Do I swear or cry? It's Sunday afternoon, the day before a national holiday and I live in a rural area anyway.

I just snapped the stylus clean off of the cartridge on the SME arm



I am STILL trying to sort out my turntable woes and trying all sorts of tricks and generally giving the thing a damn good service. I had the arm just sitting on the armboard while I am trying things and move it to tip the chassis up each time I do something. It's all sitting on the outdoor table while I work. I just reached over to grab my headphones and bumped the unstable arm enough that the tube jumped out of the holder and hit the rotating platter mat, rotating BACKWARDS no less, and before I could catch it, the stylus was pointing backwards too.

Of course you can bend these things... ONCE.

Why was I rotating the platter backwards?... to see if I could hear any noise, via my stethoscope which I have been using to locate where the "rumble" is coming from. With the platter rotating backwards, the idler isn't pulled in but the outer platter can sit firmly on the main platter (ie: clutch not engaged) and I can determine whether it's the main bearing or something else in the "drivetrain".

AAAaaarrrgghh! What a damned clutz I am sometimes!

Now I have NO chance of getting a stylus before Tuesday and even then, I have to drive 20 miles to get one, IF they have them in stock. I live just a couple of miles from a town with a population of about 15000 but you can't buy a stylus there at all!!!

Cry or swear? Kick the cat or the kids? Maybe I should go and chop some wood or something (it's hot and humid here but wood chopping might drain that anger away?)

ouch! do you at least have the ability for playing music? if you get a cdp up and running, i hear Larry has a spare ABBA cd to loan out.

Sometimes stupid things happen.......I remember one time i came home and i heard strange noises coming from the living room...... one of my kids were playing djing with my TT making scratch and all of the things rappers do with vinyl... of course the needle can't handle those backward moves and broke. Kids......... Now he's growing up and still in love with music. In fact, he's listenning to some dubstep kind of sounds in his bedroom. There's always music all around the house........It makes me wonder why some people are so attracted to music and others don't?!

Good luck with your TT.

That's why all the music gear is in a lockable cabinet here and the kids can't get in to my studio either!

Dingus... yes, there's CDs, MP3's on the laptop and the "cheap" TT that I refuse to use. Hell, I spend most of my time with Classic FM anyway but just when I was getting all serious about the Thorens repairs, this happens

I'll pass on borrowing Larry's ABBA though



I just had to share my stupidity with you all

ABBA might sound better played backwards.

Write a song, keep you entertained till tuesday.

Broken Needles

Cheers,
Ian

Ah, damned fine idea! Actually, a mate of mine and I just spent 20 minutes on the phone writing Osama bin Laden's version of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy"... instead of starting with a cockney "'ello", it starts with "allah"... and the puns get worse from there

No, I had to go for a drive to the coast today and found an electronics shop (where I have a trade account) actually open on this national holiday. I stopped in just in case they had a stylus and walked out with a cheap Ortofon OMB5 complete cartridge for $35AU. That'll get me by until I get a better cartridge and will allow me to continue the repair and general fault-finding of the TT.