Ceramic vs magnetic cartridges

[William]

I have this Canadian built one tube wonder that is dead. It was one of my first units to rebuild and totally wasted my time recapping it and installing new needles. It did not make a peep when done. Being kind of dumb, I did not realize that one tube wonders used crystal cartridges. After learning the hard way that that was indeed my problem I contacted Gary. His response back was, "Sorry, I have nothing that will work for you". It has been sitting on a shelf ever since. The Vintage BSR changer performs flawlessly so I have kept it for that reason.

Fast forward to last summer. I was walking thru an antique store and spotted a little record player. I took a look and found that it was a VM. This unit is also a one tube wonder with a manual turntable. It was basically a kids record player. It did not have a price so I asked the owner, how much. $15.00 was his response. Oh, I said. What will you give me for it was his next response, my answer was how about 10 bucks. Sold, was his comeback. I brought it home, gave it a bath, nd took it apart to see what it looked like on the inside Yep, it's a one tube wonder alright. I brought it up on the Variac just to see if it worked or not, and it did not. Another crystal cartridge with no fix. But, just for the heck of it I contacted Gary at VM expecting the "Can't help you" answer. Much to my surprise he said he had a cartridge for it. So, my question is, WHY the VM and not the Canadian unit? Isn't a crystal cartridge, a crystal cartridge? I never found a schematic for the Canadian unit, and I'm not very good at figuring out circuits by just looking at them. Of course Gary will have a schematic for the little VM, and, one of these days when I remember I will include it in an order I place with him.

Does anyone have an idea what the difference is between the two units? Is it the difference in tubes, and how voltages are done in the audio input circuits? If so, than I may have more questions.

Thank you,
Bill

[electra225]

My guess, and it's just a GUESS, is that the difference may be the kind of cartridge the two record players used. One may have been like the old Astatics that have been obsolete for 50 years. The VM may have used a much later version that Gary had, or had an equivalent for. And, since Gary is the VM guru, that fact may have played a part, as well. Perhaps, in the way of a suggestion, you'd post a picture of the one you can't get a cartridge for, somebody might be able to give you a suggestion that would help you. Is is a manual player? I have some manual tone arms with stereo cartridges that I'm going to paint brown and use them on my mom's first record player, circa 1946. After reading the link Chris posted about using a ceramic and a 50EH5, I might modify the amp in mom's old Gilt Edge player so I can use a ceramic cartridge in it. I think it would be interesting if somebody on here did some tinkering with ceramic cartridges to see if they will indeed drive a 50EH5 with sufficient volume.

[TC Chris]

I bet if you do some searching on the internet you'll find a schematic for a simple one-transistor preamp that would let you use a lower-output ceramic with your one-tube wonders. And maybe Gary was trying to match the physical mount. If so, getting a cart that works otherwise and doing some adaptation would solve the problem. It might not look exactly authentic but it would work.

Chris Campbell

[William]

Never thought of that, Chris, thanks!