I decided to change my tonearm on the technics 1200 mk2. Everything went well untill I noticed that my old tonearm had a green wire and the new one has a brown instead. I also noticed something strange about how everything was soldered before. The black wire is soldered and bridges between 2 pads and the green/brown wire is soldered to some random pad. I will attach an image for everyone to see. Does anyone have any ideas what is going on? I have everything soldered and I'm just waiting to close up the turntable.

um....
Someone has been fiddling with yours in the past and not done a very good job- never seen one done like that before!

This is one of mine that I recently re-wired.


Note the layout of the wires compared to yours- someone has soldered your brown to the ground wire, and joined the track for your -ve from your R channel to your ground... bizarre!
IN theory yours should work correctly wired like it is, but its a very roundabout way of doing it, and not ideal.


Look at the layout of the tonearm wires on mine- that is the correct way to wire them.
The additional black wires attached to the -ve on mine are simply to remove the ground wire (snip it, and solder it to one of the -ve and you never have to fuck about with ground wires ever again)- and my cables are extra thick as I use microphone cable for mine...


Some have green, some have brown- doesnt matter which color- they still get soldered to the same tab. No other colors are different.

Very good post thank you. I got impatient and closed everything up and tried mine. According to my Hifi News test record the left and right channels are messed up. Should I just do what you did? I don't understand why my channels are mixed up

I copied the wiring in your image and now its the same but without the ground mod. I think the wires inside the new tonearm are not wired correctly, is there any way to check this?

What makes you think it is faulty- are you having issues with the sound now?

Where did you buy the tonearm?
Is it a genuine technics part?
Have you cleared away that short between the two tabs that the black wire is soldered to in your picture?
Double check no other tracks are shorting or joined.

What cartridge are you using? Is it a headshell mount? Double check that the headshell wires into the cartridge are wired correctly- this would also give L/R swapped signals..


I will say be very careful stripping and soldering those tonearm wires- very fragile and thin. Make absolutely sure you have a good connection there.

Everything is working is fine, I decided to just put the red in the left channel and put the white in the right. I don't think this has any effect on the audio quality.

I suspect the tonearm itself because I didn't have this problem with the old one. I ordered mine from KABUSA and I assume its original.

Yes, I removed that short between the 2 pads.

Another side question you might be able to answer. I changed the pop up light a while back and now whenever I pop it up, it gets stuck in the up position. It requires a bit of pressure to get it back down which is definately not normal. Any idea what this could be?

quote:

Originally posted by Freak What makes you think it is faulty- are you having issues with the sound now? Where did you buy the tonearm? Is it a genuine technics part? Have you cleared away that short between the two tabs that the black wire is soldered to in your picture? Double check no other tracks are shorting or joined. What cartridge are you using? Is it a headshell mount? Double check that the headshell wires into the cartridge are wired correctly- this would also give L/R swapped signals.. I will say be very careful stripping and soldering those tonearm wires- very fragile and thin. Make absolutely sure you have a good connection there.

+1 to all of this. I've NEVER seen a tonarm wired incorrectly internally. It will either be that bridge solder or if you're using a headshell based needle then the wires in that are swapped around.

As for the pop up light, the classic problem is the wires getting in the way. Make sure they clear the hole otherwise you'll strip them in no time. The other common issue is something catching on the spring inside.

quote:

Originally posted by Freak This is one of mine that I recently re-wired.

Actually just clocked something in this photo (nice Van Damme BTW) - why'd you use VD Mic cable instead of Instrument?