A counterweight....or put a blade towards the rear of the arm and hook a spring to the pivot axis. That's the way they did it on cheapo record players in the day.

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/multi...adjustoca2.jpg

Very little overhang behind the pivot point, so a counterweight would have to be massive to have any positive effect. Lack of mechanical advantage.

Also not much height available for the usual spring approach.

I'm thinking a hovercraft approach would be good. :)

The pivot mechanism and cartridge mounting bits are both wood, and do have an OEM look to them. Haven't done any research on this at all, though.

Cartridge seems to accept Victrola-style individual needles, with a set-screw arrangement.

I'll update this post with pics in a little while.

Here we go:
Pivot mechanism
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519433192

Underneath head.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519424549

Needs wire throughout, but suspension is still pliable and flocking is 'arite' for now.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519424549

I picked up this the other day, at a bookstore closing sale.
If there's interest, and comfort by site owners, I can scan and make available for posting... It covers popular changers up to 1961, including the little 45 changers. If it's something everyone already has, or is conveniently available online already, I will carry on...

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519433090

I'd be interested to read that!

Oh, hey it already has a counterweight made out of wood. Cast a duplicate in lead, or have it machined from iron. That'll do it.

Well, I'm starting to think this is a retrofit. It clearly started as a mass-produced item, due to the stamping instead of hand metalwork. I've looked thru radiomuseum.org and many other Google-able pics, and haven't seen any teardrop machines with this type of tonearm. They're all the nice bakelite versions shown above (although some are mounted backwards...) or a different, more trim version of the bakelite arm. I need to look through images of other manufacturer's products to see if there's a match.

Probably won't spend time/money duplicating this one, or cleaning it up. Instead, I'll focus on trying to find a suitable replacement. Or, craft a carbon fiber linear-tracking monstrosity... not.

Decojoe67, could you measure the tracking force (weight) of your original setup, to the nearest ounce or so? That would inform me as to what my target should be. Thanks in advance -- and great-looking work, too.

Hi Chip - Sorry for the delay seeing your post. I don't have a way to check it accurately, but I plan to. The bakelite arm is not as heavy as it looks and is much lighter without the old heavy metal crystal cartridge. The replacement needle does not bottom out. Likely the arm has a max tracking weight for the needle, but it doesn't feel particularly heavy.

Dear Decojoe67:

Have you found a way to replace the cartridge in your original teardrop set? I have a
set with the same arm and am using a home-rebuilt cartridge. You said you found
a ceramic one that did not bottom out. What was it? Where to get one? Is its needle
still the metal replaceable one? If not, will the needle ruin records? I measured
my tracking force at 80 grams. That includes the pot metal cartridge case, but the
new innards are much lighter than original.

My set is an RCA U10 radio-phono, also I actually USE the TV input with the set it was
intended for, a TT5.

I was told to use an Astatic 51-2 cartridge which can be gotten cheaply on eBay. The new cartridge is very small and light and, with it's flanges, was easily installed in the old tone arm with the use of a few washers. Without the heavy old metal cartridge the bakelite arm is reasonably light. When you place the arm down on a record the needle does not bottom out. I'm sure the tracking pressure is on or close to max, but it sounds great, and I don't use the unit a whole lot. My collection of 78's are mostly the common popular ones so I am enjoying them without worry. No, the new cartridge does not use the replaceable steel needles. I actually screwed the old set-screw into a small cube of plastic which I epoxied to the top of the new cartridge at just the right position so it sticks out of the notch in the arm. It looks better IMO like that than without anything there. Hope that info helped!
PS - Lucky you with the TT-5! I would be tempted to trade my entire collection for one of those. It's a beautiful piece of art-deco and TV history - Joe

Scan this book, please. Many vintage phono owners would love to have it, myself included.

Getting close... hopefully this coming week. Hang in there!

Ok, so where should this end up? It'll be a bunch of PDF files, or one big one, or maybe sections... initially not indexed but later it will be. Is there a place here on this site to upload stuff like this? Or is it discouraged due to long-outta-date copyright? Not a fan of Dropbox, etc. because years from now they'll change their structure, and all the links will be dead. Should really be here on-site, or perhaps in Audiokarma land, where I will go look next...

... where I found akdatabase.com. Looks like the place to be, as it is audio-ish in nature.

And that's gonna be nope.

All scanned in... all 515MB/300 pages of it. of it. Compresses to slightly smaller, but not a lot. 300dpi -- needed for some of the diagrams and charts, etc. (Book is worthless if you can't read it.)

So, does Videokarma have a Digital Docs area like Audiokarma does? And how would one get this doc to whoever has posting authority? I suppose I could Dropbox it to that person, but don't want to just put it up on Dropbox (or other) permanently, because policies and interfaces change, causing links in threads and discussions to break. Better to be hosted on VK/AK.

VK has no docs section, I and others advocated for it in a thread, a OT fight broke out, thread closed, I cleaned and reopened later, site admins eventually got interested in adding a section and then it just stopped...

Would it be inappropriate to proceed with posting on AK (due to the 'special relationship), with a link? There's less ancient/mid-fi activity over there, but it is actually audio.

Moderators, thoughts?