Beeswax worked fine for me with the fluted walnut plinth. And smells nice!
Why so? It’s oak and in a dry climate where I live wood normally like getting some oil to not risk getting cracks. What could potentially happen putting natural beeswax oil onto a natural untreated oak plinth?
Because mine is wenge and is already finished with French polish, I believe. I’d be concerned about leaving a sticky residue.
Dry micro fibre cloth most weeks then once a year or so slightly damp micro cloth with cold clean water then thoroughly dry with clean dry micro.
You’ll regret the never ending maintenance and sticky marks especially with furniture polish or worse silicon polish.
Yep that’s all is needed to freshen up or clean a factory supplied plinth as they are sealed with a clear lacquer. You can oil or wax a factory plinth all day long but none of it is getting into the wood, so is a bit pointless. Might smell nicer though!
This was a question in a recent thread where I mentioned a previous system mismatch years ago:
The new LP12 was originally built with a new fluted plinth, Trampolin2, Cirkus bearing, Kore subchassis, Valhalla psu, Ittok LVII tonearm, black T-cable, Adikt cartridge.
It morphed into my current configuration with the same LE fluted plinth, Trampolin2 and Cirkus bearing, but with a Majik subchassis, Hercules psu, Jelco TS-550S tonearm, older Linn cable, Nagaoka cartridge.
Currently back at that dealer for some bits & pieces maintenance including a cartridge change.
Fabulous - thanks for sharing and going into such detail, very much appreciated indeed. It just goes to show how the sound presentation of an LP12 can be changed so radically!
It’s years since I owned (or heard) an LP12, so I’m certainly curious to hear how the modern iteration compares to the higher end Rega models.
Brilliant post @daddycool
I’ve recently got my CB and Olive amp sets serviced and have been trying both sets separately, then mixing pieces to see what gives the best possible result with my 79’ fluted afromosia Valhalla LP12 (Cirkus / Steel chassis / RB1000 / 2M Bronze). Then to complicate matters the Valhalla needed repaired but instead I took it as an opportunity to scratch an itch by trying a ‘geddon type supply. I wish I’d done this years ago as it has transformed how the deck sounds and definitely made it more suitable for the CB amps but probably even more so with the Olive amps. A great learning experience and does highlight the need to very carefully match your LP12 spec to the rest of your system. Finding the sweet spot makes the music flow just so effortlessly!
Tell me about it!
Glad you (and @daddycool) are getting your LP12 where they need to be
Whilst on this topic, I’ve sold the Goldring rebuilt Karma and gone back to K9/VM95 on the Valhalla/Ittok deck. Sounds like it should (again)
And the fun part was, as the friendly dealer was keen to demonstrate during many happy visits there, the moment a (Klimax) Radikal was introduced to an older/entry/mid level LP12 deck, it seemed the whole critical matching thing of everything else on the deck became almost marginally relevant only.
It blew my mind, then again going in that Radikally different direction would involve spending more extra on the LP12 than I did on the whole system, yet, interesting nevertheless.
Thanks, It’s a lovely thing to look at and use. And ( at the time) according to Rega, ‘probably’ decent enough performance too
I was over at my dealer last week. (To collect our new Innuos Zen Mini mk3 + LPSU) Anyway, noticed there was a new LP12 fluted plinth being worked on, in their workshop.
Here’s a snap…
I’m not sure if the phone camera photo conveys enough detail. The key thing I noticed - in the detail, close up - was how well made it was.
This walnut fluted plinth was exceptionally well finished. I would say these newer fluted plinth are probably better. They are machined and finished to a higher standard (compared to back in the day). The flutes are beautifully crisp. Everything is really square and accurate. I’m guessing modern tooling is better.
A quick peek underneath also shows the corner bracing detail looked a little more solid.
The bottom section of the plinth is left plain wood. Unlike the original ones, which are painted black. For me I prefer the black finishing. But, accept that’s a small point.
The sweet smell of walnut wood was also evident.
Having seen one close up now, happy to stay loyal with my 1986 original fluted afromosia
The thing I find disappointing with the new Linn plinths is that they don’t typically continue the same plank of wood round the corners. Hence, this results in a discontinuity in the grain pattern at the corners. This is most obvious when viewed from the top. This is one point that Chris Harban got right on his Woodsong range of plinths. I believe Simon Price is doing the same on his Simplinth range.
Really nice visit again to my friendly Linn dealer today, finally after all restrictions. For coffee, maintenance and to have some bits & pieces installed that I had collected for a while now:
New belt, some bearing oil and bounce adjustment. Ammonite Audio black arm collar instead of the thinner silver original one. Jelco tonearm cable, the nice one that matches the arm. Ortofon MC-3 Turbo cartridge installed. Feels like a finished project, sounds and looks good now!
Some pictures from today during the no-hum-test, before the base went back on. Mine is on the left in the first pic, and second pic is a close-up.
Very nice!
What’s the arm?
Thanks!
That’s the Jelco TS-550S, successor of the SA-750D. Slightly improved and with Linn-geometry. Only made for a relatively short time before Jelco closed their doors.
Looks so different from the two Majik arms in the picture. Krane in the middle and the Linn-spec Jelco SA-250ST on the right. The TS-550S is a step up over both.
I really like it - best of the 3 for me