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Pitch Drift on MK2's

Ok basically trying to figure out the problem here.

I am using SSL with the old control vinyls with pitch drift compensation on.

I am getting strange Pitch variation when pitching near 0 on my MK2s. Does anyone have any idea if it's a common thing for MK2's? Is there anyway I can replace the pitch with an M3D pitch control or something?

Re: Pitch Drift on MK2's

quote:

Originally posted by sym Is there anyway I can replace the pitch with an M3D pitch control or something?

Pretty easily actually....

Re: Re: Pitch Drift on MK2's

quote:

Originally posted by Dirk W. Pretty easily actually....

Any recomendations for it? Can I just order the part and do it myself, or should I bring it in somewhere and have them order it?

I had the same problem with my old 1200mk2. Not with SSL , but with the turntable when playing vinyl. When I would sometimes ride the pitch between the -1 thru +1, the Turntable pitch seemed unstable.

I swapped out the old mk2 pitch control and replaced it with an m3d pitch control. After that, everything was perfect. you will need to solder the replacement m3d pitch control in.

The replacement m3d ptich contol was like 35$ from someplace. I dont remember where I ordered it from.

Maybe removing the ball-bearing quartz lock thingy from the mk2 pitch control can make pitching records around the -1 to +1 more stable. I've done it to a mk2 turntable about 10 yrs ago, but I dont remember if the pitch was still unstable after removing the ball-bearing.

Re: Re: Re: Pitch Drift on MK2's

quote:

Originally posted by sym Any recomendations for it? Can I just order the part and do it myself, or should I bring it in somewhere and have them order it?

I am pretty sure you can just order and do it yourself. I have replaced several things inside my techs and they are not that complicated. Order the piece here or here. I am sure all you have to do is change it out.

quote:

Originally posted by SUNWmsf I had the same problem with my old 1200mk2. Not with SSL , but with the turntable when playing vinyl. When I would sometimes ride the pitch between the -1 thru +1, the Turntable pitch seemed unstable. I swapped out the old mk2 pitch control and replaced it with an m3d pitch control. After that, everything was perfect. you will need to solder the replacement m3d pitch control in. The replacement m3d ptich contol was like 35$ from someplace. I dont remember where I ordered it from. Maybe removing the ball-bearing quartz lock thingy from the mk2 pitch control can make pitching records around the -1 to +1 more stable. I've done it to a mk2 turntable about 10 yrs ago, but I dont remember if the pitch was still unstable after removing the ball-bearing.

This is my exact problem, between +1 and -1 It seems to behave strangely

http://www.mio.co.za/article.php?cat=dj&id=238

- What you do is open up the TT, by removing the 1,000,000 screws from beneath.
- Then unplug the wire that connects the mk2 pitch control to the TT.
- Then unscrew the mk2 pitch control PCB board from the TT.
- Then de-solder the mk2 pitch control from the PCB board that it is attached to. [ I used a 25 watt solder IRON. I tried 15 watt, but it didnt get hot enough. It took some time to de-solder even with 25-watt solder iron. ]
- Then re-solder the replacement m3d pitch control to the PCB board. [It might be a good idea to have a voltmeter around to test your solder job. You want to make sure the connections are good cuz you dont want to have to re-open the TT again. ]
- Then screw the PCB board to the TT and re-connect the wire.
- Close up shop.

All in all, it is a pretty easy job. You dont really have to know much about electronics to do the swap. It should take you about 45 mins to do. I think they have instructions on the web someplace... maybe like http://www.1200s.com or something like that.

This is pretty common on mk2's and you don't have to go into so much hassle as actually replacing the pitch-slider components. You'll have to calibrate it using the pots vr301 (under the platter) and vr302 (under the pitch slider, so you'll have to open it from beneath).
To contrary belief the pot underneath the platter will not adjust your pitchrange, it will set your true zero-point. The pot underneath the pitch-slider will adjust your range.
Don't know exactly which kind of decks you have, but on mk2's what you have to do is adjust vr301 until the true zero-point overlaps the zero-point indicated by the slider (when the green led lights up). Sometimes you'll need to adjust vr302 also to get a perfect calibration, and it's best if you use a multi-meter for it.
I can put up a small step-by-step guide if anyone is interested. Because a lot of the guides on the internet are wrong (most of them just copy/past eachother ).

- farris

quote:

Originally posted by farris This is pretty common on mk2's and you don't have to go into so much hassle as actually replacing the pitch-slider components. You'll have to calibrate it using the pots vr301 (under the platter) and vr302 (under the pitch slider, so you'll have to open it from beneath). To contrary belief the pot underneath the platter will not adjust your pitchrange, it will set your true zero-point. The pot underneath the pitch-slider will adjust your range. Don't know exactly which kind of decks you have, but on mk2's what you have to do is adjust vr301 until the true zero-point overlaps the zero-point indicated by the slider (when the green led lights up). Sometimes you'll need to adjust vr302 also to get a perfect calibration, and it's best if you use a multi-meter for it. I can put up a small step-by-step guide if anyone is interested. Because a lot of the guides on the internet are wrong (most of them just copy/past eachother ). - farris

That would be pretty helpful, is the guide posted above correct? Also, is there anyway to remove the click in at zero pitch while i'm in there?

After reading that guide and reading a forum post of others who have used that guide succesfully, I decided to give it a go on one of my decks.

I adjust the blue knob labelled pitch, and was able to get it so the big circle was close to still at 0%, but now when I pitch it up toward +8% it sounds more like +16%, anyone have any ideas?

Hmm well I put it back toward it's default setting and it doesn't seem to be doing quite what it was doing, but it I can't seem to get it so that when the LED is on, it'a at 0%, according my Serato Scratch, when the LED is on it is around -2.0%

You'll need a decent multimeter for this:

for 0% pitch (oh yeah, be sure the fader is EXACTLY AT 0%), the frequency of pot VR301 should be 262.08KHz +/- 0.05KHz. Connect the + lead to TP27 and - lead to ground.

For pitch control gain adjust, connect the + lead to pin 5 and the - lead to pin 6. Then the resistance should be 2.875Kohms +/- .25Kohms, if off use pot VR302 to adj. (btw, this is part of the same connector that the guide told you to cut that wire)

You probably shouldn't of cut those leads that was on that web site. Now you deck probably won't use the quartz crystal and rely heavily on the resistance of the pitch control. Therefore if the fader is going out, you may experience a more noticable pitch drift and more pronounced wow/flutter than before.

quote:

Originally posted by dj chex You'll need a decent multimeter for this: for 0% pitch (oh yeah, be sure the fader is EXACTLY AT 0%), the frequency of pot VR301 should be 262.08KHz +/- 0.05KHz. Connect the + lead to TP27 and - lead to ground. For pitch control gain adjust, connect the + lead to pin 5 and the - lead to pin 6. Then the resistance should be 2.875Kohms +/- .25Kohms, if off use pot VR302 to adj. (btw, this is part of the same connector that the guide told you to cut that wire) You probably shouldn't of cut those leads that was on that web site. Now you deck probably won't use the quartz crystal and rely heavily on the resistance of the pitch control. Therefore if the fader is going out, you may experience a more noticable pitch drift and more pronounced wow/flutter than before.

I figured I could always just solder it back if I really needed to, I just couldn't stand it for a second longer. Over the last couple of days especially, I have encountered more and more problems with it.

I've never used a multimeter before, should I go out and buy one? I see one's on radioshack that are only about 20 bux, is there anything in particular I should be looking for?

trying to find one w/ a built in frequency counter is the hard part. If anybody knows a decent, cheap one w/ freq counter please tell. Frequency counters are usually expensive i believe. When i calabrated my 1200s i used my radioshack meter w/ the resistance on pot vr201, but as for the pitch at 0% i just ignored it b/c my dad couldn't find his oscillascope.

I think i have a winner.....

http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...t%5Fid=22%2D811

quote:

� Unit measures frequency up to 4MHz and detects electric fields

sounds like just what i need.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...uct%5Fid=22-810

Thats no good?

Was going to write the steps, but dj chex already did...saves me time . Follow the steps which dj chex posted.

It's true that often only the expensive multimeters can handle frequency. While back when I was in the process of calibrating I asked everybody I knew and their grandmothers if I could lend one, most people gave me this akward look and said: "What's a multimeter". Or they would have a multimeter that would handle everything from Ohm, Volts to even IQ (j/k ), but couldn't handle Frequency.
Finally I found someone after weeks of asking around. I could also have bought one, but they sell them at 50 euro here being the cheapest and I would only use it once.
So ask yourself if you're gonna be using it a lot for other things too, else it's best to ask friends/family etc.
The multimeter you found at radioshack isn't good, it can't measure frequency. Look for ones that can measure in Hz (Hertz). The one dj chex posted from radioshack will do.

The steps are very straightforward actually, quite easy.
BTW, you might have turned the blue pot too far. It only needs minuscule in-/decrements. Just use a multimeter to get the exact values .
The steps from the link that Briden posted aren't correct. I haven't read it all, but already found an error...

I'll just go ahead and post the steps here once again:
0% PITCH CONTROL ADJUST:
Set the pitchfader on 0% and measure on testpoint TP27 with a multimeter. Place the (+) on TP27 and the (-) on GND. Adjust potmeter VR301 until it reads a frequency of 262,08 +/- 0.05kHz. Some multimeters will only show one decimal, so if you get it somewhere between 262,0 or 262,2 you'll be fine.

PITCH GAIN CONTROL ADJUST:
Set the pitchfader on 0% and measure on pin 5(+) and 6(-) of the detached pitchfader connector.
Adjust potmeter VR302 until the multimeter reads 2,7 +/- 0,25Kohm.

If you don't know which connections are meant just download this service manual which will clear things up: http://www.backspin.org/sl1200mk2.pdf
Hope you find this useful and let us know how things went .

Before I forget, don't press stop/play when you have the platter off!
Unless you want some smoke in your room .

- farris

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