Thanks for your video. I am currently repairing a 1941 CAPEHART RADIOCONSOLE, model 111K3. It has a crystal cartridge very similar to the one you show in the video. I will follow your technical advice 😉 Thank you very much!
Thanks for the video. I was asked to repair a radio/record player with an L-40 cartridge. As you said, the original cartridge was completely corroded inside. So I ordered some piezos from China and followed your instructions. The case and needle holder are pot metal and extremely fragile! If it weren't for Gorilla Glue, I'd been sunk! your trick of using plastic from a CD case was off a few thousands and busted the needle holder (don't force thinks Marc!) Anyway, a little super glue and another day to dry and off we went. Clamping the case together to make sure the rubber around the needle holder would set (that tape was genius!) put some more cracks around the edges. A little more Gorilla Glue and another day to set. FINALLY got it all buttoned up and the damn thing actually worked!!! The volume needs to be pretty well maxed out for normal room volume, but it has decent tonal range. Someone suggested multiple piezos. II think a simple transistor pre-amp would be more effective. Again, thanks. Would have never attempted a repair of the cartridge.
I think a pre amp would be better, never tried multiple piezos. But glad I could help...you can experiment with different materials and get different results. The best part is the satisfaction that you did it and it worked....
And to think that for me when the vintage cartridge stopped working it represented a whole tragedy!. Many years ago I had to throw away an old Astatic just like the one you rebuilt, damn it, and all because at that time and since many years ago here in Mexico it is impossible to find such cartridges and you have to replace!. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!. I still have an unusable cartridge from the 1950s that I will be able to repair thanks to its excellent video tutorial, because only monaural cartridges can deliver the authentic monaural sound with which the monaural discs are recorded, and I have a portable record player of the 1960s that I got working, but without the cartridge, and I will try to make one based on this reconstruction technique that you have kindly shared with us. And again, thank you very much!
About 50 years ago I collected 78s and had a few electric 78 players and the Rochelle-salt crystal was always bad in those cartridges even back then... that stuff is so delicate because it is very water-soluble and those salts will quickly melt into mush if the slightest moisture or humidity gets into it... back then the rubber in them was still usable, though... but these days the rubber is a lot older and would be deteriorated by now... back then the ones I had were about 40 years old or so... now those type of cartridges are about 100 years old.... :-)
I am trying my hand at this, and when I popped apart the housing to clean it out, the rochelle salt crystal had flowed into a icky mess after 77 years.
Robert Wirth Good luck, make sure the element doesn’t touch any part of the body inside. May use sponge for dampers, it’s trial and error and will work if done correctly.
blackjack6934 it's been a mystery to me over 50 years and I'm delighted to at least have a cheap way to try. I bet some dampening is in order too. The elements are on their way already. I'll keep you posted. Thank you Sir
I did follow your instruction and the record palyer is working beautifully. Is this a RCA Victor model VR 245 (1945) on which the cartiridge was in white powder ! Thank you very much for sharing.
Neat vid.Rebuilt crystal cartridges run in excess of $40 on ebay.I have one or two old radio/phono combinations myself.Radiotvphononut would appreciate this as he does alot of phono restorations.
Just thinking: maybe it would make sense to sandwich 2 or 3 of those piezo wafers together. insulating each one from the next with thin tape and then wiring them in series. This will boost the output voltage and as an added bonus the impedance will go up. There sure is enough space in the cartridge...
Blitz Roehre The piezo’s need to vibrate , so to sandwich wouldn’t work, unless maybe with very soft insulation. There is room...all we can do is to try it. Thanks
blackjack6934 ++ just to let you know, using your yt video, i was able to rebuild a oem astatic phono cartridge with a piezo element found on ebay. used a 35mm piezo element, cut it to size, used the scotch electrical putty, closed all up and it works great with a new oem needle i had. i did this for a rca victor 78 player model 6-J attachment and saved myself $50.00. thanks again.
david wells Glad it worked out, sometimes it takes several tries and experimenting with putting sponge like dampers on each side of the piezo...it isn’t for everyone, but with a little patience, you can get good results.
blackjack6934 ++ i have one other question. the cartridge you rebuilt for that philco 78 player, did it have a old fashion victrola steel needle in it? i've got a 1940 silvertone 78 player with a similar cartridge minus the needle i'm going to restore that i got off ebay for a good price. i'm retired now and love this hobby of record player restoration. got the time now to pursue it.
david wells Yes it did, and you can purchase these needles on EBay as well. I’m retired too and have been restoring old radios ever since then, but they seem harder to get nowadays.
I am going to attempt this with an old Astatic L40 cartridge pulled out of a 1941 Motorola phonograph. Your video is wonderful and informative, and I plan on following many of the same steps. Have you found a good source for replacement needles yet? I think it was an Astatic N4-3. Again, great video.
I rebuilt my Wilcox-Gay Recordette 3 with the exact same process you used. Then I hooked it up to my Recordette 3 and I had to raise the volume all the way up just to get some sound while playing a record. Any clues what went wrong? Thanks Jerry
since i got one record player like this. i enjoy repaireing mine, it is an RC-36 The cutter head is more tricky though.. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated to bring to it back to 100 percent complete functionality.. PLS..
Gerry Roberts This is not a cutter head, this is only for playback. If you do have a cutter head, your better off getting it repaired by West-Tech services online.
Yeah, what i said i used this technique for the player end only..?? I sent a head for him to fix. it burned up after 4 weeks. I kept sending it back to him, he refuse to fix my M-41 magnetic. I called him on the phone, he said he no work on them no more ?? When i did send a head out peices went missing, my head got lost in the mail, didn't insure it.. Never send in the mail again.
Gerry Roberts I’ve had one bad experience with him, I had him rebuilt a crystal cartridge a while back, it worked but kept shorting out, so I sent it back, but he took his time sending it back, 4 weeks. That’s when I decided to do my own. The problem with these piezo elements as they are lower voltage. The original crystals were about 3 volts. So most of the time tube radios have to almost be at full volume. I don’t know who else rebuilds these cutter heads, if you find someone, let me know.
Good rebuild, however the output can drive that amplifier quite well, My question is can it drive a vintage amplifier that requires a higher level of voltage, the original crystal cartridges put out around 3 or so Volt's. If you were to put like a lower Voltage cartridge in a tube amp you would need a pre amp stage in order to get the original volume from the amp. Why not demonstrate this cartridge rebuild connected to an old tube amp that it was originally coupled with? That Will truly measure the success of this rebuild.
I no longer own that cartridge, but your right, after doing this video and installing it on a tube type radio, the volume was low. You would need some type of pre-amp.
The biggest always sounds better, it just a matter of having it fit…and be sure it doesn’t touch anything once inside. It’s not easy getting it right. Took me a lot of time trying different things. Good luck.
+mario del villar cortes I can't do it for less then $30 plus shipping. ( $3.50) It takes a few tries and takes me all day to get it right. We could do one and see if you like it enough to do another?
Hello! I tried this and got pretty bad results. The piezo I got is the large one and looks like yours but it doesn't seem very sensitive even before cutting. Are there different types? Thank you!!
Not sure, I bought mine on Ebay and they were probably from China. It’s takes a lot of trial and error to get it just right. I finally gave up on doing anymore. I’m looking for a different way to fix these cartridges. So good luck, and don’t give up.
If you can solder, not hard at all... just replace the caps with equivalent values... I get all my capacitors from www.justradios.com/ if you cant read the values on the old capacitors, you'll need a schematic for that radio. I started doing it not knowing a thing about old radios. Just watch videos on old radio restorations... lots out there.
@@JackOfAllTrades2022 Jack there are many high voltage capacitor suppliers in the USA for tube radios and amps, I am one, www.oldradioparts.net Detroit area, I specialize in capacitors, controls (volume, tone, etc), knobs and stuff for 1930-1970 era stuff.
They don't produce enough voltage to work on 78 players, you are running though a transistor player, try it on a real 78 player with no preamp... no volume...
+bones007able I did, I have used it on many tube type radios. I use a transistor type radio for demonstration purposes, but I have used them and demonstrated these cartridges on tube radios as well...
@@JackOfAllTrades2022 That's why you cut the piezo element as large as you can make it to fit inside the cartridge housing. You would probably shoot for max deflection of that piezo thus max voltage output.
Thanks for your video. I am currently repairing a 1941 CAPEHART RADIOCONSOLE, model 111K3. It has a crystal cartridge very similar to the one you show in the video. I will follow your technical advice 😉
Thank you very much!
Thanks for the video. I was asked to repair a radio/record player with an L-40 cartridge. As you said, the original cartridge was completely corroded inside. So I ordered some piezos from China and followed your instructions. The case and needle holder are pot metal and extremely fragile! If it weren't for Gorilla Glue, I'd been sunk! your trick of using plastic from a CD case was off a few thousands and busted the needle holder (don't force thinks Marc!) Anyway, a little super glue and another day to dry and off we went. Clamping the case together to make sure the rubber around the needle holder would set (that tape was genius!) put some more cracks around the edges. A little more Gorilla Glue and another day to set. FINALLY got it all buttoned up and the damn thing actually worked!!! The volume needs to be pretty well maxed out for normal room volume, but it has decent tonal range. Someone suggested multiple piezos. II think a simple transistor pre-amp would be more effective. Again, thanks. Would have never attempted a repair of the cartridge.
I think a pre amp would be better, never tried multiple piezos. But glad I could help...you can experiment with different materials and get different results. The best part is the satisfaction that you did it and it worked....
And to think that for me when the vintage cartridge stopped working it represented a whole tragedy!. Many years ago I had to throw away an old Astatic just like the one you rebuilt, damn it, and all because at that time and since many years ago here in Mexico it is impossible to find such cartridges and you have to replace!. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!. I still have an unusable cartridge from the 1950s that I will be able to repair thanks to its excellent video tutorial, because only monaural cartridges can deliver the authentic monaural sound with which the monaural discs are recorded, and I have a portable record player of the 1960s that I got working, but without the cartridge, and I will try to make one based on this reconstruction technique that you have kindly shared with us. And again, thank you very much!
About 50 years ago I collected 78s and had a few electric 78 players and the Rochelle-salt crystal was always bad in those cartridges even back then... that stuff is so delicate because it is very water-soluble and those salts will quickly melt into mush if the slightest moisture or humidity gets into it... back then the rubber in them was still usable, though... but these days the rubber is a lot older and would be deteriorated by now... back then the ones I had were about 40 years old or so... now those type of cartridges are about 100 years old.... :-)
I am trying my hand at this, and when I popped apart the housing to clean it out, the rochelle salt crystal had flowed into a icky mess after 77 years.
Good video. Thanks for posting.
I'm totally gonna try this myself . This could very well be life changing.
Robert Wirth Good luck, make sure the element doesn’t touch any part of the body inside. May use sponge for dampers, it’s trial and error and will work if done correctly.
blackjack6934 it's been a mystery to me over 50 years and I'm delighted to at least have a cheap way to try. I bet some dampening is in order too. The elements are on their way already. I'll keep you posted. Thank you Sir
I did follow your instruction and the record palyer is working beautifully. Is this a RCA Victor model VR 245 (1945) on which the cartiridge was in white powder ! Thank you very much for sharing.
Neat vid.Rebuilt crystal cartridges run in excess of $40 on ebay.I have one or two old radio/phono combinations myself.Radiotvphononut would appreciate this as he does alot of phono restorations.
Just thinking: maybe it would make sense to sandwich 2 or 3 of those piezo wafers together. insulating each one from the next with thin tape and then wiring them in series. This will boost the output voltage and as an added bonus the impedance will go up. There sure is enough space in the cartridge...
Blitz Roehre The piezo’s need to vibrate , so to sandwich wouldn’t work, unless maybe with very soft insulation. There is room...all we can do is to try it. Thanks
Great job !
Thanks for this I'm going to attempt this on my philips ag3016 and hopefully it works
blackjack6934 ++ just to let you know, using your yt video, i was able to rebuild a oem astatic phono cartridge with a piezo element found on ebay. used a 35mm piezo element, cut it to size, used the scotch electrical putty, closed all up and it works great with a new oem needle i had. i did this for a rca victor 78 player model 6-J attachment and saved myself $50.00. thanks again.
david wells Glad it worked out, sometimes it takes several tries and experimenting with putting sponge like dampers on each side of the piezo...it isn’t for everyone, but with a little patience, you can get good results.
thanks for your response. i had to experiment a bit but i solved it.
blackjack6934 ++ i have one other question. the cartridge you rebuilt for that philco 78 player, did it have a old fashion victrola steel needle in it? i've got a 1940 silvertone 78 player with a similar cartridge minus the needle i'm going to restore that i got off ebay for a good price. i'm retired now and love this hobby of record player restoration. got the time now to pursue it.
david wells Yes it did, and you can purchase these needles on EBay as well. I’m retired too and have been restoring old radios ever since then, but they seem harder to get nowadays.
david wells Heres my web site: superduper200554.wixsite.com/tuberadios
Just a suggestion, instead of the small pieces of cut tape, maybe a short piece of heat shrink tubing, then shrunk would work also. Possibly??
Probably… it’s a hit and miss project. Sometimes it works great, other times a small adjustment will make it sound better.
I am going to attempt this with an old Astatic L40 cartridge pulled out of a 1941 Motorola phonograph. Your video is wonderful and informative, and I plan on following many of the same steps. Have you found a good source for replacement needles yet? I think it was an Astatic N4-3. Again, great video.
Thats how i repaired mine..
You are a " fenomenous" !!!!!, thanks !!!!
fer982005 Not sure what fenomenous means, but thanks.
Thanks for sharing your how you do it. How did you cut the piezo?
+cptrdbrd With sharp scissors! Cuts easily.
scissors and sandpaper will do or a dremmel..
This was interesting enuf for me to do a thumbs up, but I have to say that I cringed when you pulled out gorilla glue.
I rebuilt my Wilcox-Gay Recordette 3 with the exact same process you used. Then I hooked it up to my Recordette 3 and I had to raise the volume all the way up just to get some sound while playing a record. Any clues what went wrong? Thanks Jerry
Thanks for the video, do you know the type of the piezo tablet they use? I do use the some types but i get low gain there, thanks!
Is there anything to watch out for when choosing a Piezo element? any cartridges that that use strange voltages or are otherwise unsuitable for this?
since i got one record player like this. i enjoy repaireing mine, it is an RC-36 The cutter head is more tricky though.. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated to bring to it back to 100 percent complete functionality.. PLS..
Gerry Roberts This is not a cutter head, this is only for playback. If you do have a cutter head, your better off getting it repaired by West-Tech services online.
Gerry Roberts Also, not sure what the RC-36 is, what brand record player? It doesn’t sound like a Philco model.
Yeah, what i said i used this technique for the player end only..?? I sent a head for him to fix. it burned up after 4 weeks. I kept sending it back to him, he refuse to fix my M-41 magnetic. I called him on the phone, he said he no work on them no more ?? When i did send a head out peices went missing, my head got lost in the mail, didn't insure it.. Never send in the mail again.
Gerry Roberts I’ve had one bad experience with him, I had him rebuilt a crystal cartridge a while back, it worked but kept shorting out, so I sent it back, but he took his time sending it back, 4 weeks. That’s when I decided to do my own. The problem with these piezo elements as they are lower voltage. The original crystals were about 3 volts. So most of the time tube radios have to almost be at full volume.
I don’t know who else rebuilds these cutter heads, if you find someone, let me know.
What size screws and nuts do you use to put it back together?
Good rebuild, however the output can drive that amplifier quite well,
My question is can it drive a vintage amplifier that requires a higher level of voltage, the original crystal cartridges put out around 3 or so Volt's. If you were to put like a lower
Voltage cartridge in a tube amp you would need a pre amp stage in order to get the original volume from the amp. Why not demonstrate this cartridge rebuild
connected to an old tube amp that it was originally coupled with? That
Will truly measure the success of this rebuild.
I no longer own that cartridge, but your right, after doing this video and installing it on a tube type radio, the volume was low. You would need some type of pre-amp.
i have build it but out put is very low
morning it the same process for astatic 26x it the head cutter recordio? thank for your time
I’ve never done one, so I can’t give you an answer on that one.
Which one of piezo elements sounds better the 35mm or the 20mm ??
The biggest always sounds better, it just a matter of having it fit…and be sure it doesn’t touch anything once inside. It’s not easy getting it right. Took me a lot of time trying different things. Good luck.
Is there any chance I can send you the cartridge so you can repair it? I have 4 of it.
Thanks
Mario
+mario del villar cortes I can't do it for less then $30 plus shipping. ( $3.50) It takes a few tries and takes me all day to get it right. We could do one and see if you like it enough to do another?
Hello! I tried this and got pretty bad results. The piezo I got is the large one and looks like yours but it doesn't seem very sensitive even before cutting. Are there different types? Thank you!!
Not sure, I bought mine on Ebay and they were probably from China. It’s takes a lot of trial and error to get it just right. I finally gave up on doing anymore. I’m looking for a different way to fix these cartridges. So good luck, and don’t give up.
You must drill those fragile rivets with a hand pin vise.
Jesus Sanchez Your right...I was too much in a hurry....I have to learn to take my time.
@@JackOfAllTrades2022 that is of most importance I have learned. Great how to vid. Better than watching tv
Jesus Sanchez I know, I watch a lot of how to videos myself. Please subscribe if you haven’t, thanks.
How difficult is it to recap a old phonograph? My 1948 Newcomb needs it. I hve done old car electrical and can solder ok.
If you can solder, not hard at all... just replace the caps with equivalent values... I get all my capacitors from www.justradios.com/ if you cant read the values on the old capacitors, you'll need a schematic for that radio. I started doing it not knowing a thing about old radios. Just watch videos on old radio restorations... lots out there.
@@JackOfAllTrades2022 Jack there are many high voltage capacitor suppliers in the USA for tube radios and amps, I am one, www.oldradioparts.net Detroit area, I specialize in capacitors, controls (volume, tone, etc), knobs and stuff for 1930-1970 era stuff.
Forgot to say, Just Radios is in Canada, Customs can really slow down your order if shipping into the USA.
@@leannmeixner8073 good to know, thanks.
They don't produce enough voltage to work on 78 players, you are running though a transistor player, try it on a real 78 player with no preamp... no volume...
+bones007able I did, I have used it on many tube type radios. I use a transistor type radio for demonstration purposes, but I have used them and demonstrated these cartridges on tube radios as well...
@@JackOfAllTrades2022 That's why you cut the piezo element as large as you can make it to fit inside the cartridge housing. You would probably shoot for max deflection of that piezo thus max voltage output.
The element is pronounced "Pee zo"
Wrong. Pie-ee-zo