WOW another Keel clone

[Paul]

(2012-04-13 12:21)ricsimas Wrote:  

(2012-04-13 08:36)Paul Wrote:  Four LP12s costed me less than one keel! Or I made big bargains or the keel's price is a little (???) anomalous ....

Sounds like a miracle to me:

- VdH MC One: $1,500 back in the day
- PU7: GBP1,750.

Those two together are the price of the Keel. Unless you got everything else for free or you found those in the dumpster, it doesn't add up - sorry.

But that's enough - no more feeding the troll for me.

About what I found in the dumpter or around it, recently, I got a LENCO L75. I revised it accurately and spent £.20 for a new idler (Yes it's an old poor idler drive turtable ). This was, in terms of audio performances the biggest bargain of my life. Don't ask me if it sounds better than sondek, I wan't feed the troll!

[Elbow]

(2012-04-13 13:51)Cymbiosis Wrote:  

(2012-04-13 12:47)Elbow Wrote:  So Peter, if I ever had need to ship my LP12, would you advise removing the Keel first and shipping that separately?

Elbow, I'll try and answer and expand a bit on the issue for you guys to consider if I may:

How would it be shipped and by whom?

The issue is preventing the Keel coming into contact with the top-plate and plinth. Also if packing material is in contact with the Keel's top surface and can move, even a little, then vibration could/would cause polishing and/or more serious abrasion of the surface finish.

The amount of additional packaging and restraint would also have to reflect the severity of handling the deck was likely to endure during it's journey. Basically, how are the shipping company you select going to treat the box? Are they going to respect fragile and/or this way up stickers or not?

It's not Impossible to transport LP12s very long distances without problem, as Warren in Australia has detailed here in the past, and I do have other examples where customers have shipped their decks to many other parts of the world without any problems at all.

So, in answer to your question, provided you are happy with the shipper's care and attention. This means they will carefully carry it, not throw it, and it won't endure being upside down, or on it's side and you take great care in adding in extra necessary packaging and removing arm tops, or counterweights etc ensuring there is sufficient space for a the arm beneath the lid packaging as if it is a Linn arm the packaging will need modification for bearing and headshell finger-lift clearance for sure!!! That's all additional to removal of the sub-platter, sleeving the spindle and the red bearing cap for the main bearing etc. Then, as a last resort, when you literally have no other choice in the matter............

Obviously, if you are shipping in the back of your car or it's in your care during a journey on a plane - As a carry on for example (you'd need to ditch the outer box for a carry on BTW) Then with care, you are unlikely to have a problem (again provided it's well set up (as I'm sure it is) and no lube has been applied to the spring bushes (as if they have - they will move and the deck will go out of tune in transit) - So, quite a few caveats for you...

But for the factory, where they need to pack the deck promptly, when sending out to the retailer network, there is no way they could ship without damage occuring to the wonderful finish on the Keel currently. It would neeed a significant and costly re-design of the packaging IMHO - So would it be worth it? Who would pay for the new revised packaging?

My guess is that the costs of any new packaging would have to be spread across all new LP12s, so most of the decks supplied, which is with a steel subchassis of course would have to increase in price to those customers in order to chip in for packaging they really don't require! Not really very fair.

So, dealers just crediting for un-used steel sub-chassis is the common sense approach IMHO as I stated before.

Hope that covers everything for you.

KR

Peter

Thanks Peter, very comprehensive and good to know.