..there recently was new b-stock examples of their top tonearm being sold at a discounted price , I think Mr Pig may have bought one.
Actually, I've bought three. An RB202, RB303 and RB3000. The 3000 is a cosmetic second but there ain't much to give it away. Basically looks like maybe you fitted it to a turntable and took it straight back off again? The other arms are new old stock, perfect. There are still some new/old stock RB2000s for sale at £800 and frankly, I have no idea why. These are
feckin good arms for the price of a forty year old Ittok?
I think modding Rega arms makes sense up to a point. When you've spent £400 on mods to an arm worth £200 I'm thinking maybe just buy a better arm? Is a modded RB300 going to be as good as an RB2000? I very much doubt it.
I've taken the paint off a couple and I think it's a very good thing to do. I very much like the effect. Opens the sound out and ads sparkle and detail. If the paint was better Rega's top arms would have paint on them. As you can do it yourself for the price of a tin of paint stripper...
Generally, I'm not a big fan of silver cable either. When I was going to get my RB300 rewired I borrowed two arms off Johnnie, one with silver and one with copper rewires. I liked the extra detail of the silver but thought it was a bit thin and bright, typical silver. The copper was fuller and nicer but not a huge leap over stock I felt. I decided to get silver internal and copper external, a risk but it seemed to work. With the rewire and the paint off there was nothing about my Ittok that I missed. Apart from the beautiful aesthetics, what a hansom arm the Ittok is.
I've had various Rega arms apart and if you want to rewire one yourself there are a few things you should be aware of. Just using the existing internal wires to pull new ones through is not a great idea. There are rubber grommets in the arm pillar which you can easily pull out of place and the cable needs to be carefully dressed at the top of the pillar inside the boss on the arm-tube. The very least you need to do is remove the counterweight stub so that you can see how the cable sits and make sure your new cable is not going to restrict the movement of the arm. One of the main differences as you move up the Rega arm ladder is the quality and adjustment of the bearings. You can't feel that difference by hand, just as you won't necessarily feel if your new arm cable is adding drag, but if it's not right you're loosing performance. If you just pull the cable through without that slack at the back of the arm there is no way it's going to be right. You might also notice that a lot of the wire used for rewires is a lot stiffer than the internal cable that Rega use?
I don't understand the desire to change the grounding arrangement on Rega arms. I've never had any grounding problems with a Rega arm. I've had lots with arms with a separate ground! Funny how everyone thinks Rega arms are the best performing arms in the world yet also think Rega don't know what they're doing? ;0)
Bottom line, it's hard to go wrong with the darn things. Robust, great value, sound great stock, sound great modded, you can't lose can you? I'm just spinning 'Wish You Were Here' on my new LP12 with RB3000 and feeling the love. Just beautiful music. If a Rega arm isn't doing it for you your problem lies elsewhere.
