adjusting the weight on a turntables tone-arm

[ronniedean89th]

Hey there, quick question. I'm using a Stanton str8 60. When setting the counter weight with provided cartridge with headshell everything went fine. I received new cartridges and they seem to be much heavier and makes counter weight force stop against the dust cover due to how far back it must be for zero weight. Other than removing the dust cover or lifting, do you have any suggestions

[djkrowbar]

You videos have taught me a lot... If you ever find your self in Kenya. Inbox me I will take care of your visit. #VeryGreatful.

[Knightoftheoldcode1]

Hi James,

Thanks a lot for your videos, i am definitely a fan, even if i don't learn so much. The reason why i want to thank you is because i am a music lover. I am collecting records for more than 25 years now. I am buying from all over the world and have some nice pieces ;) All my records are in perfect condition because i know how to use a turntable, each time i put one on the deck, i got thrills on my back. And i would enjoin every record listener to follow your teaching religiously, thanks

[IZMAYHEM]

so what do you recommend for us scratch dj's?

[StuparuMR]

Hello.I got some questions. I have a Onkyo CP-1046 F turntable.Don`t got the original counter wieght but got one from a dual.I have no measuring on the cw.So i get it into 0 gravity mode, and after I aply a little presure on it (about turn the knob to middle..i think 2 gramms), the record won`t play as we`ll.it will tend to go into lets say repeat.plays one revolution that the needle jumps left, and repetes the whole cycle again.any solution?

[viperfrank]

@StuparuMR Hi, I'm not massively familiar with that turntable, but I got a friend who is is also an audiophile and he is a lot more knowledgeable with older and vintage turntables.

I will ask him if it is a common problem or if he has seen this before

and I will get back yo you ASAP.

hope this will be OK, and thanks for your comment.

Nice One ; )

[StuparuMR]

@viperfrank Thank you very much ! Have a god one !

[TheShorty0ne]

hi viperfrank, i'm totally newbie in this things. I find myself a second hand SL 1200 and a Numark CS 1 cartridge, the box says that the weight of the cartridge it's arround 18.0g ant it recomends to rotate de counter to 3-6 grams...my problem is, now that the arm it's flowing on air and the counter it's on 0...when i start to turn the counter it starts to touch the slipmat at 0'3, it's normal?

[viperfrank]

@TheShorty0ne Yeah it will do that but if you lift the needle up it will feel very light and may start jumping if you play records.

You need to find the optimal weight for that needle.

if in don't know or cant find the correct weight just set it to 2 - 2.5 and that should work fine for you.

Hope this helped and thanks for your comment.

Nice One ; )

[mayesjam]

What if your needle doesnt have that weight on the end of it?

[pdripps8866]

Thanks man! Such a huge help

[viperfrank]

@pdripps8866 No problem, thank you for your comment and support.

Nice One ; ) 

[nverwijk]

Hey James, I have one small question. What happens to my needle / vinyls if I do not have the weight set high enough? Thanks!

[viperfrank]

@nverwijk If you don't have enough weight on the needle than the needle will not sit right into the groove, this will effect sound quality and cause the needle to jump when queuing up/scratching. another thing that tends to happen is when the record reaches the end that the needle gets to the end groove and it jumps out on goes across the label.

Hope this was a help and thank you for your comment.

Nice One ; )

[ScottTaysom]

this helped, but my shure stylus that is in my m44-7 cartridge is not flat as you said it should be in the other videos, it runs at an angle naturally and i'm worried this is digging into my record. suggestions?

[nightauditmontreux]

Blessington!!! Your videos are the most detailed and you speak really well. THANK YOU or as you would say Nice 1 ;)

[itsyoujitsu]

youre the man!!!!!



[blessingsflow]

great vids

[TheVintage78]

So, the counterweight only applies 3.5 grams

[blessingsflow]

@TheVintage78 no every spin it completely its 3.5 grams more

[dboynton1030]

You just totally solved a problem for me! I picked up a pair of 2nd hand Numark TTX1s a few months back. Went through all the balancing and height adjustment and they were still jumping. I just assumed the guy that sold them to me had some kind of clue - he didn't. He had the counter weight on backwards. Kicking myself for not seeing such a school boy error! Cheers mate.

[planey2k]

another cracking video.. great tune to demonstrate with too ;)

[kazywaz]

This is a very informative video. I have a question. I have an old Dynevector cartridge and it shows 4.6 grams weight with a 1.7gm tracking force. Does that mean I have to turn the counterweight on the back of the tonearm to 4.6 grams after I have leveled it at zero gravity? I ask because that's awfully heavy. Thanks

[viperfrank]

@kazywaz Hi there. yeah 4.6 grams wow! the Technics counter weights only go up to 3.5, so 4.6 is too heavy.

this is something that confuses a lot of people, the 4.6 grams is the weight of the needle its self, the tracking force is what you want to set it to, so you would set your height to 1.7 grams.

hope this helped and thank you for your comment.

nice one!!! 

[kazywaz]

@viperfrank Thanks James. it was confusing when I was watching the other tutorials, I swore they said, "Consult your manual for the WEIGHT." But I could've been wrong 1.7 sounds a whole lot more doable than 4.6. Thanks again. You're incredibly informative and I appreciate all you've taught me about turntables. Do you do any other vidoes with electronic equipment, like how to clean the inside of a receiver, when the channels cut off & on because they're dusty? Just curious.

[viperfrank]

@kazywaz I am just getting back into doing videos again, I'm going to be changing the format of my YouTube channel a bit, I will hopefully be doing some computer related and electrical hobbyist videos as well as some more Technics videos. I was thinking of doing some videos on equipment respires as well maybe, so fixing receiver channels will come under that..

I really need to get to it and make some more videos.

thanks for your comment and all your positive feed back.

nice one!!!

[bragdad1]

Thanks so much, I couldnt work out why my arm used to return to the rest at the end of an album and had suddenly stopped, thanks to this I sorted it (and learned a bit in the process) Also so convenient that you use Concorde DJ S too. I'm gonna blame the second hand copy of "The Soft Parade" by the doors I picked up yesterday, it had the centre sticker, then another planted over it at an angle (Obvs factory error), meaning the needle would hit it each time. Now time to get my anti skat right.

[msptkp]

Thanks! I believe my tone arm is putting too much weight on the needle. I get distortion, especially during the higher pitch portions of music. I've also done the test recommended and it sounds fuzzy. At any rate, when trying to do the initial balance, the weight must be turned all the way back to get close to balancing, so it looks needle heavy. Just as it's about to get balanced, the weight disengages a bit and feels lose on the arm and then it looks weight heavy.

[MindOfFeebleness]

PLEASE HELP!!! On my turntable it is impossible to make my arm ''float'', because there is a plastic wall at the back, and even when I put the weight as far back as it could possibly go without it hitting the wall, it still won't float! When I do this there is still more weight on the stylus side, since it still falls onto the platter if I let go of it. I desperately want to listen to my vinyl but I can't fix this.

[HarveyLeeSummers]

Top post! Cheers! To the point & great advice, not enough like this on youtube!

[gingielee]

i love all your vids. i DJ old soul 45s and was getting distortion towards the end of each song. your turntable maintenance videos helped clear that up. thanks!

[MrLakeburn]

Thanks so much!! table was lagging and with your help all good!

[leaptheman]

Thanks a lot James, you got my new (old) Technics SL-D1 sounding great!

[MrMikkiFunk]

Hi mate I never really payed attention to the counter weight on my 1210s but I just noticed they've always been backwards! :( Just tried to take them off and put the right way round but they don't seem to budge, they kind of click backwards and forwards and I can rotate them but I can't seem to get them off the end of the tonearm. I dont want to force them incase i fuck the tone arm though! Cheers

[chunkyricesushi]

ta very much! great vid!

[ChaseGuindon]

that was soo cool when he did a close up of the grooves

[thefishermann]

hey mister, thank you so much, iva got a problem with my turntable, when I fix the correct weight I still hearing a wahwahawawh sound behind the main sound, what about skating? how could I eliminate that crappy sound?

thank you so much, your information is huge and practical

greetings

[picturethis45321]

thank you!

[Narashava]

Fucking great man thanks so much!

[The1970sInfatuate]

Will the tracking force be affected by the height of the tonearm? How can you be sure you have the correct tracking force and that the tonearm is level when playing a record?

[ranisheniyaak]

nice job mate!

[eky49]

Cheers mate !!!

[nollfem4]

That was so helpful. Thank you so much!

[uhrensohn69]

Thank you very much! 

[scottymacgray]

When I play my records, they sound like they're 'vibrating.' It's does that on both new and old records. I thought the stylus needed to be replaced. It's been going on a week since I last used my turntable. Today, I replaced the stylus and played a LP . It sounded great until the end of the third track on the B side (when the song is fading out) and,once again, I began to hear that vibrating. It's not major, but enough to notice on inner or outer tracks. ??? I use the Audio Technica AT-LP60.

[KaiSuTeknon315]

I Really Thank You dude!!!!!!....im new to this and i really wanna take care of my vinyls...thanx for posting!!!!!!!

[Brentpdiddy]

This is maybe a silly question, but I'm not sure if the numbers on the back of my tone arm in grams or ounces, because when I looked up my stylus weight, it was in ounces. Also, while I'm at it, I watched your anti-skating vid too (thanks!) and it just seems as if my anti-skating doesn't work, I turn that knob every way and nothing happens, how do I know if it's broken and how easy is it to fix this?

Thanks!

[crazynavyjake]

Just getting back into vinyls, I forgot how to do this on my turntable thanks for the refresher!

[SonikToooth]

Thanks man this was really helpfull.

[christwagon1980]

You have to know you're doing a good job if all of your comments are positive on YOUTUBE, of all places. So, I'll add another one, gold mine of knowledge, thanks again!

[AngelaParkerMusic]

Great, just what I was looking for!

[SawTraxoonz]

@viperfrank love your tuts man, these have solved many of my problems. just a quick Q, i have technics with all of the original fittings still in place (except cart and styli). it turns out that my cartridges (numark cc1) which are concorde style cartridges, instruct you to have a counterweight of 3-6 grams, which seems like a very wide range, and obviously this extends past the counterweight markings, but i want to have my weight somewhere in the middle of this range i guess. what should i do?

[56dlp]

I've noticed in another video that by changing the weight the anti-skating will vary. Perhaps, the anti-skating should be set and adjusted during the weight setting process.

[edgarcasey]

Check that....SL-DD22 to be exact.

[edgarcasey]

Yes, very informative. Much appreciated. Only thing I'm not so sure about is when you emphatically state that all turntables have an adjustable tonearm (unless I misunderstood). In fact, one of my turntables is a Technics SD-22. The weight is factory set, and it is not adjustable. But it's good to know that the optimal weight is generally around 2.5 grams. So a penny is good - a nickel is bad, because it weighs twice as much, and will wreak havoc on my vinyl.

[radames305]

Hey quick question, should i buy a Technics Quartz M3d SL 1200 for $150?? its missing the weights and needle, PLEASE I DONT WANT TO THROW AWAY MONEY, and Thanks :)

[THEDELUGE343]

I love this guy! As the Brits say, SPOT ON! If you're planning a trip to the states you have a couch to crash on at my house. 5 Minutes outside NY City in Jerzee, I can tell you're good people! Keep it up! Gonna make a vid, but an excellent and quick way to clean your cartridge contacts is to use a brand new pencil eraser or as you say a rubber which over here means condom, not to confuse HA! No residue, quite handy n quick. Just put a bit of tape over the metal bit so you don't scratch.cheers

[paulisdead]

Cheers mate. Good video.

[badgerman300]

Thank you so much..i just got back from Audio Gold in Crouch End, London only to be given the wrong info on how to adjust the weight and was also sold the wrong belt...you have made a potentially glum Saturday a good one..thanks again:)

[dynovelvet]

thnks dude

[drmarciano]

Thanks man just saved my life

[etizzle09]

thanks!

[viperfrank]

@etizzle09 no problem, thank you for your comment.

nice one!!!

[eddiebalisto]

Nice video, James. I was an aspiring DJ years ago in the late 80s thru early 90s. Wish there were informative videos like this around back then. Nowadays I just use a single SL-1210MKII for simply playing vinyl. I use the auxiliary weight at the end of the tone arm along with the counterweight and have the tracking force set at 2 using a Shure M44G. Not sure if this is a "proper" set-up for playing records, but it doesn't appear to hurt the vinyl. Thoughts on using the auxiliary weight?

[SiRalex16v]

Great Vids man .. thank you for this valuable info ... mine sound a 100 times better..

[1973melendez]

Thx alot ur videos are great , i have a ? 4 u i have a hum when i play my lps i do have a technics sl 1800 mk2 but the hum only when i use my big tower speakers any idea how 2 fix it ,i try every thing grounds loops change my phono pre amp etc.but when i use my yamaha small speakers every thing saunds perfect

[gramoukdoom]

You should mention that the best way to adjust the weight (once all those steps are achieved) is to use a scale! Just turn the antiskate off, place your scale on the platter and gently drop the needle on the scale. That will give you the exact weight. Now adjust according to the cartridge recomendations (usually on the packaging or instructions leaflet).

peace

[undatone]

yo man. nice vids. deffo the best tonearm tutorials! just wondering tho which order should i do all the tonearm shit, like weight first, height first or skate?? thanks

[viperfrank]

@undatone hi there, thanks for your comment, its doesn't normally matter too much what order you do it in but it's quite a good idea to do the weight first and than the anti skate, you may find it easer to adjust the anti skate when the weight is set properly. but generally as long as you do them its don't really matter what order you do them in, im glad the video was helpful and thanks again for your comment.

nice one!!!

[simonschoon1]

Just watched this and the height video, they were absolutely spot on. Thanks for the help, really appreciate some simplicity!!!

[L0rdn1kon]

safe, nice comprehensive guide :)

[MegaAmitsrivastava]

hi amazing video i have some query and i need urgent help i am a vinyl collector, im going to buy my dream turntable ie. technics sl 1200 mk2, i want to know which is the best integrated amp for this beauty and best speakers, im from india so more options are not available so plz tell that how i can match my turntable with the amp and speakers from the options available so that i can get best sound, im not so much savvy in electronics gadget so keep the language simple

[Jimmywillmott]

Wish I watched this one before the other dribble out there. Cheers , answered a lot of questions.

[viperfrank]

@Jimmywillmott thank you very much, im glad the video was helpful and thanks for your comment.

nice one!!!

[TommyImpey]

Thanks alot man! Helped me so much!!

[apathymusic]

Extremely helpful video. Thank you!

[DJbuero]

Great video, James. Thanks a lot with all your helping, it's been of very great use! Greetings from Germany.

[viperfrank]

@DJbuero thank you very much for your kind comment i appreciate it very much.

i'm glad you like the videos.

thank you.

nice one!!!

[BadEditPro]

Back when I was playing records on the radio, we called the hissy nasty sound 'cue burn' Great video. :) JC

[nowudead]

Shut the fuck up HOMO!

[ricedreamgirl]

@nowudead wtf

[chrizable]

Pretty nice video. But I got a Concorde Pro System and in the Manual is, said the recommended tracking force is 4g (between 3 and 5). In the video was said 2.5 to 3 is the best... This is my first Turntable, so what is better now?

Thx...

[harrowrudeboy]

use 4g, 2.5-3 is a universal amount (most carts will play happily at this).

[UberJason]

Nice video. Thanks man.

[Greenjah81]

Awesome tutorial, I knew the first 3 steps, but then I didn't knew that there is a huge difference between normal Tech's Cartridges and Bananas... Thanks a lot.

Great job.

[raulroquez]

thank you for the help!

[bumr055]

Great video, very informative.

I just realized today I could weigh some bud with my turntable ahah.. wish I didn't buy a scale. lol

[djonpoint1]

Thank you very very much. super helpful

[bencheshire]

Wow, thanks so much. Not a DJ, just getting into vinyl for listening, but this improved my sound quality by at least 50%. Wow, cheers!

[bencheshire]

Only thing missing is, when you've got the sound down and your ear down, what will it sound like if there's not enough counterweight?

[marquistadorousss]

@bencheshire, still clear, the needle is just then more likely to skip or bounce around

[danielwachtler]

Thank You for Your help!!!!

[AndriusVisumirskii]

Thank you

[jeyoner]

well i have the oposite problem i have numark tt2 direct drive turntable with a cx1 professional dj cartrige for heavy scratching and i find that the cartrige is alot heavyer than the couter weight on the tone arm so i cant get the tone arm to float it actually waights down no matter how much i mess with the tone arm weight what should i do?

[oo1ooo1oo]

Cheers James for the tutorial - all very useful. I got my first turntable in years today, got it out the box, didn't know what anything was, so I put it all back in the box. Even the terminology stumped me. Then I found your vids on this, the anti-skating, and the height adjustment, and reckon I might reopen the box now. Cheers man.

[frankystylezdjfrost]

tanx for sharing all your videos really help me two thumbs up !

[MansuDC2]

I got SHURE M447-H preloaded cartridge with Technics headshell and says to use 1.5-3 grams, I use from 2.5-3 grams on mine, this vid helped me a lot thanks viperfrank...

[UltraviresMOnkey]

Nice vid, thanks a lot. Any ideas why my tone is swinging back toward the rest when i try and get it to "float" ?

[stanton4958]

Big help mate thanks 5+

[Mortimix]

Great vid, with a lot of explanations !

Thanks for sharing ! ^^

5 stars !

[garyandleslied]

Question. on a very cheap turntable, like a 1970's standard bsr turntable that came with most stereos with radio. Can you get near the same effect by attaching a weight on the back of the arm. I use a bunch of magnets on the back untill it is very light. It seems to work better than the spring weight adjustment that's on them. I do this also on the battery record players.

[jakob21]

Good stuff. I use 3.5 g on my qbert ortofons maybe a little too much ;/ a time ago somebody told me that you can also put too little weight on and that would also be a bad idea. Not only the record would obviously skip, but also not good for the vinyl is that correct ?

[HirogenCD]

thanks, now i know how much weight i have to put on my tone arm, stupid technics manuel didn't say anything, thank you very much :)

[gramoukdoom]

Slick as fuck man. Seriously, soooo many people out there should see your vid. I've seen so many DJs putting like 86kg on their vynils... some guys just don't get it. Im gonna forward this - really good tutorial.

[viperfrank]

thank you!! im glad it was helpful, thanks for all your positive feed back and thank you for your kind words.

nice one!!!

[gramoukdoom]

@viperfrank cheers buddy

[MrIzo56]

Dude, 5/5 no joke, your vids are indeed helpful!

Cheers.

[mikeymikeymikey416]

Thanks brotha!  How does this effect time coded vinyl, such as for Torq or Serato Scratch Live? What should I clean my vinyl and time coded vinyl with? Is standard glass cleaner and paper towel ok? Thanks!..been loving your videos, well detailed, descriptive, and educational. peace from toronto canada!

[MrsJunglistic]

Thanks James!

[MokrieyDela]

Love the lighting. Looks like the view from a monster about to pounce hahaha!

Workout out pretty wel actually lol

[ladduro]

thanks you very much- very good video