Beogram 4004 (5526): A New Arrival and a First Look

A Beogram 4004 (5526) recently arrived at my bench for some TLC. This unit came packaged 'by the book' (or rather 'by the video...;-)...check out the video here). Double boxed and with an ample amount of padding. Nonetheless, a (probably nascent) crack in the hood developed fully, probably caused by the vibrations that occur during transport:

I carefully removed the hood from the deck to limit possible damage to the other side of the hinge. Then I lifted the aluminum strips up on the sides to unscrew the hinge from the hood.

This is the usual location where cracks develop in Beogram 400x hoods since the bolt holes represent the structurally weakest point, while the highest forces act on this part of the hood when it is opened and closed. The only good news here is that this can be fixed in a way that it is almost invisible. On the occasion of a cracked hood on a Beogram 4000 I recently developed laser cut plexiglass patches that match the bolt holes and the shape of the area under the aluminum strip. See here for a discussion.

After packing the hood away for attention at a later point in the restoration process, I assessed the Beogram. It is in fairly decent condition with only little damage to the aluminum surfaces and the wood plinth:

The keypad has the usual finger smudges, but they did not cut through the coating yet. I removed the aluminum panels and the platter:

It seems it is original as far as I can tell with no obvious signs of 'human creativity'. This is always a good starting point for a restoration. I put the platter on and plugged it in. It started up normally, but I was not able to switch it to 45 RPM. So there is an issue somewhere in the electronics. Maybe it just needs a new RPM relay. We will see...In summary, this unit is a pretty good starting point for a restoration and it will be close to new condition once I am done.