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Nice Garrard 401

I acquired one with the flush strobe light
it came in with a job lot I bought with a
Koss ESP9 Electrostatic headphone and
Energizer, advertised.

It was a badly worded free-ad, it also came
with a pair of Lowther PM6's Alnico built into
4' tall column cabs painted bright orange. :eek:

The Lowther PM6 edges had disintegrated.:(

The Garrard 401 was mounted on a quarter inch
slab of solid steel, fitted with a Decca Unipivot
arm, c/w a Decca London Grey cartridge, all of this
mounted on top of a very compact sideboard with
barley twist legs, I had to leave the sideboard behind
because it wouldn't fit inside my friends hatchback car.

All for the princely sum of 35 ukp, located way out in the
wilderness of South Somerset. :D
 
Tony L said:
Just a Garrard 401, but looks like a superb condition example of the more desirable early version. If I was in the market for one I’d be seriously hovering over that Buy It Now button.
Click to expand...

Do you know why the early version is more desirable? I have an early flush-strobe 401 and a later raised-strobe version, and the raised strobe is definitely my preferred one to use. It may be down to how they were used and looked after prior to my owning them I guess.
 
I suspect the later versions suffered 70’s British working practices, ie QC went down. A simple thing like the serial number went from stamped plate to metalised sticker.
I had one with the bottom bearing bush halfway up the housing. Marks in the spindle suggested it’d been there a long time.
 
awl said:
Do you know why the early version is more desirable? I have an early flush-strobe 401 and a later raised-strobe version, and the raised strobe is definitely my preferred one to use. It may be down to how they were used and looked after prior to my owning them I guess.
Click to expand...

The consensus seems to be that as time went on it became cost-cut and suffered from poorer build and quality control as Garrard were on the way downwards as a company. That said I have no direct experience of the 401, I’ve never worked on one and the changes look cosmetic in most respects. They all look like 301s with a ‘60s face-lift! I guess the moulds could have been aging towards the end of production, less care taken balancing things that needed balancing etc. I personally prefer the look of the flush strobe, but that means nothing.

PS I’ve never wanted to get involved with the rankings of vintage turntables etc. To my mind condition is the key. A mint perfectly serviced example will almost always beat a tired worn example of an allegedly better variant. In reality it is all down to things like bearing bushings, rotor balance, quality of rubber parts etc etc.
 
I had a later version and quality was so-so I must say. Those early 401s look better manufactured. Even strobe markings look better finished. Platter machining looked poorly executed on mine.
 
Having serviced both of mine, I don't see any quality differences. Both flush and raised versions have the same stamped plate serial number riveted to the chassis, and the machining of the platter is if anything superior on the raised strobe model.
 
I have a flush strobe version that I'd like to bring back into service at some point. Any tips for a London based outfit that could do it? Or is it a DIY job?
 
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