Circa '46 Utah 78 rpm record player

[radiotvnut]

I just bought this interesting looking open top Utah automatic 78 rpm record player from someone on ebay. I don't have it in my hands; but, here are some pictures from the ebay listings.

I don't have much experience with this particular changer; but, the unit looks to be clean and in decent shape. I'm also impressed that it has a 3-tube amp and not one of this wimpy single stage jobs (the amp chassis looks to be fairly large and use more capacitors than what's typically found in one of these units). The three-tube amp will also make it more practical to use a modern 1V cartridge (I'm sure the original crystal cartridge is dead, anyway). Looking at the pictures, the tonearm appears to be the same type that's used on some manual players and I do see a counterbalance spring; so, maybe I can get away with using a more modern lighter tracking 1V ceramic cartridge (89T powerpoint or Pfanstiehl P228) instead of having to rebuild the original crystal cartridge.

I feel confident that I can fix the electronics and I'm sure I can fix the changer, as long as I take my time and watch what I'm doing. This changer does not look to have a bunch of parts to it.