so that when the screw was turned anti-clockwise, it travelled up the threaded hole, and pulled the spring up, thus lessening the weight if the arm. That was if the brittle plastic didn't shatter as soon as the screw was turned, which mine did!

Barry

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Audio1950

To answer my own question, you can't do that because the arm on yours is of a slightly different design to the one I was describing, which had a threaded hole in the back of the "bubble", through which was a headless screw, which was attached to the spring, so that when the screw was turned anti-clockwise, it travelled up the threaded hole, and pulled the spring up, thus lessening the weight if the arm. That was if the brittle plastic didn't shatter as soon as the screw was turned, which mine did!

Barry

Your comments proved I was on the right so thanks for that. I've had 3 Disc Jockey type decks and none had the feature you're talking about, but it makes sense theyd eventually have to provide some adjustment Would be good to see a picture or even a schematic of it if you can find one