This is a first look at a Beogram 4000 that I bought in Germany some time ago, and which will now be fully restored and then sent on to its new owner in the UK. The aluminum surfaces are in pretty nice condition:
The teak plinth is also quite pristine and it has very nice corners:
The original arm cover is pretty dirty, but hopefully it can be restored to a good look through a deep clean. These covers are difficult to replace since they have different labeling compared to the covers used on 4002. They state "tracking weight adjusting" instead of "tracking force adjustment":
Under the hood it is original as far as I can tell and obvious signs of previous 'human creativity' are absent:
After I started it up for the first time I happily noted that the strobe light is working:
but that the position indicator is broken off:
This part will have to come from another 4000 since printing clear materials is still a challenge. Maybe I will design a replacement from laser cut red tinted plexiglass, but that is a project down the road.
Start up also revealed that the OFF button seems to have no effect right now and that the tracking sensor is not working properly. But these are issues that can usually be fixed.
This must be an early series 4000 as can be gleaned from the pulley
which does not have yet the crowned shape of later 4000s. This early model hypothesis is also supported by the low 60k serial number of this unit.
Overall, this Beogram seems to be an ideal candidate for a full restoration bringing it back up to its original glory.
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