I want to hold and twist your knurled knobs..

[Ernie L]

oops..sorry I was day dreaming while looking at photos of a vestigal tonearm..God I love all things mechanical...this tonearm pushes all my buttons !!!!

The table looks like any one the new acrylic models offered today..except this is a vintage 1970's transcriptor skeleton table and thats glass not acrylic.

Strangely enough there are currently two of them for sale on Ebay..according to one of the sellers this model table was in the movie Clock Work Orange !!!



What do you suppose the string running from the pivot point to the headshell is for?..
Vestigal tonearm.

[Abandonflip]

Hi Ernie,

I think it's almost certainly not the TT used in A Clockwork Orange. Have a look at the Transcriptors website here:

http://www.transcriptors.net/

It has a picture of Malcom McDowell with the TT in question, and it's notated as being an Hydraulic Reference rather than a Skeleton.

BTW isn't one of our forum members connected with Transcriptors?

[Karnevil9]

It's is not on the Movie it's as Flip says the Transcriptor Hydraulic Ref...

That piece of string conected to the pivoted headshell helps control warped records, it's actually called a divided mass arm..Best bets have a word with Michael Gammon son of the late David as Flip mentioned again...

These arms are not that ace actually & were generally supplied to the early 'Skeleton' decks.There's another firm did an arm with a pivoted headshell along the simular lines but was a unipivot, i forget the name.

[Ernie L]

"Abandonflip"]Hi Ernie,

I think it's almost certainly not the TT used in A Clockwork Orange. Have a look at the Transcriptors website here:
http://www.transcriptors.net/

Hello Flip/K9
indeed it does look quite different.....certainly the "make" (chevy) was in the movie but not the"model"(corvette.)

BTW isn't one of our forum members connected with Transcriptors?

I don't know I'm afraid..could be as K9 mentioned..

Karnevil9
that piece of string conected to the pivoted headshell helps control warped records, it's actually called a divided mass arm..Best bets have a word with Michael Gammon son of the late David as Flip mentioned again...

Yes now that you mention it I see that it does indeed pivot at the head shell. Interesting twist on tonearm design. dynavector has a tonearm with that "feature " as well. Though the dynavector looks like a brick sh*t house compared to the vestgial. K9 there is another one but I cant remember the name either




regards
Ernie L.

[sq225917]

are you thinking of the one that constantly varies tracing angle to minimze tracking distortion?

[Karnevil9]

Ernie ''& he drives the fastest milk cart in the west''

just hit me:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e ... rslabs.htm

Seems to be mounted on a custom Logic 'DM101'

This is Michael:

http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/profi ... le&u=24355

[Abandonflip]

...certainly the "make" (chevy) was in the movie but not the"model"(corvette.)

Ernie, it's 1970's Britain we're talking about here - no Corvettes, just E-type Jaguar's old boy!

[Ernie L]

...certainly the "make" (chevy) was in the movie but not the"model"(corvette.)

Ernie, it's 1970's Britain we're talking about here - no Corvettes, just E-type Jaguar's old boy!

Yes of course I just wasn't sure if the terms Make and Model were used outside the US....but I beg to differ on the UK not having a corvette...

how do you explain this

Now I can imagine the doctors wife driving the Jag to the club but not in an Aston Martin...too rude and crude and bad to the bone

[Ernie L]

Ernie ''& he drives the fastest milk cart in the west''

just hit me:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e ... rslabs.htm

Seems to be mounted on a custom Logic 'DM101'

This is Michael:

http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/profi ... le&u=24355

wow.......now there is someone marching to the beat of a different drummer......minimalist in a Bauhaus kind of way..as opposed to the machine age one on the transcriptor.....I like them both

[Abandonflip]

[quote="Ernie L]how do you explain this...[/quote]

The Aston DB6 was much more a "toff's plaything" and very much less affordable than either a 'Vette or E-type, but even towards the end of the "Swinging '60s" you were unlikely to find one painted yellow and fitted with a pair of ugly seaarchlights! James Bond's one was, of course, silver - very understated.

However, there's something very telling about that photo Ernie - the car is left hand drive, and therefore must have been made for the US market where gentlemen were more likely to wear tartan plus-fours than a blazer and cravat.

The real difference between British and American sportscars though is that we tended to make them from metal rather than plastic. The only volume producer of fibreglass cars in the UK is a company called Reliant, who are probably most famous for a car used in a sitcom called "Only fool and horses".

Have a look at this, and tell me whether you think Reliant's products and the 'Vette may have been separated at birth:

http://www.reliantownersclub.co.uk/reliants.html

[Karnevil9]

...certainly the "make" (chevy) was in the movie but not the"model"(corvette.)

Ernie, it's 1970's Britain we're talking about here - no Corvettes, just E-type Jaguar's old boy!

& Jensen 'Interceptors'

[Karnevil9]

...certainly the "make" (chevy) was in the movie but not the"model"(corvette.)

Ernie, it's 1970's Britain we're talking about here - no Corvettes, just E-type Jaguar's old boy!

Yes of course I just wasn't sure if the terms Make and Model were used outside the US....but I beg to differ on the UK not having a corvette...

how do you explain this

Now I can imagine the doctors wife driving the Jag to the club but not in an Aston Martin...too rude and crude and bad to the bone

Aston are Only the greatest car in the world. Bit of cash under my belt & i'm straigh for a 'DB-5'...

[sound-signal]

The real difference between British and American sportscars though is that we tended to make them from metal rather than plastic. The only volume producer of fibreglass cars in the UK is a company called Reliant, who are probably most famous for a car used in a sitcom called "Only fool and horses".

Er... Lotus? TVR? When was the last time either of them made a sportscar that didn't feature plastic bodywork? And that's just two British makers of plastic sports cars I can recall just off the top of my head who are still around now - there were others in the past who aren't around any more, and I'm sure there are others now.

Not much wrong with plastic bodywork though, it has to be said. The nextdoor neighbour bought a 1972 Lotus Elan Sprint Drophead Coupe when I was very small. He's moved a couple of miles down the road but his sister still lives nextdoor to my folks and he still has the car. The plastic bodywork was never one of that car's problems...

Some years ago he finally let me drive it and I found the handling and acceleration to be fantastic. I was much impressed with the rigidity of that backbone chassis and the solid feel of the glassfibre reinforced polyester body - there was no scuttle shake or flexure of any kind at all and that lent a real precision to the feel of the car. The low weight also made for really brisk turn-in, while all this precision and briskness was achieved with a suspension that also felt supple and smooth to ride on. Very impressive.

Less impressed with the engineering though. An enduring memory from my childhood is that guy always carrying the cylinder head about - I think he had it off about four or five times because of various problems with overheating, valve timing going off and so on. The Lotus engine was just a normal Ford Cortina engine with a Lotus DOHC cylinder head grafted on, you see, and the modified timing chain drive wasn't really up to handling the DOHC reliably for everyday use. It was always a bit of a kit car.

He was also forever adjusting the carbs - they were Webers but Lotus rigid-mounted them directly to the cylinder head, with no shockmounts at all, and they were always foaming the fuel and shaking themselves out of adjustment. No space in that tiny engine bay for an inlet manifold or carburettor shockmounts... The current mileage on the car is only just over 13,000 which says something, the thing was always immobile for one reason or another. It's been off the road for some years now - he took it apart some time ago because something broke yet again and hasn't put it back together since.

One funny fault that I helped him trace was a wiring fault that caused the electronic ignition to go haywire when the electric cooling fan came on. I cured it by independently earthing the electronic ignition to the battery... a bit like curing hum in a phono playback system. Being an audiophile endows one with all sorts of useful skills.

There was an Englishman and his wife with a '74 Lotus Elan fixed head coupe in the 2003 classic car rally I was taking part in here. He saw my '79 Alfa Romeo Alfetta 2000 GTV and immediately started cracking Alfa Romeo jokes. I smiled and nodded my head sagely. The Elan eventually retired with a broken differential, after also having had problems with overheating, fuel vapour locking and - of course - the wiring to the electronic ignition. The Alfetta? It took me and my dad to the finish of the rally in air-conditioned comfort, not having missed a beat. I found the English couple on the roadside and offered them a lift to the finish, but they declined, opting to wait for the recovery service instead. I guess it's a way of life with Lotus owners.

Have fun everyone,

[Abandonflip]

George,

It's rather unfair to rub our American friends' collective noses in the dirt by mentioning proper sports cars, don't you think?