Hello, i’ve recently switched to a S4 DVS setup for my room to practice scratching, and i had everything going great. I was watching some DJ Angelo videos and he was talking about how he puts his tone-arm on 0 with the weight all the way down. I decided id set my tables up like that and man, bad idea. Now i keep having BPM dips and sometimes the BPM will even just be a couple off. (not bad but noticeable) But i was wondering do you guys have any tips for tone-arm height? Help appreciated
tone arm height and cart weighting are directly relative to your style, heavy handed and glitchy scratchers will benefit from a higher than level tone arm and more weight, where as sumone that smooth like buttah wont need it.. always check your cart specs for weight … me personally on my pdx (which dont have a numbered height adjuster… i use a sharpie marker as a go-no go gauge..so about 3 mm higher than level… and with the weight reversed…5 grams… no record burn no skips no hops and the cart still hovers a few mm above the control vinyl… monkey around with your set up till you get perfect sound n tracking based on your platter style
Well im using a second hand pair of 1210 MKII’s with Shure M-447’s and when i had the height to 0, anti-skate on 0 and the weight as heavy on the needle as possible is when things get freaky. Ill be playing a song around 128 bpm and every 5-10 secs it will dip to 123-ish then come up. Its mostly on one side now, i got one of them back to semi normal (only dips around 1-2 bpm) And when i play vinyl thats not TC it will play then kinda get stuck and play the same 15 second loop. Super weird Im still an infant when it comes to vinyl but im working on it blast me with your wisdom
check your headshell alighnment and that you decks are level… then try raising the tone arm to 2 and back the weight off… see if this sorts it for… and if you decks are second hand, you might wanna check the gimble screws (they hold the tone arm in the gimble) to do this just see if the tone arm move in the gimble by holding it static and the GENTLY try to wiggle the arm left n right in and out… tighten if need be… if your bpms are dipping… play a track at perfect 0 pitch on 33 and watch the timing lights (that what the red light on the on/off is for) if the dots slow down n speed up… you may have a faulty pitch control.. or they may need calibrating.
I bought my technics used…one tone arm height is at roughly 2.5, the other is around 2. For the life of me, I can’t get them to move up or down. I undo the lock and twist/turn like no other but nothing. Could there be an issue where they seized up or something or am I doing something completely wrong?
i have had problems with various 1200’s locking up due to dust, grime, and other not so nice things gumming up the tone arm height adjustment. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO USE ANY TYPE OF LUBRICANT. remove the entire tone arm assembly and clean carefully by hand. rubbing alcohol is a 1200’s best friend as it leave no residue and works as a great de-greaser. once its free you should be ok
when I back off the weight the needle tends to move and I dont get a good feedback on the scope, like the circle is a dotted circle instead of complete. And the needle when it gets about half way it will start sliding back alittle causing a kinda glitched loop deal. ill make a video later and post it, it’s hard for me to explain
Almost similar to my situation. so i’ve disassembled the whole thing & tried to twist the Lock knob free with a plier, it was stuck beyond hand intervention! Luckily it all went good & i managed to raise/lower the height adjust with ease. no lubrication needed.
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Im still an infant when it comes to vinyl but im working on it 
blast me with your wisdom