and I don’t know where to get it. Someone here gave me a link quite a while ago but I lost it before I was able to find out what model I need. According to the manual for my 1973 Panasonic SE-2010, I need stylus No. EPS-18 STSD (diamond). Can anyone help?
Try Radio Shack.
Most Radio Shack’s can possibly special order your needle.
Here also
http://www.mantra-audio.co.uk/FrameB.html
It’s about 5 pounds
I just went through this with my own turntable a few years ago. I bought a nice used turntable, but the needle was shot. I consulted my audiofile friend (who had approved of this particular turntable purchase beforehand) and he said that it’s so hard to get a new stylus that you should just get a new cartridge and stylus and install the whole shebang. He found me a nice cartridge assembly for $20 that he says is rated higher than the audiofile stuff costing hundreds of bucks way back in the heyday of vinyl. And he says that most carts that were abused enough to wreck the needle usually have damage to the cartridge assembly anyway. So I installed it and use it solely for input to digital, it is pretty nice. I’ll have to go look at the brand name of this cart, but my turntable is stored somewhere or other…
http://www.garage-A-records.com
They should be able to help you out, they had a particularly rare needle I needed last year. 1-888-800-7597
A quick web search will find others as well.
A 28 year old turntable. It would not surprize me to learn that the manufacturer no longer supplies parts for it. When I used to repair audio, many specialized parts became “no longer available” about ten years after the manufacture date of the product.
I often was able to get a substitute, and a turntable stylus is a case where you might be able to find one. But I had to have the original part in my hands so I could compare it next to a huge chart of generic styli to get a match. The company the provided me with many generic replacement parts is MCM Electronics. I did a search on their site for “Panasonic stylus” and got 8 hits but none showed your model number. Here they are:
Order Number (SKU) Description Manufacturer Code Unit Price
40-1155 STYLUS PANASONIC EPS46STQD 7.12
40-1270 STYLUS PANASONIC EPS25 4.61
40-1285 STYLUS PANASONIC 56-270290 7.12
40-1493 661-D7 STYLUS PANASONIC EPS-36 2.39
40-1494 674-D7 STYLUS PANASONIC EPS-13 2.39
40-795 PANASONIC TYPE REPLCMT STYLUS 13.08
40-805 PANASONIC TYPE REPLCMT STYLUS 5.83
40-810 711-D7 PANASONIC TYPE REPLCMT STYLUS 3.93
It’s possible that the original stylus EPS-18 STSD has been replaced by a newer part which appears in the above list. You might try calling (or sending email to) Matsushita (parent company of Panasonic) and see what they say.
Also Antique Electronic Supply in Arizona (Tempe? Mesa? Phoenix?)
The garage-A-records site is great! I’m hoping they can find my turntable belt.
[hijack]
I’ve spent the last 2 years setting up a home theater/audio system. I had to spend an incredible amount of time learning the new technology regarding video and audio, analog and digital, DVD peculiarities, and all that just to know what and what not to buy. Back in the day, I was pretty “up” on audio technology, and actually was the “go to” guy when my friends were considering buying a piece of equipment. In the digital age though, I was an idiot.
After all this I had to come up with some way to set it up so I didn’t have miles of wire showing. Then getting a carpenter to build what I designed, at a reasonable cost.
With finally getting it more or less complete, I hauled out an older Panasonic direct drive turntable and hooked it up. Got my records out from the storage closet, and played some of them the other day. Man, there is something special about the sound on vinyl. Having listened exclusively to music on CDs, DVDs and satellite feed for the last many years, my ear has changed to accept the sampling they provide as the standard for music. Listening to a vinyl recording was so much warmer, and must have appealed to my ear’s memory. Or maybe it was the music I had only on vinyl that I haven’t played for so many years. I’m glad I took the time and effort to include a turntable in the set up.
If the garage-A site can turn up a belt for my other turtable, I can try it out. I remember how good it sounded. (Just hope my memory hasn’t fooled me).
Sorry for the hijack.
[/hijack]
Thanks! That was the link I lost during a recent system upgrade.
Turn-tay-bull?
nee-dull?
steee… stay… sty-lus?
vi… vi… vi-null?
<grunt>
hunh?
I used to think that my son would look at my record collection and ask “Who are the Beatles”?
Now I’m afraid that he’ll ask “Were CD’s always that big?”
On a whim, I searched eBay’s vintage electronics section for Panasonic equipment. Turns out someone has the same model up for auction! Too bad I don’t have any extra money at the moment or else I’d have a full set of replacement parts, except for the original speakers. Hmmm…the seller says this one has a new needle. I’ll send email to see where it was bought.
As a side note I just had a variant of this conversation when my 15 year old daughter (15 today!) last night who was begging to get two fairly expensive vinyl dance club music records in her quest to be a DJ someday and has 300 saved toward this goal. She informed me that my long lost Philips turntable has apparently taken up residence in my ex-wife mother’s attic, and if she could get Nanny to give it to her, could she have these records for her birthday.
I gave her a short history of mid-fi vinyl with respect to feeback, worn media, worn sylus, expensive cartridges, balance issues, skipping tonearms, broken drive belts, wow and flutter etc. etc.) and told her that she was living in the best and brightest of times. Why go back? This lead to an impassioned, moist eyed lecture by her about my “just not understanding”. It’s true, I don’t understand the retro fascination with vinyl but then there are a lots of things I don’t understand.
Astro, don’t feel so bad. I have a 1924 Victor Talking Machine. My son’s friends first wouldn’t believe it could run without electricity (I must have some kind of hidden powerpack) and then wanted to know if it would also play CDs.
My daughter though she was really up on her trivia when she could name all four Beatles. And that was in the mid-80’s.
As for the DJ thing, I see where you can now buy “turntables” for CDs so you can do a lot of the stuff the DJs were doing with the vinyl records. (I saw this at a Target store.) I suppose this means most vinyl records have already been scratched and sampled onto the endangered species list.
I have a 1927, JCHeckler. C’mon, shell out the bucks for
the newer model!
It’s easier to get needles for that than a turntable.
Does any manufacturer make a turntable that plays at 78 rpm?
[hijack]
The Needle Doctor! That’s where I got a new belt for my 1984 JVC turntable. They’re on the U of M (Minnesota) campus in Dinkytown. It took the guy about 35 seconds flat to change the belt once the table would come off, including the time it took to figure out which belt would fit. It was like watching the pit-crew at Indy. They’ve got some people there that really know what they’re doing (don’t know about the web service, though).[/hijack]
Yup. Here’s one. The tricky part is getting the right stylus - you can’t use a 33/45 RPM stylus on a 78 record.
It’s easy to get a new stylus. Just do what my grandmother did with her 78 turntable. She had a big cactus plant and when the old needle wore out, she just plucked a new one from the cactus. Apparently this was a fairly widespread practice.
Their online catalog is a bit clunky, but if you can get them to send you a paper catalog, you can see exactly what they have. No turntable needles, or very few. Mostly electrolytic capacitors, resistors, and film capacitors for restoring/repairing old tube radios and hi-fi, they have a good selection of reproduction wooden knobs, things like that, and a nice bunch of electronic kits-- tubes-- regenerative recievers, antenna traps, crystal sets, (with crystals, not diodes) etc. etc. Very good company to deal with.
I’m somewhat unclear on the old 78’s as there was a number of differing styles. One type of needle was good for only 10 or 12 plays. If you happen to have an old console stereo or turntable that will play at 78 RPM (As a side note, Foghat’s “Slow Ride” at 16 RPM is mandatory at least once in your life) you should ideally use a needle with a 0.0003 tip, although a 0.0007 will work. The tracking weight of modern tonearms is much, much, much lighter than the originals and won’t hurt the records in the slightest.