[Jukebox-list] Cartridge Installation on Rockola 1438 ?

[Jay Hennigan]

wbabbott at cox.net wrote:
> I've received a new stereo cartridge for my Rockola 1438 along with a new replacement shielded phono cable to rewire the cartridge with as my original is looking very ratty. It appears that the original cartridge is in place, but has been slightly "re-wired" in past. There are two terminals on the original cartridge which I believe is 1.needle output and 2. ground. The output terminal has the core of the phono cable soldered to it .The ground terminal has a wire lead which appears to be soldered to the phono cable outside shielding?? It would seem to me that the ground would be grounded somewhere other than the metal shielding on the cable??
> 
> Before I install and rewire new stereo cartridge, I want to be sure how to properly wire and ground the cartridge. Please give me some instruction here...!

That is correct wiring for a monaural cartridge.  For stereo, the 
conventional way is to wire the shield to both (-) terminals and the 
center conductor to both (+) terminals.  The cartridge may have molded 
letters like LG, RG, L, R, which are abbreviations for Left Ground, 
Right Ground, Left, Right.  There may be a small brass clip between one 
of the ground terminals and the cartridge case.  Depending on the wiring 
of everything else, leaving this connected may result in hum.  It can be 
removed by prying it off with the connector removed.

Don't solder directly to the cartridge pins, use clips.

In some cases, you'll get better performance by wiring the stereo 
cartridge in series.  This gives a higher voltage output which can be 
helpful as the older cartridges often had higher output than the 
replacements.  This is done by connecting the shield to LG, connecting L 
and RG together, and the center conductor to R.

--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay at impulse.net
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