Back in the mid 60's my cousin and I used to drag main street in his 56 Mercury it was bright orange, We called it the big pumpkin. He found one of those record players and wanted to listen to records as we cruised. Didn't work as the streets were to rough and it kept skipping. When we parked with girls, the rocking of the car from time to time would make the records skip bout we could take blankets out on the ground and it did a great job that way.
I worked summers during my college years at a resort on Lake George, NY, in the 1960s. Until transistor technology came about, radios and record players were tethered by cords to electrical outlets. One evening, teenage guests held a party in the beach and dock area, playing records on a battery powered record player, similar to the one in this video. The music provided a wonderful enhancement to the party. Some of the young folks danced on the deck and dock.
Those were advertised on the inner sleeves of Mercury LP's during the '60's and as far as battery operated portables go, this one is one of the best ones. I have one somewhere and it has the same things wrong with it.
And then, Longines Symphonette, the company that put out album boxed sets of mood music and compilations also put a similar version of the same exact player as the Symphonette Holiday and it was a Mercury/Phillips licensed record player.
I collect Philips Record players, and have to say you’ve done a smashing job on this one. I have three of these and all of them had problems with the motor and speed. Pain in the ass to get right but they are nice Record players when you do! As always, great video shango
Hi, I'm working on one I found on my grandma's attic and having same issues. Can give any tips on how to get the speed right? The motor is older and I don't think has an adjustment screw. Thanks. (I have a video on my channel)
These were distributed by Mercury records. There was a whole line up to a fairly large stereo model. This was the base model. These were in stores in 1963. Even Woolworths had them. Japanese portables kicked in a few years later. I had one a few years ago. Some versions of this model had stamped steel platters. These are almost always missing the pad on the platter. It was made of some rubber compound that dried up, shrunk, hardened, and curled up. Mercury was trying to appeal to the youth market back then. Their problem was they did not have a lot of rock stars. Julie London and the like appealed to an older demographic. But kids did like these portables as they would play any record. Yes, ceramic cartridges were notorious for failing. They are made from molded Rochelle Salt which is hydrophilic. It readily absorbs moisture which breaks it down. The blue caps are probably Philips. They were widely found in imported electronics back then. Despite having decent speakers these units had fairly weak tone, probably to save the batteries as bass tones draw a lot of power. This was before alkaline batteries became big.
I think you meant that 'Crystal' cartridges were prone to failure, because of the Rochelle salts that absorbed moisture. I unfortunately had to deal with that when working on my old Emerson. The cartridge had physically deteriorated into white crumbly chunks. Ceramic cartridges replaced crystal carts, and are not as prone to failure even though they typically have a lower output. As for the caps being Philips-made, that would make sense, since the unit carries the Philips name. I concur with 1963; the inspection sticker under the platter seemed to imply 1963.
I got bit by the rock n roll bug with this record player and a 45 of Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison which was given to my mother when she was 16 at a concert he did locally (with a kiss I'm told...) Sadly that was 45 Years ago for me and have long lost both the player and record...Thanks for the memory, never thought I'd ever see one again...
Radiotvphononut would be very jealous of this i bet, wow shango what a find, very unique, silicone is perfect for a job like this as it has a lot of dampening characteristics, it seems to run perfect until you drop the needle which could very well be the actual belts themselves, as for the platter it was common to fit weights underneath it to stop the warble, but before doing anything else i would inspect and clean the motor
You should be watching this video on the Shango066 channel. If you discover you are not, please take the following steps: 1. Remain calm. 2. Alert the authorities. 3. Shelter in place and await further instructions.
Many Thanks for the wake up call on battery removal, I had been restoring a radio that I stupidly left the batteries installed, got called away, and a year later saw you video, remembered, and got to the radio just in time to prevent leaking D cells getting into the chassis. No exceptions, remove the batteries!
A job well done, Shango! This very model battery-operated phono from Mercury was advertised on the inner sleeve of my 1963 Lesley Gore "Sings Of Mixed-Up Hearts" LP on the Mercury label. I was always in awe of it, wishing I had one of my very own. Now, at age 68, I'm still in awe. Your excellent video is probably the closest I'll ever get to having one, but that's okay. (I've since treated myself to a fully-restored early-1950s RCA 45-EY-2 record changer and a restored RCA 6-EY-2 45 record changer instead, which are even more cool!) Still, in all, once you restored that Mercury phono, you proved that it really is an amazing-sounding little machine. Most impressive! And you're so right -- Listen up, Crosley! THIS is how it's done!!!
Hello , Sorry for my bad english im from holland. This record player is in Holland philips AG 4000. From 1962 Your problem is the motor This is an centrifugal motor. You can bring it on just speed door the screw by the brake its turn left or right turnig for a correct speed By later rapair was an electronic speed reglar. Manual bij www.nvhr.nl Merk is brand =philips Type AG4000 And see o.k AG2040 Sorry i can’t not a picture placed. Pick up head we be can placed AG 3310, GP224 ceramic GP 300. In america Norelco.
If speed any near tape speed I would put a DC Servo motor. The double speed ones get a insane range of variation. I would have expected Philips used electronic speed control as excersiced in the masive N3302 But all other brand did centrifugal from late 60s to mid 70s. Only Philips and Grundig did it Electronic Cotrol. I suffered the 3302 a lot. On the other hand, you can grab any National / Panasonic tape recorder from mid 70 and above and abuse it decade over decade and keep it working with little maintenance. Some people love the 3302 .... not me ... why too problematic. Inverting the rotation to do rewind ..... priceless
A fellow soldier when I was in Germany brought one of these (the Phillips' version) into the shop one night and the very first record I ever heard on it was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. I had never seen one of these players and was amazed that it played a well as it did back then. Seeing this sure brought back some memories.
I've got about 4 of these. There were minor changes over the years of production - and came out in various colours. They were built very well. The cartridges and stylii are still available in South Africa. I think at one point they must have been the most popular in portable record players here. And what's really nice is that most of the versions or models have interchangeable parts. I've found that they clean up and work really well after a re-capping and lubrication of of the moving parts.
1:44 Transistorized is solid state! Your are taking about the use of IC's in the audio amplifier section starting in the 1970's Portable phonograph players were still being made with vacuum tubes even by 1964. 2:46 The date code of your machine indicates it was made on the 32nd week of 1963 - - ? 49:03 Music Box Dancer
Good for you shango. I mean any body who recognizes quality from days gone by in such detail is very special. And to keep at it until it actually works is way cool. And your treatment for telemarketers is absolutely hilarious and priceless :- )
That was considered a hi-fi stereo ceramic cartridge. Philips used it in a lot of record players, from portable to higher-end ones, in the 60s and 70s. Great job you did there.
Your phone chats were priceless. The strobe discs are awesome. Franki goes to Hollywood. great old track. That phone did well not to fly off at 78 RPM. great video.
Also, these were very popular over here in the U.K., sold as Philips of course. Defiantly not a toy, they sold for around 245 french francs in 1961/2. Were aimed at people who already had a record player, but they could take these on picnics, to the beach, on holiday etc....
I used to service Pencrest (JC Penny's brand) Portable battery phonographs, the place I worked at was a warranty station for them. But it seems to me something really close to this came in to our shop. This was in the late 60's
Actually, I posted that he should contact someone like this old Tony and make a collaborative video out of it. This way he can get it done for free and both he and Tony can get a video out of it and it would be interesting to watch.
@@JacGoudsmit human hearing is way more sensitive to frequency warbling, than to small absolute frequency standards. Unless you are a musical virtuoso, you wouldn't even notice.
Neat, I bought a similar model NOS from Ebay a few years ago, and I bought a stereo stylus for it and the original cartridge was still sealed in a plastic container. I re-capped it and it performs very well for a simple unit :)
Philips from this era were designed well. My dutch grandparents bought a Philips AM in the 60s and it's rock solid and still works amazingly, although there's a touch of buzz. I also have that Two Tribes 12". Piece of history!
“Music Box Dancer”..My father played it a lot when I was growing up & I’ve got “The Best Of Blondie” album as well. ;) xx Also “September” by Earth Wind & Fire is my iPhone ringtone. LOL 😂 Great little score on that record player, I wish I never killed my little portable one as a kid! 😱
Nice Job Shango066, Nice Find on the record player, and great diagnostic and repair skills as always. I would suggest to chuck that platter in a drill and spin it sort of slow while watching for any flat spots, probably should be able to see them if you can hold it still enough.
I went to a bad area of the city to buy one of those, for the same reason Shango has one. It's the cheapest way to measure tracking pressure. Digital scale is much better though!
Shango, a trick that I use on stretched out turntables belts and other belt driven electronics is put the belts in boiling water for 45 seconds to one minute and then pat them dry. if you have any rubber rejuvenator that would also help things along but boiling the belts will shrink them enough that you can get a little more time out of them.
you did a great job this is a great portable murcury made top notch units and I had an electric auto changer and they were amazing I got it from a garage sale and the amp crapped out in 1989 and it was never fixed. that shows they really knew how to makestuff back then great video as always thank you for posting and sharing this
yeahh!!! shango adorei a música velho amigo, e gostei de você ter arrumado a vitrolinha yeahh!!! shango I loved the song old friend, and I liked that you fixed the vitrolinha
Enjoyed the cartridge mod. Looks good from here! As far as that per rotation speed variation, you're right about materials. Pot metal is bad stuff. Sometimes it's a simple as a slick spot, or removing a little metal from the side of the platter rim that plays faster. Idler and belts have to be good to maintain speed. Those early DC motors are tough to get perfect. Some even have a centrifugal governor which can be finely adjusted. Battery voltage as you've discovered can make a big difference. Enjoyed it!
sometimes if you have the wrong belt in the turntable it can make the speed unstable and slower then normal I discovered this when I was fixing a friends turntable so that is a possible reason also there is no slip mat so the tracktion on the record and platter causes unstable speed as well. great video as always
Other then the speed issues, it sounds pretty good after the transistor replacement. I think every company used pot metal at some point, hell Sony even used it in the BVH-3000 series of 1" broadcast VTR's.
You may say no one piece of music will please everyone, but I'd actually listen to pretty much anything you played there. Also, Music Box Dancer just found its way onto my Spotify saved music list :)
The slow speed is actually a blessing as it was a common practice to master recordings at +3 %. So you are actually hearing the songs at near real speed
The way those little triangle rubbers work is to carry sound in a straight line but not easily across the sideways motion (the most flex) the basic funder mental of sound is to travel along in a line along the rubber veins so its just how sound waves travel along a conduit the waves can travel easily down one side when struck as a certain angle by the stylus, but not the other way think of it as a form of stereo mechanical separation.
I wish you were in England, we have a great valve record player here called a Bush SRP31C, very high standard player, but they always need a really good engineer to service them!!
I always find stuff like this interesting. I believe you replaced the transistor (although I didni't see it). I think not only did it bring the volume up, but it seemed (at least in my opinion) that the speed became more stable, too. The phone measuring the speed made me a little nervous, but now I know there's a app for that. If anything, it can be a learning experience for someone who wants to tinker with this kind of stuff. The strobe mats were cool. Not quite a Technics 1200, but close, lol. Seriously, though, thank you for posting.
50 years ago my niece had a set like that. We used to play singles for hours on end and dance like there was no tomorrow. "Fingering the needle and getting any" was not an option. BTW, that stylus AG3310 indeed is a stereo diamond.
Nice jibberish to the telemarketers....I have taken to speaking my 6 lines of Finnish I translated on Google Translate to them. Puhu suomea (please speak Finnish) and Oma talo on tulessa (my house is on fire) are two of the 6 lines I have memorized. Drives them crazy!
One of the most defining things that happened in the 60's was Tiny Tim's marriage to Miss Vicky on the Johnny Carson show. If you mention that now people look at you like your're crazy.
Rototweebulation indeed!! Build quality is great! I got a late start watching this due to extra work caused by the Seattle snowpocalypse. To be finished watching at a later date! Rev A - Very cool piece. At 41:55 agree this noise has to be the transistors. If this were a tube set, I'd say the tubes were gassy.
Man, my cousin had one of those, we used to carry it in his 56 Mercury Monterrey! Never could get it to play while driving, to many bumps but man when you are parked with a couple of young ladies, put on a romantic record and get some lipstick on your dipstick!
One of these days you'll reply to one of these sales calls with your shnarglefarglebigularble, and you get a reply along the lines of "you're shango066 aren't you, have a nice day, goodbye"...
There was another portable record player that is similar to this, and it’s the Symphonette Holiday portable record player, and it was made by the Longines Symphonette for Mercury Records, and the turntable itself was from Mercury since they licensed it to the Longines Symphonette. That was made available for the Longines Symphonette record club where you can get album boxed sets of mood music and compilations, and it was a competitor to Reader’s Digest where they put out boxed sets of mood music and compilations during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and this is a cute looking record player, and it was originally a Phillips brand from Holland.
LimaVictor Ooow that would cause problems, maybe a circle of felt would do a good enough job. I've repaired enough record players over the years but never really thought too deep about the platter mat. Foggy brain i suppose, it's my excuse and im sticking to it :-D
Hi Dan, I sure enjoyed your video on this incredible recordplayer & I think your small problem with the speed not being at a stable RPM hold as it turns around, It could be one of the new squar Belts could be slightly defective. I have been working & restoring Tape Recorders since I was a teenager & then Turntables when I was 18. A few years ago I ordered new Belts for a Stereo GE Tape Deck & this Tape deck has squar Belts in it. The New Capstan fly wheel Belt was defective a bit. For every turn the Belt made the speed would go fast & slow & it sounded kind of like your Phonograph in this video of yours but this Tape Deck was a lot worse & at first I thought it was in the Motor but I removed the Capstan fly wheel Belt & put in another new one of the same size & same make, PRB, & this Stereo GE Tape Deck was 100 times better & no wows. I looked at the Belt that made it run so poorly & it looked perfectly fine to Me. I tried this defective Belt in a Wards Tape Recorder that had the same chassis & the Words Tape Player had lots of Wows from that Belt. PRB Kindly sent Me a new replacement Belt free of charge. Some of these newer Belts are not as 100% perfect & there can be a part of the Belt that can be a little thiner then the rest of the Belt. This is rare but this could be posable or it could be the Motor to. But my years of Taperecorder repair I have seeing this happen with Belts but not very often. How ever most of the time the Belts will do this when they have been sitting for years & years just like the Belts in Your Recordplayer were when you first got the Table off. All so your Motor in that should have an adjustment to turn up the speed a bit from running to slow. The older portable Tape Recorders from the 1960s & the 70s You had to pull the Motor apart to get to the adjustments on the Armacher in the Motor. Then come 1982 or so, they made Tape Recorder Motors with a speed adjustment on the Top of the Motor & you can adjust the speed with a very small screw driver while it's still in the Taperecorder. I do not know how old this Recordplayer is, But I had a Battery Recordplayer to back in 1972 & the Motor was the same as a Taperecorder Motor. But My old Battery Recordplayer was way different then this one you have now. You have a very nice cool unit there & I never seeing any thing like this one you have now. I did fix a lot of Turntables all so when I had My VCR Business. But try a different Belt or both Belts & see what you get. All so the unit should have some kind of Rubber or Felt on the Turntable, Your LP Records could be slipping a bit. Just the hard steel for a LP record to rest on can slip a bit to. I am sure that unit must have had something on the platter for the big 12" Records at one time & it should have some rubber over the platter. your so lucky You can get Belts Locoly where you live, where as Me I have to order them on line or over the Phone. So I just wanted to give you some ideas to help you out here. I have played all your Videos on the TVs & Radios you fix & I enjoy all your Videos a lot. Good Luck with your Recordplayer & enjoy the nice old electronic items You get down there. I hope to here from you someday. Jerry
Yes, the company that formerly owned Mercury Records was the Philips electronics company. As a teenager I owned a small phono with a similar label. This one had a Columbia Masterworks label on it... probably manufactured by a Japanese manufacturer.
A few days ago I opened up my walkman after only a month of non use to blown duracells. The suckers still have a charge and don't expire until 2025. But leaked everywhere.
RPM calculator? Oh, the humanity. That's just a tachometrical doodaddle thingamajiggy with a 70s funky groovin' soul, my dude. John Birch approved, of course. And the AOC transistor disapproved.
I’ve been getting Chinese ones left on my cellphones voicemail( that I assume are telemarketing since I do not speak Chinese, but it sounds like the same message......)
Probably a speed adjustment in the motor assembly, Shango. Nice job on not destroying the original headshell and fitting in the replacement cartridge. The idler wheel should be cleaned regardless of how fit it might look.
The motor on these have a mechanical speed governor on the other end of the motor, im not sure if its possible to adjust the speed easily but its worth a look
We used to play Cheech and Chong for speaking, that album with the HUGE rolling paper is laying around my house somewhere, never did try to roll the giant joint as I never smoked week, but I did like Cheech and Chong.
Yes, the triangle is used to transfer movement to the ceramic elements. In stereo cartridges there are 2 elements at 45 degrees each. Mono units would have a single element (usually). The flexible link was what allowed the the needle to follow the groove freely. A solid link would have almost no flexibility and would plow through the record grooves in a straight line, damaging them.
The section where you were saying “slow, slow, slow” watch the tone arm moving in and out. You will see that your words are in sync with the tone arm position. The platter appears to have been made off center.
Interesting. I remember things like this: toys that really worked. My first turntable was a “Show-N-Tell”.🙂 I used it for a long time . Played 33 1/3, 45. That really seems to be a nice one. Vinyl is coming back,now. 📻👍🙂‼️
I like the convenience of digital, but I hate paying for something that I don't own or hold in my hand. I just absolutely refuse to pay money for a file. I would much rather digitize it myself from CD or Vinyl or even cassette. There is something about vinyl that makes a good collectable. Perhaps it is the physical part. Not only can you hold it in your hand, but it is also a mechanical sound system.
There are a lot of machinists on youtube. Maybe this old Tony or someone would machine the platter for you as part of a collaborative video? A machinist can fix that platter in 5 minutes, you will just have to adjust the speed. It's a low spot, which will make the platter be a few thousandths larger if it machined back to a proper circle.
Yes, Mercury Records had these imported. I remember seeing an ad for these, and even full size record players with detachable bookshelf speakers like a Califone, on the inner sleeve of an old album.
Yep. If you bought a Mercury record (LP) in those days the jacket would be covered with them. They went all out to make them popular. It must have worked because Japanese versions started to hit the market a couple of years later.
This was at the time, Mercury advertised as portable record players where it was shown on every inner sleeve on LP’s. I have one which is quite interesting. It was kinda cheap back then when Mercury (as a record label) made these.
Back in 1966, my cousin was expelled from his high school in a neighboring town, so he enrolled in my school, and moved into our spare room. He was a bit on the wild side, loved his beer and women, sports that I too excelled in, however I tried fairly hard to obey the High School regulations so I could get my diploma (A feat I never did complete!) We both loved rock and roll music, this was long before the 8 track and cassette players came into vogue, and AM radio was the king of the cars. Of course during the daylight hours in our very rural towns there were no rock stations on the air, at night KOMA came blasting in from all the way down in Oklahoma CIty. So it was that we attempted to get rock and roll during the day in our cars. My cousin came up with that exact record player, not sure where he got it, but we tried to play records while driving around This did not, of course work because the roads were not smooth enough for his 55 Mercury and the records skipped like hell. That said, when we got our girls, and went out parking, the record player did it's job, however the need to stop what you were doing to turn over the record was a real pain, and playing LP' s was just a pain in the ass because of the size of the platter's. 45 RPM was the way to go for size but soon the newness of the whole idea was lost, and I came up with a reel to reel mono tape player that we could use in the car, took those little reels and had the necessary capstan to allow the tape to play music at a fairly steady speed. Problem solved, and later the 4 track, then the 8 tracks came and we were in rock and roll heaven.
The label was distributed globally by Philips' local subsidiaries or licensees. In the US the label was introduced by Mercury Record Corporation in 1962. In 1972, Philips became a PolyGram label.
Never seen this player before, and this is a compact portable record player made by Mercury for Phillips. Mercury made a few decent portable record players and they are so rare and it was a bare bones unit with a volume control and a speed selector. It was a cool player made by the same company as a record label. Mercury is also a label that did Patti Page, Vic Damone, The Platters, The Crew Cuts, Lesley Gore, Spanky & Our Gang, Jerry Butler, Johnny Mathis (for a few albums), Ohio Players and more. And as for the motor, the speed was kinda slow. I have my Grundig TK 247 reel-to-reel tape recorder and it’s a German import, and it works good after I did some cleaning on the idler wheel, and the music is a tad slow after recording on a different machine. It has a voltage switch for 110V to 240V and 50C to 60C depending on your country. In the US, it’s at 110v 60c according to the factory setting, in Europe and in the UK, is 240v 50c, and the control features are printed in English instead of German words.
Actually Philips made these players in Holland (their home country) for Mercury. Philips owned the Mercury record label from 1961-1972, at which time PolyGram was formed as a joint venture with Siemens.
Philips bought Mercury Records in 1962 and with Deutsch Gramophone, formed PolyGram. Mercury released Philips/Fontana records in the U.S. and Philips handled Mercury/Smash releases overseas.
I suspect the axle might be bent just a tad. You can check that by removing and installing the platter a couple of times in different positions. If the platter is bent, the 'slow' spot will show up on different spots, according to how the platter was positioned. If the axle is bent, the 'slow' spot will always show up on the same spot, no matter how or where the platter is put. Polishing the axle and/or the bearing may improve this.
you could try blasting that transistor with a charged big capacitor, connect all 3 terminals together to one pole of the cap, then touch the other pole to its case, i've done that on the 4 wire types with an internal screen
@@misterhat5823 its ok if you do have plenty of suitable replacements, also keeps it more original to keep the 'correct' type in... i've done it with a few and so far still working...
I've always loved that last piece (your close out piece), "The Music Box Dancer" somehow quite appropriate here. A school friend of mine, way beck in the '70s had one of those little record players, and as I recall, it had a much more bassy sound quality to it. It was also quite loud. I'd guess that an OEM cartridge might rectify that deficiency. To be quite honest, I was wondering at one point if you had wired the cartridge outputs in antiphase - That can really play tricks with sound quality.
Mercury Records Inc. had the Mercury, Philips and Smash labels during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s(Smash was established in the 1960s). Artists and groups signed to Mercury included Leslie Gore[It's My Party], Ray Stevens[Ahab The Arab](early career), Roger Miller[King Of The Road], Gary & The Hornets[Baby It's You], Jay & The Techniques[Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie], Little Millie Small[My Boy Lollipop], and many others. Gary & The Hornets, Jay & The Techniques and Roger Miller appeared on the Smash label. On the Philips label they had The Four Seasons[Rag Doll] and Dusty Springfield[Wishin' & Hopin'] among others.
Back in the mid 60's my cousin and I used to drag main street in his 56 Mercury it was bright orange, We called it the big pumpkin. He found one of those record players and wanted to listen to records as we cruised. Didn't work as the streets were to rough and it kept skipping. When we parked with girls, the rocking of the car from time to time would make the records skip bout we could take blankets out on the ground and it did a great job that way.
I worked summers during my college years at a resort on Lake George, NY, in the 1960s. Until transistor technology came about, radios and record players were tethered by cords to electrical outlets. One evening, teenage guests held a party in the beach and dock area, playing records on a battery powered record player, similar to the one in this video. The music provided a wonderful enhancement to the party. Some of the young folks danced on the deck and dock.
Those were advertised on the inner sleeves of Mercury LP's during the '60's and as far as battery operated portables go, this one is one of the best ones. I have one somewhere and it has the same things wrong with it.
who cares that it is wonky, its still listenable and hipsters love the aesthetics of vinyl like the crackle and pops it has. the wrapping is a bonus.
And then, Longines Symphonette, the company that put out album boxed sets of mood music and compilations also put a similar version of the same exact player as the Symphonette Holiday and it was a Mercury/Phillips licensed record player.
A kool battery powered record player my name is greg
Kool battery powered. Record player my name is greg
could you please make the test tones a bit louder in the next video? .. my neighbour couldn't quite hear them from my headphones.
Agreed. They only cracked my windows when I really wanted them smashing.
Ahahahahaha
I collect Philips Record players, and have to say you’ve done a smashing job on this one. I have three of these and all of them had problems with the motor and speed. Pain in the ass to get right but they are nice Record players when you do! As always, great video shango
Hi, I'm working on one I found on my grandma's attic and having same issues. Can give any tips on how to get the speed right? The motor is older and I don't think has an adjustment screw. Thanks. (I have a video on my channel)
These were distributed by Mercury records. There was a whole line up to a fairly large stereo model. This was the base model. These were in stores in 1963. Even Woolworths had them. Japanese portables kicked in a few years later. I had one a few years ago. Some versions of this model had stamped steel platters.
These are almost always missing the pad on the platter. It was made of some rubber compound that dried up, shrunk, hardened, and curled up.
Mercury was trying to appeal to the youth market back then. Their problem was they did not have a lot of rock stars. Julie London and the like appealed to an older demographic. But kids did like these portables as they would play any record.
Yes, ceramic cartridges were notorious for failing. They are made from molded Rochelle Salt which is hydrophilic. It readily absorbs moisture which breaks it down.
The blue caps are probably Philips. They were widely found in imported electronics back then.
Despite having decent speakers these units had fairly weak tone, probably to save the batteries as bass tones draw a lot of power. This was before alkaline batteries became big.
I think you meant that 'Crystal' cartridges were prone to failure, because of the Rochelle salts that absorbed moisture. I unfortunately had to deal with that when working on my old Emerson. The cartridge had physically deteriorated into white crumbly chunks. Ceramic cartridges replaced crystal carts, and are not as prone to failure even though they typically have a lower output.
As for the caps being Philips-made, that would make sense, since the unit carries the Philips name.
I concur with 1963; the inspection sticker under the platter seemed to imply 1963.
Wow! What a great parts store! Never saw so many belts in a shop.
I think that is shango's garage.
Looks like Ametron in Hollywood.
I got bit by the rock n roll bug with this record player and a 45 of Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison which was given to my mother when she was 16 at a concert he did locally (with a kiss I'm told...) Sadly that was 45 Years ago for me and have long lost both the player and record...Thanks for the memory, never thought I'd ever see one again...
Radiotvphononut would be very jealous of this i bet, wow shango what a find, very unique, silicone is perfect for a job like this as it has a lot of dampening characteristics, it seems to run perfect until you drop the needle which could very well be the actual belts themselves, as for the platter it was common to fit weights underneath it to stop the warble, but before doing anything else i would inspect and clean the motor
N Gauge England -Synthematix- guy from Holland says it has a speed adjustment screw! On a low dollar unit like this!
"This is something I need, like some type of melanoma."
... only Shango066 !!
christ. my ears were blown out when you had the signal generator on that thing.. my tinitus hasn't stopped all day!
You should be watching this video on the Shango066 channel. If you discover you are not, please take the following steps:
1. Remain calm.
2. Alert the authorities.
3. Shelter in place and await further instructions.
Snork!!!
I really laughed good on this one!😂😂😂
I really laughed good on that!😂
Many Thanks for the wake up call on battery removal, I had been restoring a radio that I stupidly left the batteries installed, got called away, and a year later saw you video, remembered, and got to the radio just in time to prevent leaking D cells getting into the chassis. No exceptions, remove the batteries!
A job well done, Shango! This very model battery-operated phono from Mercury was advertised on the inner sleeve of my 1963 Lesley Gore "Sings Of Mixed-Up Hearts" LP on the Mercury label. I was always in awe of it, wishing I had one of my very own. Now, at age 68, I'm still in awe. Your excellent video is probably the closest I'll ever get to having one, but that's okay. (I've since treated myself to a fully-restored early-1950s RCA 45-EY-2 record changer and a restored RCA 6-EY-2 45 record changer instead, which are even more cool!) Still, in all, once you restored that Mercury phono, you proved that it really is an amazing-sounding little machine. Most impressive! And you're so right -- Listen up, Crosley! THIS is how it's done!!!
Hello ,
Sorry for my bad english im from holland.
This record player is in Holland philips AG 4000. From 1962
Your problem is the motor
This is an centrifugal motor.
You can bring it on just speed door the screw by the brake its turn left or right turnig for a correct speed
By later rapair was an electronic speed reglar.
Manual bij www.nvhr.nl
Merk is brand =philips
Type AG4000
And see o.k AG2040
Sorry i can’t not a picture placed.
Pick up head we be can placed
AG 3310, GP224 ceramic GP 300.
In america Norelco.
je doet het prima hoor ! ( your doing fine ) groeten uit eindhoven.
If speed any near tape speed I would put a DC Servo motor. The double speed ones get a insane range of variation. I would have expected Philips used electronic speed control as excersiced in the masive N3302 But all other brand did centrifugal from late 60s to mid 70s. Only Philips and Grundig did it Electronic Cotrol. I suffered the 3302 a lot. On the other hand, you can grab any National / Panasonic tape recorder from mid 70 and above and abuse it decade over decade and keep it working with little maintenance. Some people love the 3302 .... not me ... why too problematic. Inverting the rotation to do rewind ..... priceless
A fellow soldier when I was in Germany brought one of these (the Phillips' version) into the shop one night and the very first record I ever heard on it was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. I had never seen one of these players and was amazed that it played a well as it did back then. Seeing this sure brought back some memories.
I've got about 4 of these. There were minor changes over the years of production - and came out in various colours. They were built very well. The cartridges and stylii are still available in South Africa. I think at one point they must have been the most popular in portable record players here. And what's really nice is that most of the versions or models have interchangeable parts. I've found that they clean up and work really well after a re-capping and lubrication of of the moving parts.
Hi,motor have a centrifugal regulator and use platan as volant. Put centrifugal on short and ad electronic regulator.Great chanell Shangoo.
1:44 Transistorized is solid state! Your are taking about the use of IC's in the audio amplifier section starting in the 1970's Portable phonograph players were still being made with vacuum tubes even by 1964.
2:46 The date code of your machine indicates it was made on the 32nd week of 1963 - - ?
49:03 Music Box Dancer
Good for you shango. I mean any body who recognizes quality from days gone by in such detail is very special. And to keep at it until it actually works is way cool. And your treatment for telemarketers is absolutely hilarious and priceless :- )
That was considered a hi-fi stereo ceramic cartridge. Philips used it in a lot of record players, from portable to higher-end ones, in the 60s and 70s. Great job you did there.
Your phone chats were priceless. The strobe discs are awesome. Franki goes to Hollywood. great old track. That phone did well not to fly off at 78 RPM. great video.
Also, these were very popular over here in the U.K., sold as Philips of course. Defiantly not a toy, they sold for around 245 french francs in 1961/2. Were aimed at people who already had a record player, but they could take these on picnics, to the beach, on holiday etc....
"defiantly"? Didn't you mean 'definitely'?
Defiantly, the hifi shop sold toys masquerading as real record players.
They sold for 245 French Francs in the UK? Did h
@@sambaker3233 That's funny I thought I always paid in pounds and pence.😁
I used to service Pencrest (JC Penny's brand) Portable battery phonographs, the place I worked at was a warranty station for them. But it seems to me something really close to this came in to our shop. This was in the late 60's
Take the platter to your local auto machine shop. They can put it on their lathe and true the running idler surface, like a brake rotor.
That is exactly what I was thinking. A lathe and she'll true right up.
Actually, I posted that he should contact someone like this old Tony and make a collaborative video out of it. This way he can get it done for free and both he and Tony can get a video out of it and it would be interesting to watch.
It'll run even slower after he does that though, unless he can find a way to adjust the speed.
Not a good idea
@@JacGoudsmit human hearing is way more sensitive to frequency warbling, than to small absolute frequency standards. Unless you are a musical virtuoso, you wouldn't even notice.
Love that strobe disk with the + and - bands.
Neat, I bought a similar model NOS from Ebay a few years ago, and I bought a stereo stylus for it and the original cartridge was still sealed in a plastic container. I re-capped it and it performs very well for a simple unit :)
Philips from this era were designed well.
My dutch grandparents bought a Philips AM in the 60s and it's rock solid and still works amazingly, although there's a touch of buzz.
I also have that Two Tribes 12". Piece of history!
“Music Box Dancer”..My father played it a lot when I was growing up & I’ve got “The Best Of Blondie” album as well. ;) xx
Also “September” by Earth Wind & Fire is my iPhone ringtone. LOL 😂 Great little score on that record player, I wish I never killed my little portable one as a kid! 😱
Ah yes Frank Mills and Music Box Dancer. He toured with that song all over Canafa.
Nice Job Shango066, Nice Find on the record player, and great diagnostic and repair skills as always. I would suggest to chuck that platter in a drill and spin it sort of slow while watching for any flat spots, probably should be able to see them if you can hold it still enough.
The scales by that record player, looked like a screen shot from pulp fiction were Vincent buys a weight of stuff.😂
I went to a bad area of the city to buy one of those, for the same reason Shango has one. It's the cheapest way to measure tracking pressure. Digital scale is much better though!
Shango, a trick that I use on stretched out turntables belts and other belt driven electronics is put the belts in boiling water for 45 seconds to one minute and then pat them dry. if you have any rubber rejuvenator that would also help things along but boiling the belts will shrink them enough that you can get a little more time out of them.
you did a great job this is a great portable murcury made top notch units and I had an electric auto changer and they were amazing I got it from a garage sale and the amp crapped out in 1989 and it was never fixed. that shows they really knew how to makestuff back then great video as always thank you for posting and sharing this
try putting a dial indicator on the platter rim to see if the platter pin may be slightly bent.
Your local electronics store is amazing.
Proud to be a dutch viewer right now ;)
8:00 I nearly spat out a mouthful of beer! A sense of humour I can roll with!
I haven't seen one of these in ages. When I was very little, early 70's my mother had one and I remember using it quite a bit.
yeahh!!! shango adorei a música velho amigo, e gostei de você ter arrumado a vitrolinha
yeahh!!! shango I loved the song old friend, and I liked that you fixed the vitrolinha
Enjoyed the cartridge mod. Looks good from here!
As far as that per rotation speed variation, you're right about materials. Pot metal is bad stuff. Sometimes it's a simple as a slick spot, or removing a little metal from the side of the platter rim that plays faster.
Idler and belts have to be good to maintain speed.
Those early DC motors are tough to get perfect. Some even have a centrifugal governor which can be finely adjusted. Battery voltage as you've discovered can make a big difference.
Enjoyed it!
sometimes if you have the wrong belt in the turntable it can make the speed unstable and slower then normal I discovered this when I was fixing a friends turntable so that is a possible reason also there is no slip mat so the tracktion on the record and platter causes unstable speed as well. great video as always
Other then the speed issues, it sounds pretty good after the transistor replacement. I think every company used pot metal at some point, hell Sony even used it in the BVH-3000 series of 1" broadcast VTR's.
You may say no one piece of music will please everyone, but I'd actually listen to pretty much anything you played there. Also, Music Box Dancer just found its way onto my Spotify saved music list :)
The slow speed is actually a blessing as it was a common practice to master recordings at +3 %. So you are actually hearing the songs at near real speed
23:02 .... I died. Sound like an old Sporster 28K modem trying to get some deal on a noisy line.
23:02... They were left totally speechless. Absolutely professional.
The way those little triangle rubbers work is to carry sound in a straight line but not easily across the sideways motion (the most flex) the basic funder mental of sound is to travel along in a line along the rubber veins so its just how sound waves travel along a conduit the waves can travel easily down one side when struck as a certain angle by the stylus, but not the other way think of it as a form of stereo mechanical separation.
The coolest record player I've seen in a while... Made in Holland, a lot of quality in something so compact. Thanks for your video! :)
I wish you were in England, we have a great valve record player here called a Bush SRP31C, very high standard player, but they always need a really good engineer to service them!!
I always find stuff like this interesting. I believe you replaced the transistor (although I didni't see it). I think not only did it bring the volume up, but it seemed (at least in my opinion) that the speed became more stable, too. The phone measuring the speed made me a little nervous, but now I know there's a app for that. If anything, it can be a learning experience for someone who wants to tinker with this kind of stuff. The strobe mats were cool. Not quite a Technics 1200, but close, lol. Seriously, though, thank you for posting.
50 years ago my niece had a set like that. We used to play singles for hours on end and dance like there was no tomorrow. "Fingering the needle and getting any" was not an option. BTW, that stylus AG3310 indeed is a stereo diamond.
Nice jibberish to the telemarketers....I have taken to speaking my 6 lines of Finnish I translated on Google Translate to them. Puhu suomea (please speak Finnish) and Oma talo on tulessa (my house is on fire) are two of the 6 lines I have memorized. Drives them crazy!
Yes finally something from the Netherlands! 🇳🇱👍🏼🇺🇲
One of the most defining things that happened in the 60's was Tiny Tim's marriage to Miss Vicky on the Johnny Carson show. If you mention that now people look at you like your're crazy.
That boy tiptoeing Through the Tulips
Mr Tim had a good vocal range I thought.
And Richard Nixon on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In saying, "Sock it to ME?"
Loved you trying to get your phone off the record 👌 Keep up with the videos of radios, tvs, and everything else. Top RUclipsr
you will see that mercury emblem on older Mercury Cars Shango and yes, there is a mercury record label also.
The one on Mercury cars is similar but not the same. The Mercury (car) logo has him in 3/4 profile. The logo on this has him looking dead at you.
Rototweebulation indeed!! Build quality is great! I got a late start watching this due to extra work caused by the Seattle snowpocalypse. To be finished watching at a later date! Rev A - Very cool piece. At 41:55 agree this noise has to be the transistors. If this were a tube set, I'd say the tubes were gassy.
Philips made great quality tv's, when they were still manufactured in Holland and Belgium (Bruges).
Man, my cousin had one of those, we used to carry it in his 56 Mercury Monterrey! Never could get it to play while driving, to many bumps but man when you are parked with a couple of young ladies, put on a romantic record and get some lipstick on your dipstick!
One of these days you'll reply to one of these sales calls with your shnarglefarglebigularble, and you get a reply along the lines of "you're shango066 aren't you, have a nice day, goodbye"...
There was another portable record player that is similar to this, and it’s the Symphonette Holiday portable record player, and it was made by the Longines Symphonette for Mercury Records, and the turntable itself was from Mercury since they licensed it to the Longines Symphonette. That was made available for the Longines Symphonette record club where you can get album boxed sets of mood music and compilations, and it was a competitor to Reader’s Digest where they put out boxed sets of mood music and compilations during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and this is a cute looking record player, and it was originally a Phillips brand from Holland.
Nice record player ! They came out 64-65 era . I've seen
them on inner sleeve of my " Lesley Gore " LP .
uh oh, Russian E transformer parts falling out at 9:30
The platter rubber mat is missing, that won't help the drive speed.
Dam good cartridge mod :-D
The rubber mat on the platter is made from a material that hardens completely. Sadly.
LimaVictor
Ooow that would cause problems, maybe a circle of felt would do a good enough job.
I've repaired enough record players over the years but never really thought too deep about the platter mat.
Foggy brain i suppose, it's my excuse and im sticking to it :-D
Hi Dan, I sure enjoyed your video on this incredible recordplayer & I think your small problem with the speed not being at a stable RPM hold as it turns around, It could be one of the new squar Belts could be slightly defective. I have been working & restoring Tape Recorders since I was a teenager & then Turntables when I was 18. A few years ago I ordered new Belts for a Stereo GE Tape Deck & this Tape deck has squar Belts in it. The New Capstan fly wheel Belt was defective a bit. For every turn the Belt made the speed would go fast & slow & it sounded kind of like your Phonograph in this video of yours but this Tape Deck was a lot worse & at first I thought it was in the Motor but I removed the Capstan fly wheel Belt & put in another new one of the same size & same make, PRB, & this Stereo GE Tape Deck was 100 times better & no wows. I looked at the Belt that made it run so poorly & it looked perfectly fine to Me. I tried this defective Belt in a Wards Tape Recorder that had the same chassis & the Words Tape Player had lots of Wows from that Belt. PRB Kindly sent Me a new replacement Belt free of charge. Some of these newer Belts are not as 100% perfect & there can be a part of the Belt that can be a little thiner then the rest of the Belt. This is rare but this could be posable or it could be the Motor to. But my years of Taperecorder repair I have seeing this happen with Belts but not very often. How ever most of the time the Belts will do this when they have been sitting for years & years just like the Belts in Your Recordplayer were when you first got the Table off. All so your Motor in that should have an adjustment to turn up the speed a bit from running to slow. The older portable Tape Recorders from the 1960s & the 70s You had to pull the Motor apart to get to the adjustments on the Armacher in the Motor. Then come 1982 or so, they made Tape Recorder Motors with a speed adjustment on the Top of the Motor & you can adjust the speed with a very small screw driver while it's still in the Taperecorder. I do not know how old this Recordplayer is, But I had a Battery Recordplayer to back in 1972 & the Motor was the same as a Taperecorder Motor. But My old Battery Recordplayer was way different then this one you have now. You have a very nice cool unit there & I never seeing any thing like this one you have now. I did fix a lot of Turntables all so when I had My VCR Business. But try a different Belt or both Belts & see what you get. All so the unit should have some kind of Rubber or Felt on the Turntable, Your LP Records could be slipping a bit. Just the hard steel for a LP record to rest on can slip a bit to. I am sure that unit must have had something on the platter for the big 12" Records at one time & it should have some rubber over the platter. your so lucky You can get Belts Locoly where you live, where as Me I have to order them on line or over the Phone. So I just wanted to give you some ideas to help you out here. I have played all your Videos on the TVs & Radios you fix & I enjoy all your Videos a lot. Good Luck with your Recordplayer & enjoy the nice old electronic items You get down there. I hope to here from you someday. Jerry
That record player reminds me of the one I had back in the 70's it was a Panasonic Wich also had a am fm radio to good video Sir
This little player was quite interesting! Love that speaker!
Shango066 releases new 'speed vaporwave' mix tape. Tracks are slowed down to a variable 4 to 6 percent.
Could be why the copywrong police didn't bust those songs with that 4% wow. Hmmm, a rekee player tat gets past copywrong police, awesome.
@@umajunkcollector now they did...
very neat and unusual record player. nice needle hack too! love how you screw with those spammer calls. to bad i never get them.
Wow my friend...you blinded me..with those Strobos Pic Card. Amazing. Really I enjoy your videos!!!
Great video Shango. Mercury had their own record label for a about 30years.
Yes, the company that formerly owned Mercury Records was the Philips electronics company. As a teenager I owned a small phono with a similar label. This one had a Columbia Masterworks label on it... probably manufactured by a Japanese manufacturer.
That's a sophisticated little player.
Duracells are some of the worst leaking batteries I've ever seen
Only if you mix them
Looks like a counterfeit Duracell from china. I never had a Duracell leak in 20 years.
@@cjay2 The ones I get from Costco leak live a siv
Agree. They leave a white crusty mess. Non corrosive though
A few days ago I opened up my walkman after only a month of non use to blown duracells. The suckers still have a charge and don't expire until 2025. But leaked everywhere.
RPM calculator? Oh, the humanity. That's just a tachometrical doodaddle thingamajiggy with a 70s funky groovin' soul, my dude. John Birch approved, of course. And the AOC transistor disapproved.
Those marketers calls, are so funny, LOL
I’ve been getting Chinese ones left on my cellphones voicemail( that I assume are telemarketing since I do not speak Chinese, but it sounds like the same message......)
Probably a speed adjustment in the motor assembly, Shango. Nice job on not destroying the original headshell and fitting in the replacement cartridge. The idler wheel should be cleaned regardless of how fit it might look.
Shango...you came thru like a champ on this...amazing! great job.
Baked like a toddler in a hot car. That's something I'll try to use in day to day conversation soon.
The motor on these have a mechanical speed governor on the other end of the motor, im not sure if its possible to adjust the speed easily but its worth a look
I learn something from your channel all the time ,
And I like how funny you are ,, at times,
Cheers
We used to play Cheech and Chong for speaking, that album with the HUGE rolling paper is laying around my house somewhere, never did try to roll the giant joint as I never smoked week, but I did like Cheech and Chong.
Yes, the triangle is used to transfer movement to the ceramic elements. In stereo cartridges there are 2 elements at 45 degrees each. Mono units would have a single element (usually). The flexible link was what allowed the the needle to follow the groove freely. A solid link would have almost no flexibility and would plow through the record grooves in a straight line, damaging them.
The section where you were saying “slow, slow, slow” watch the tone arm moving in and out. You will see that your words are in sync with the tone arm position. The platter appears to have been made off center.
The record is off-centre as well please note
Great job that belt rack looked awesome.
Interesting.
I remember things like this: toys that really worked.
My first turntable was a
“Show-N-Tell”.🙂
I used it for a long time . Played 33 1/3,
45.
That really seems to be a nice one.
Vinyl is coming back,now.
📻👍🙂‼️
I like the convenience of digital, but I hate paying for something that I don't own or hold in my hand. I just absolutely refuse to pay money for a file. I would much rather digitize it myself from CD or Vinyl or even cassette. There is something about vinyl that makes a good collectable. Perhaps it is the physical part. Not only can you hold it in your hand, but it is also a mechanical sound system.
There are a lot of machinists on youtube. Maybe this old Tony or someone would machine the platter for you as part of a collaborative video?
A machinist can fix that platter in 5 minutes, you will just have to adjust the speed. It's a low spot, which will make the platter be a few thousandths larger if it machined back to a proper circle.
nothing wrong with the platter, right at the end he bumps up the power supply a couple of volts and it falls into place.
@@andymouse It would still be nice to have a straight platter.
Congratulations shango066 you censored a record label with your phone lol
Yes, Mercury Records had these imported. I remember seeing an ad for these, and even full size record players with detachable bookshelf speakers like a Califone, on the inner sleeve of an old album.
Yep. If you bought a Mercury record (LP) in those days the jacket would be covered with them. They went all out to make them popular.
It must have worked because Japanese versions started to hit the market a couple of years later.
This was at the time, Mercury advertised as portable record players where it was shown on every inner sleeve on LP’s. I have one which is quite interesting. It was kinda cheap back then when Mercury (as a record label) made these.
Back in 1966, my cousin was expelled from his high school in a neighboring town, so he enrolled in my school, and moved into our spare room. He was a bit on the wild side, loved his beer and women, sports that I too excelled in, however I tried fairly hard to obey the High School regulations so I could get my diploma (A feat I never did complete!) We both loved rock and roll music, this was long before the 8 track and cassette players came into vogue, and AM radio was the king of the cars. Of course during the daylight hours in our very rural towns there were no rock stations on the air, at night KOMA came blasting in from all the way down in Oklahoma CIty. So it was that we attempted to get rock and roll during the day in our cars. My cousin came up with that exact record player, not sure where he got it, but we tried to play records while driving around This did not, of course work because the roads were not smooth enough for his 55 Mercury and the records skipped like hell. That said, when we got our girls, and went out parking, the record player did it's job, however the need to stop what you were doing to turn over the record was a real pain, and playing LP' s was just a pain in the ass because of the size of the platter's. 45 RPM was the way to go for size but soon the newness of the whole idea was lost, and I came up with a reel to reel mono tape player that we could use in the car, took those little reels and had the necessary capstan to allow the tape to play music at a fairly steady speed. Problem solved, and later the 4 track, then the 8 tracks came and we were in rock and roll heaven.
The head looks exactly like the Philips heads here in the Netherlands. Philips was one time owner of Mercury Records.
The label was distributed globally by Philips' local subsidiaries or licensees. In the US the label was introduced by Mercury Record Corporation in 1962. In 1972, Philips became a PolyGram label.
Never seen this player before, and this is a compact portable record player made by Mercury for Phillips. Mercury made a few decent portable record players and they are so rare and it was a bare bones unit with a volume control and a speed selector. It was a cool player made by the same company as a record label. Mercury is also a label that did Patti Page, Vic Damone, The Platters, The Crew Cuts, Lesley Gore, Spanky & Our Gang, Jerry Butler, Johnny Mathis (for a few albums), Ohio Players and more.
And as for the motor, the speed was kinda slow. I have my Grundig TK 247 reel-to-reel tape recorder and it’s a German import, and it works good after I did some cleaning on the idler wheel, and the music is a tad slow after recording on a different machine. It has a voltage switch for 110V to 240V and 50C to 60C depending on your country. In the US, it’s at 110v 60c according to the factory setting, in Europe and in the UK, is 240v 50c, and the control features are printed in English instead of German words.
You have it backwards. Philips made these for Mercury. Mercury just made records. In Europe these were sold under the actual Philips name.
Actually Philips made these players in Holland (their home country) for Mercury. Philips owned the Mercury record label from 1961-1972, at which time PolyGram was formed as a joint venture with Siemens.
Philips bought Mercury Records in 1962 and with Deutsch Gramophone, formed PolyGram. Mercury released Philips/Fontana records in the U.S. and Philips handled Mercury/Smash releases overseas.
I suspect the axle might be bent just a tad. You can check that by removing and installing the platter a couple of times in different positions. If the platter is bent, the 'slow' spot will show up on different spots, according to how the platter was positioned. If the axle is bent, the 'slow' spot will always show up on the same spot, no matter how or where the platter is put. Polishing the axle and/or the bearing may improve this.
you could try blasting that transistor with a charged big capacitor, connect all 3 terminals together to one pole of the cap, then touch the other pole to its case, i've done that on the 4 wire types with an internal screen
@@misterhat5823 its ok if you do have plenty of suitable replacements, also keeps it more original to keep the 'correct' type in... i've done it with a few and so far still working...
who cares that it is wonky, its still listenable and hipsters love the aesthetics of vinyl like the crackle and pops it has. the wrapping is a bonus.
I've always loved that last piece (your close out piece), "The Music Box Dancer" somehow quite appropriate here.
A school friend of mine, way beck in the '70s had one of those little record players, and as I recall, it had a much more bassy sound quality to it. It was also quite loud. I'd guess that an OEM cartridge might rectify that deficiency. To be quite honest, I was wondering at one point if you had wired the cartridge outputs in antiphase - That can really play tricks with sound quality.
They content matched you on everything but they didn't care about Blondie.
ThIs is at least third time I’ve mentioned that I wish we had your electronics store😎
Mercury Records Inc. had the Mercury, Philips and Smash labels during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s(Smash was established in the 1960s). Artists and groups signed to Mercury included Leslie Gore[It's My Party], Ray Stevens[Ahab The Arab](early career), Roger Miller[King Of The Road], Gary & The Hornets[Baby It's You], Jay & The Techniques[Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie], Little Millie Small[My Boy Lollipop], and many others. Gary & The Hornets, Jay & The Techniques and Roger Miller appeared on the Smash label. On the Philips label they had The Four Seasons[Rag Doll] and Dusty Springfield[Wishin' & Hopin'] among others.