AKAI AP-307 turntable pitch problem

[kevin250]

I just bought a vintage Akai AP-307 turntable a few days. I don't know a ton about these things, but it seemed to be working fine for the first few days. However, I've recently noticed that whenever I start a record, the pitch seems to be rather off for the first minute or so at which point it rights itself and plays normally. Any idea what to do to possibly fix this?

Thanks.

EDIT: If this helps, the table has a quartz lock feature. At the beginning when the sound fluctuates, the the little strobe light thing has trouble stabilizing but after it rights itself, holds stable. Additionally, there is like background static that cuts out too once everything sort of starts working normally.

[kevin250]

After playing around with it for a bit, I've found that for some reason if I enable the repeat function everything works fine but the moment I switch off repeat it persists. Turns out for some reason the turntable will just set itself to repeat without me enabling the function which apparently is when it will work fine, otherwise if it doesn't think the repeat function is enabled, it gets all wonky. The little strobe light thing is considerably brighter on repeat as well.

[Alec124c41]

I suspect a dirty switch.

Cheers,
Alec

[kevin250]

OK, thanks. How do I go about cleaning the switches? When you say switch, are you just referring to the little dial that changes the setting? Do I need to remove the bottom to access the circuits to do this?

[Alec124c41]

The dial is on the ens of a shaft that connects to the switch, inside. A spray can of contact cleaner comes with a thin tube, that you can use to get the stuff inside switches ans controls.
Remove platter before inverting table. You may be able to work on it tipped on its side. Be careful of the tonearm.

Cheers,
Alec

[vexorgtr]

There's some good Pot/Switch cleaner you can get at electronic supply places.

Bold users have found WD-40 works ok too. Get a little in the switch and then "work the switch" or knob for a bit.