Technics SL-1200 MKII Output Issue

[Toastmaster]

Hello everybody, I'm having some issues with one of my technics decks. When playing regular vinyl, the right channel barely has any output or almost is non-existent. In addition, when I play on Traktor with my timecode, the calibration scope states that the right channel is missing.

I'm wondering if this is due to the RCA right channel cord's wiring being pulled away or something in that regard. When placing my turntables on my table once, I did accidentally place it on the base of the connector for a second, so I'm thinking that could be a cause.

In addition though, the deck I'm using is self-grounded I believe, as the person who sold it to me told me the ground was internal or was due to plugging in the power cord or something. Unfortunately, I don't remember the specifics (I'm trying to contact him again).

Anyway, I'm wondering if anybody has had a similar problem or any ideas of which one of these situations seems more likely. In addition, solutions to the problems would be excellent and/or pricing of such a solution! Hopefully I didn't confuse anybody with this unfortunate event.

[JesC]

sounds like you got a bad rca.

[Toastmaster]

Damn. Thats unfortunate; the RCAs are very nice - from a professional shop from the east coast.

The grounding is fine - I talked to the seller and we cleared things up. He said it could be the fact I didn't grease the headshell connections before connecting them to the tone arm, so I might buy some electrical grease and see if it changes.

Anybody have an idea how much repairing an RCA would be? Or where I could go to get the service performed?

[djlotus]

Don't grease the head shell connections. Use the eraser on the end of a pencil to clean the connections on the end of the tonearm.

If its not the heads hell connection it could be a wire popped off the PCB seeing that the seller was in there soldering.

[djchriswoods.co.uk]

i used to lick the 4 pins on my cart before screwing them on....

on a related topic, look at the 4 pins inside the tonearm...if they look particularly dark or if one looks darker than the rest, use a tiny screwdriver to scrap off some of the oxidisation and try again

[Cook]

If all else fails RCAs inside techs arent hard to change out, an hour in and out for a complete beginner, and you can buy any rca leads, strip them and prepare them, save yourself a fortune instead of buying pre-prepared rca's

[Kaek]

I had a very similar problem with my own decks a few months back.

I thought I had worn out the needle and was about to buy one.

By switching the headshells around I had worked out that the problem was something around the headshell.

In the end all I did was wiggle the wires connecting the stylus to the headshell, making sure they are connected properly and I got my right channel back.

You need to make sure that your needles are fine.

That the needle is mounted properly.

The wires from the needle are connected properly to the headshell.

That the headshell is mounted properly on the arm.

The arm is properly working on the turret.

etc etc etc.

There are a lot of places to troubleshoot!

[Toastmaster]

Thank you all for all the suggestions! I'll troubleshoot all of these when I return home tonight and give you an update on the situation!

[Toastmaster]

Problem solved! Cleaned the tonearm connections and the right channel came back perfectly! Eraser was quite dirty after, haha. Thank you so much for all your help!