I recently bought a Beogram 1000 deck, after some guess work rewiring I had it working perfectly. However, once the needle gets half way through a record it begins to hop skip and jump around. I realise this is a weighting problem, i.e. not enough weight on the needle. I have tried pushing the weight on the end of the tone arm in as far as possible with no effect. Im not too sure what the spring attached to the tone arm does, and don't know what to try next. Any help will be greatly received.

 

     Niall

The spring sets the tracking weight. There is a scale along the arm . Set it to zero and then move the arm weight so you achieve a floating arm. Then set the slide to 2g and it should work!I take it that you have an SP6-7?

Yes it is a SP6-7. By the term "floating arm", do you mean move the weight until the arm achieves a horizontal equilibrium position?

Thanks for the help.

 Niall

Exactly !

Martin

The scale on the arm only goes from 1-3, so by setting it to zero do you mean sliding it as close to the pivot as possible? If I set it to 1, then no matter how far in i move the weight, a floating arm is not achieved. Is this normal? I can get it to work by adding physical weight to the arm, this however looks a bit shabby and unproffesional.

Hmmm - I'll take it from the top. Unplug the deck from the mains while you do this.

The black balance weight is a push fit onto a chrome bushing. It's anchored there by a ball bearing - twist (to un-anchor it) and pull to remove it, push and twist to replace it. The chrome bushing has two screws to lock it down - you'll need a jewellers screwdriver to loosen them. To move the weight loosen the screws and slide the whole bushing/weight assembly.

At the base of the gimbal is a tiny wire clip - one end of the spring hooks onto this, the other end of the spring hooks onto the black slider. To balance the arm unhook the spring from the slider (you'll need needle-nose pliers to do this) and put the slider at the "1" line. The cartridge should be fitted. Unclip the tonearm from its rest and lower the cueing lever to free the tonearm - make sure the stylus doesn't land on anything. Move the balance weight until the tonearm floats horizontally. Clip the tonearm back and tighten the screws on the chrome bushing.

Route the spring under the cueing support (check out the pictures of the pickup arm on the Beoworld products section for reference) and hook it back onto the black slider (you'll really need needle-nose pliers to do this!) Now move the slider up to the "2" line. All done.

While we're here, pop a record onto the deck and swing the arm over it. With the cartridge over the record, check by eye that it is horizontal. If not, there's a screw under the arm that, when loosened, will allow the cartridge socket to rotate a bit. It'll be tight so be careful.

And, finally, the base of the cartridge should be about half a cm above the record when the cueing lever is up. There's a screw right at the base of the gimbal that, when loosened, allows the height of the gimbal to be adjusted. If you have to do this, you'll also have to do something similar with the arm rest to match the new height.

I think that's about it. The tracking force depends on the spring - if it's tired out or damaged then the numbers you set the slider to will mean diddly-squat, so adjust any further by trial and error.

Cheers,
Steve

Old thread but very good advice, it helped me to get things going right. Thanks! I have an other BG 1000 missing the whole balance weight, so if someone has an extra weight please drop me a line...

Cheers,

-Ilari, Finland

Hi Ilari,

You're very welcome, glad it was of help. Can't help with the balance weight, though.

Cheers,

Steve