Beogram 4000: Cosmetic Items, Final Adjustments, and a Test Drive with George Duke on MPS!

The restoration of the Beogram 4000 from Germany is nearing its end. I adjusted the sub-chassis and arm height and then the arm lowering limit:

The correct adjustment of the arm lowering limit is an important safeguard against stylus damage should the record detection mechanism ever fail. The next step was the calibration of the tracking weight. I always install a M3 nut and washer to bolt the counterweight position safely into place, which is much more stable than the original setup with the locking washer. This shows the original setup:

and the M3 nut in place:

Once that was done I calibrated the arm weight with a digital scale:

The next step was to adjust the tracking feedback:

The blue pot that allows the adjustment of the tracking sensor LED comes in handy for fine tuning of the feedback. 

The final adjustment was the motor voltage. This shows the oscilloscope traces for 33

and 45 RPM:

Nice smooth sine curves as they should be!

The final steps were to replace the scratched and dented main aluminum platter and the arm cover. Conveniently, someone recently parted out a 4002 5501 Beogram and sold the arm cover on ebay, which I snapped up for this project. The early 4002s have the same arm cover like the 4000, i.e. it states "tracking weight adjusting" (instead of "tracking force adjustment" like one the later 4002s) on it. The aluminum platter was exchanged with a pristine one from a donor 4004 that I recently acquired.

And finally, it was time for a test spin. I selected a recently bought record by George Duke: "Liberated Fantasies" on the awesome German MPS label (MPS stands for Music Produziert im Schwarzwald - music produced in the Black Forest...;-). I really like the bunch of records that George Duke recorded in Villingen...in my opinion the most creative part of his career. Here is an impression:

Considering the initial state of this shipping-damaged Beogram 4000, it was an especially happy moment to see and hear it executing flawlessly. Mr. Duke is smiling, too!..;-)