I've destroyed my Technics 1200 SL. Supposedly unbreakable. Deejays have demonstrated this by standing on the deck as it spins (not advisable). I began by tweaking the settings. The table is really versatile and allows vertical tracking angle, stylus pressure and anti-tracking force to be changed with simple dials. So, I read the instructions, and balanced the tonearm perfectly, researched the appropriate tracking force for a Grado Gold stylus, and had everything just so. But somehow the sound wasn't quite what I wanted. I recalled seeing grey gunk inside the cart that may have built up over the ten years of play. It actually looks like old vinyl. So, I removed this "gunk", and horror, the record didn't sound. Just a hint of the right channel.

I called upon friend and audio expert Mike Venables, and he suggested a few tests. Confirming that one channel was gone completely, I confirmed this was probably dead in the water. I called NeedleDoctor and talked to a friendly sales rep (Matt), and he confirmed that the gunk was in fact a conductive material to connect the stylus and cart. Yikes.

Well, I got side-tracked talking in talking with Matt, and discussed upgrading the table to handle 78RPM, and buying separate headshells so I could swap out the 78 cart, and even a third cart for mono LPs/45s.

For the first time, I removed the headshell, and it plugs and unplugs with ease. Great design.

Anyway, more to come as I contact Grado, and see if there's a substitute for the magic gunk to get the table playing tunes again.