Couldn't download your pictures so can't comment on the arm. Might be worth contacting the wonderful Audio origami to see what he has to say, and also find out if he has an arm board that would suit.So i listened to all the good advice and..... went & did the exact opposite!
Saw an LP12 for sale locally on fleabay for not very much & in a moment of madness decided to chance it. It's a, supposedly recently serviced, early non-corner braced one with no lid or base board and a hadcock uni-pivot arm. If I manage to post pics, would someone care to identify which Hadcock arm it is please? And does this arm use a unique cut out on the arm board or am I getting an arm board I could use with something else?
This is probably the least sensible purchase I could've made (early s/n - bits missing - slightly left field choice of arm from what I understand, possibly not the best choice to go with this deck) but it was a spur of the moment decision based on price & location. So long as I can listen to my vinyl again I'll be happy & might be an interesting project to try improving on what's there if I like it. Is the fact that it's such an early one going to be restrictive as far as upgrades are concerned?
Got to arrange collection yet but hopefully I'll soon find out just how good or bad it is! My last ebay purchase wasn't all it was supposed to be, but if things just turned up working I'd probably never get round to servicing / improving them & so if I've bought (yet another) project, so be it!
The fact it isn't braced suggests it is prior to 1985, but the serial number should tell you the year. If it doesn't have the Valahalla PS, then that's the upgrade I would do first, together with replacing the springs, though this may have been done if the deck really has been serviced. Phonography in Winchester can supply serviced Valhallas for reasonable prices.
Apart from that, clean, oil and tune - heaps of help in the Linn forum for that. I'd also get a replacement belt. You might not need it straightaway, but always useful to have.
Oh, and don't worry too much about the baseboard. Some removed it as a mod which improved the sound, but, since the originals are hardboard, they're easy to cut yourself if you'd rather restore the deck back to its intended state.