Nov 17, 2004 Garrard Zero 100 User manual for the Garrard Zero 100 turntable uploaded. Thanks to Holger for the scans. The manual you mentioned seems to be the 'user manual' and not the 'service manual' I need. Thanks anyway and best regards! Massimo 6th October 2004, 10:10 AM.
Turntable Reviews: 3292
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Garrard Zero 100 by platara I own a well taken care of fully serviced Garrard Zero International (idler changer with multi voltage) installed in a large custom wood plinth. The sound is incredible. Tracks very well with no distortion/ sibilance and a low almost non excisting rumble. No audible wow and flutter. Using at the moment Shure M55e pickup with new needle. Key is, to use a good plinth and clean and lube well and find a cartridge that speaks well with this geniously made tonearm. Very engaging, dynamical and musical turntable without any mechanical trouble. A turntable that I look forward listening to dayly. Coming from a person with long and varied experience with turntables of DD, belt and idler drive systems different well known tonearms at many price ranges :) Thank you Garrard ! by flaps100 I have had one for many years, too many :-). I am pretty sure the date given in another review is not correct. The correct date was 1971. I had mine cleaned and degreased and it plays as a manual turntable very good. No auto functions work. But the tonearm is quite nice and the unit looks fantastic. Pretty happy it works at all after 46 years. Cue still works smooth and perfect. by rickseneris1944 It was made in 1962. I had one for just a couple of months and I'm glad I sold it in just a couple of weeks after putting an ad in our local newspaper here Long Beach, CA. A sailor bought it with no questions asked.The concept was ingenious, but the arm articulation has so much friction that it likes to skip unless you increase the VTF an extra gram. I was just seventeen years old and to me tracking force was more important than slight and accepted tracking error. by jesad (Don't like the grading system but...) Does anybody knows the year it was made? (years of making?) by tbl_hk I own first of all Garrard model, a wokring 990B changer, then a half-working Zero 100 changer, and lastly and most recently, a GT-55 changer which is half working. I approached my last acquisition the Zero 100 changer in a relentless manner. Short of disassembling every part and re-lubing them, I put the deck on its side and carefully observed all functions and part in their movement. I observed some first things to do, including: 1. cleaning and then lubing the platter bearing 2. cleaning the push bar buttons on the right hand side, starting with the simplesrt one for cue. There I only had to lube it beneath the chassis 3. At the manual on-off push/pull button, I cleaned every joint from dried and hardened grease, sometimes having to dislodge the joints all together to dip the parts in 99% alcohol, and brushing them with a used soft tooth brush. Luckily, I took care and didn't lose any bit. 4. Next I moved to observing again in huge detail how the auto play and ahut off mechanisms worked. Another one hours of watching and jotting notes. Then I found that there was a complex set of inter-locked gears and linkages that subtly moved and locked and unlocked from one another, to make the platter start, to engage the arm to turn towards the 12/10/7 edges on the platter,to return the arm to its vertical seat and how the mechanism automatically compensated for any excessive movement backwards so that the arm lock ditch could seat properly on its seating base, and of course, to move the catch strut at the bottom of the changer stacker pole while everything was moving in concert. At this part, I failed to understand why the arm would keep repeatingly turning on and off, going to the platter outside edge, not lowering, but then returning only to reapt the whole thing anew. Another hour of tinkling with the TT, this one with bear and Dan Fogelberg on my JBL 4320. Then, I saw it, coz when I moved the platter away, there was a spring-loaded moving stop-flap that was supposed to stop the ring gear around the platter bearing from catching, after the arm is moved to position for playback of track 1 of an LP. This one was locked up so badly, that I had to use brutal force to take away the loading spring, and the c-clip on the little shaft. And I used every means to dislodge the locked-up stop-flag from it base. Then ..... OK. It worked flawlessly ever since. It compares very favourably against my Pioneer PL-L1000 and also my Luxman PX-101, all driven tangential TT, as opposed to the friction driven tangential tonearm of the Zero 100. I coudl not detect any major difference between my Pioneer tangential TT from the Zero 100 when I was using 3 carts and moved the carts from the Pioneer to the Zero 100. Only, Rumble was more easily heard on the Zero 100, and speed accuracy was not inaudibly stable. But the fun of disc changing on the Zero 100 more than compensates for its issues. I rate this a 9 outta 10. That 1 pt. was deducted coz of Garrard's lazy choice of lubrication. by James22-23 This turntable is all about the design of its tonearm. The rest of the unit is typical record changer mechanism--a bit crude, clunky, and NOT high performance. The arm is quite good, so long as it is maintained regularly. Otherwise, it either loosens up, or develops too much friction in its multitude of bearings. It's rather like owning a British sports car, or a vintage motorcycle: If you don't want to be actively involved in keeping it running properly, look elsewhere. by adlpc Have two of these and absolutely love them. One is original and in like new condition, and the other has been completely rebuilt as a gutted minimalist manual turntable. Careful attention and minor annual maintenance make these excellent performers. The ingenious and elegantly simple engineering solutions eliminated some of record playbacks biggest sources of distortion and was carried out amazingly well for its price and era. The motor, a synchronous design is extremely quiet and stable and very well engineered into the design. They also had other features that were later adopted by the industry. Yes, they are a little finicky, so not for the lazy or faint of heart, but very rewarding when set up properly as the starting track and specially the end of side distortion is pretty much eliminated. The rumble is not excessive and can be reduced considerably by application of new materials in the idler and the platter's idler contact surface as well as sound deadening material on the underside of the platter and a high quality record mat. A well maintained arm works amazingly well, while an abused arm is nearly useless as the pivot bearings become loose and flimsy. For the underside control mechanism, proper cleaning and lubrication is essential. WD40 is NOT a lubricant! Use alcohol and WD40 for cleaning only and use a good mid to heavy viscosity fine quality Silicone oil for lubrication. These are very fine examples of the best changer and consumer record player technologies and designs of the time and it actually works! With a good quality modern cartridge they perform better than most with zero tracking distortion across the record from the first track to the last! The later SB version, although preferred by some had more wow and flutter. A next model, the GT55 had a better arm made of magnesiem, but the drive motor was a major downgrade in quality and performance. by anmpr1 This is a frustrating turntable. The idea of a pantograph pivoted arm to eliminate tracking error is a valid approach. Unfortunately, its execution in cheap record changer left a lot to be desired. First the good news. Tracking error is easily heard, and this arm produced a clean sound--as far as that part of the record playing equation went. However, the overall engineering was, how can I put it?, rather disjointed and clunky. Arm bearings were not tight, and in the examples I owned (two over the years) quite wobbly. Magnetic anti-skating was, however, sophisticated. The idler wheel drive (replaced by a belt in subsequent models) produced quick start up, and rumble. The automatic function was accomplished by a Rube Goldberg set-up, typical for changers of that era. The highly sprung deck made use of the controls a finicky affair. In the end, the reduction in tracking distortion just wasn't worth the major trade-offs. To paraphrase Peter Aczel's review of the Stax electrostatic headphone/amplifier combination (a review in his earlier subjective days that was probably unfair to Stax), if Garrard's picture window wasn't so clean, people couldn't see how messy their living room was. by a76bef Many of the problems with Garrard changers was hardened grease. First job with any old Garrard changer is to remove the hardened grease. One Zero 100 changer I saw had old hardened grease on it so long that the grease had fossilized, it was like concrete. by LesPaulUser This is a great turntable. I have had mine for many years and am very pleased with it. I took mine back out of retirement a few months ago and found that things weren't working so well. However, I carefully removed the main gear/cam, removed the dried grease (from the bushing) with a q-tip and alcohol and lubricated with WD-40. I lubed a few other spots with WD-40, as well. Now, all is well again with this dear classic from the '70s. Grease was never a good idea with these old turntables. All they ever need is a shot of very-light oil now and then. |
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