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Vintage kit picture thread

note the elegant way the speed selector mirrors the curve of the platter, the timelessely clean lines of the chassis and the large and simply designed on off switch, which cleverly leaves your hand in the exact position it needs to be to cue the record, just as you have switched it on. No need for a light as it is obvious from the switch position whether it is on or not.
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The knob has three positions and controls the cuing. In the pic it is in the ‘off’ position, first click ‘on’ sets the motor running the remainder of the travel to ‘play’ lowers the cuing platform. Here’s Dave Brubeck advertising the American ‘Bogen’ badged L70 called a B61:

8g6grqt.jpg


The 88 and 99 are much easier to work with as they are chassis only, and currently seem to get top dollar for that reason, but many prefer the far scarcer very early light grey decks such as the GL59, GL60 and L70, i.e. those made between about 1959-64. It’s all aesthetics as mechanically they are all virtually identical. It’s the amount of cheesy plastic trim on the 88 and 99 that puts me off.

Tony.
 
Tony L said:
It’s all aesthetics as mechanically they are all virtually identical. It’s the amount of cheesy plastic trim on the 88 and 99 that puts me off.
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:) Quite. It never ceases to surprise me how a lot of industrial design from the late fifties and early sixties is so right (modernist influence I guess) and then seems to have been forgotten by the late sixties and early seventies, when they seems as though they never knew how to get it right in the first place.

If you have two of these, mess one up by modernising it sure, but leave this one au naturel. Its a beaut :)
 
Uncle Ants said:
If you have two of these, mess one up by modernising it sure, but leave this one au naturel. Its a beaut :)
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I'm deliberately doing nothing destructive to the other one - it's off being resprayed so will actually look more authentic as the platter should be white (the one above is stripped, therefore wrong). I'm certainly not going to modify it in any way. It will eventually go into a custom plinth of some description (the one it came with was a wreck so has been discarded, it was crap barely thicker than hardboard and had been badly repainted white) with whatever arm I use (almost certainly the Hadcock) mounted behind. I'm very firmly in the 'do no harm' area with these - I even managed to get the paper serial number sticker that resides under the platter off intact with a heat gun so I can reattach it later!

Tony.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing the result :) Its interesting looking at the two side by side though and the combined, on/off/cue control makes a lot of sense. That G99 has a sepatate button for on and a separate button for off and then a light to tell you if its on or off ... that's just retarded ;)
 
Nope, still prefer the 99. Can't abide the looks of the 70's tonearm (sonically excellent though it may well be). Currently I'm plinthing-up a 99, (with a Conoisseur Craftsman II waiting in the wings). Maybe when I'm done, we'll have a Lenco 'shootout'?

Cheers

Adrian
 
Uncle Ants said:
That G99 has a sepatate button for on and a separate button for off and then a light to tell you if its on or off ... that's just retarded ;)
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The G88 and G99 are interesting as they seem to be Goldrings, not Lencos, i.e. Goldring themselves made the chassis and trim here in the UK and just used the Lenco platter, bearing and drive system, at least this looks to be the theory on the Lenco forum. There is certainly no Lenco badged equivalent to either deck, in fact Lenco themselves never made a chassis only deck. I suspect this is why the 88 and 99 look so different aesthetically to the other Lenco decks.

Tony.
 
I thought that the 88 came in G88 and L88 varieties, but the 99 was only G99.

TBH, I think the styling of both decks was mainly dictated by the major competition - the 301 and 401.

Cheers

Adrian
 
spet0114 said:
TBH, I think the styling of both decks was mainly dictated by the major competition - the 301 and 401.
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Which ironically are actually examples of good design and very pleasing aesthetically ... the 401 in particular :) Intelligently laid out and cleanly styled.
 
The 401 has a certain charm, to my mind it looks more functional than aestetic. I find the 99 more elegant, as it has more curves in it's basic shape. The 99's on/off system (two buttons) is certainly an improvement over the Lenco decks (IMO of course), in fact the only part of the G99 I dislike is the speed change mech, which is inferior to the Lenco version.
 
kasperhauser said:
Latest acquisition:

Rotel RA 413 integrated amp. Old-school champagne faceplate/VU meters Rotel. It's in the system and doing a smashing job. Seems to have some flat, squarish Sanken output devices of a type I've never seen. I've not seen the meters go above 1 watt.

In a word: nimble.

I'll post a pic or two when I've gotten a replacement bulb for one of the VU meters (it's on order).
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As promised, some crappy images of the Rotel.
rotelra413bz4.jpg


the innards:
rotelinbe0.jpg


the business bits:
sankenoh7.jpg


But this is the REAL tone machine I found the same day:
dearmondmq8.jpg


Fifties-vintage DeArmond soundhole pickup with volume wheel. Even in my modest Simon & Patrick acoustic, it's amazing (played through my friend's Orange stack, it's genuinely frightening).
 
If you notice these running HOT, do yourself a favour and put a scope across the O/P . Look for oscillation up around the 10MHz region.

The 10 watters were renowned for it. 40 watters, I don't know, but it might pay to have a look.
 
Very, very nice Mr. Kasperhauser. I have been doing a bit of cleaning on the Rotel I got my hands on recently, I will post up a pic when I recieve the new lamps for the tuning indicators.
 
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