[Jukebox-list] AMI G 120. Bought it.

[Steve Wahl]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 06:45:35PM -0800, Mechanical Music of S.F. wrote:
> 
> Upper horn and crossover are good.

Don't know if I ever mentioned: the crossover in my AMI F had a bad
capacitor in it.  Originally, the horn didn't work, but just replacing
the cap fixed it, and it sounded great.  (At least for a while; later
the horn died, and had to be replaced; now I wonder if they're
related.)  Anyway, a dead horn on an AMI F or G may just be the
crossover, not necessarily the horn.

> One question right away.  The GE cartridge in it was a ceramic, right?  I'm 
> probably going to replace with something like a Stanton 500 for the sake of 
> the records.

No, the GE is magnetic.  Still mono, no vertical compliance so it's
not nice to stereo records.  But better for you if you want to replace
the cartridge, as the amp is electrically compatible with a current
magnetic cartridge without any wiring changes or adding any pre-amp.
I put mine in with the channels wired in parallel and had good
results, others have recommended in series.

However, if you're thinking of using a Stanton, note that the recent
conversation about mounting bosses and cartridges applies here.  I
found the Stanton style cartridges mounted directly ride far too low.
There's no adjustment that would raise up the rear of the tone arm
while in play position, and since the cartridge raises the front of
the tone arm, it plays at an angle that slopes from front to back.

It's severe enough that tracking pressure gets to be a really sensitve
issue.  Too light, and the records skip.  To heavy and either the
plastic needle housing rubs on the record, or the rear of the
cartridge bounces up on slightly warped records.

Your mileage may vary, of course; someone else said they had no
problem.  But I think you'll find you either have to modify the
Stanton to sit higer in the tone arm (e.g. making the mounting
"bracket" fit betwen the posts and fashioning a metal strap to hold
the cart in place), or get something like a Shure that has plastic
mounting that's easier to modify, or find a NOS Rockola Shure that's
already notched propperly, or something along those lines.
(Personally, I replaced the Stanton with a Shure that I modified
myself, because at the time I could walk into a Guitar Center store
and pick up a M44 off the shelf, as it was popular with DJs.  Not sure
if that's still true.)

> Photos here. Click on each to enlarge. Click again for a bit bigger. Thanks 
> to everyone who offered an opinion. It was a great help.
> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v196/JimDouglasJr/AMI%20G120/?action=view&current=100_1502.jpg

It'd look better with the turntable shroud in place.  Not a
bad position to start from, though.

Looks like someone painted over the original color that was probably
the yellow showing through.  Not certain I'd be all that picky about
returning it to the original color, myself -- if you're at all a
stickler for authenticity, I'd consider some of the other "factory"
color options first; if not a stickler, you don't need any adivce from
me. :-) 

Google shows me that the colors can be seen at:
http://tomszone.com/Photos/AMI/AMI_G_55.html

Why is it that none of the colors look so bad there, but some of them
seem to look so gaudy in real life? :-) :-) :-)

> Here's some before and after pix of the Seebooger LPC-1/Electra hybrid I 
> just had.
> Recovered the speakers and added a color gel.
> http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v196/JimDouglasJr/LPC1%20Electra/

Looks nice, too!

--> Steve

-- 
Steve Wahl    steve at pro-ns.net

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