Reproducer rebuild or Not??

[cleveland1996]

What is the opinion of the experts......

If you have reproducers that you are not in need of now but will need to be rebuilt, do you rebuild them and put them away for when the time arises or do you wait until the need is there? I would be concerned about gaskets etc. drying out, but hopefully they would be put back into use before 100 years have passed..

It is always nice to have things ready to go, but will that come with a price in lost performance?

Opinions??

Joe

[CarlosV]

My practice is to rebuild the soundbox irrespective of its utilization in the near term. I keep my soundboxes in controlled environment, as I presume all collectors do, so it will last for decades before rubber rings start to decay and lubrication of rings will dry. So, go for it!

[Valecnik]

My practice is to rebuild the soundbox irrespective of its utilization in the near term. I keep my soundboxes in controlled environment, as I presume all collectors do, so it will last for decades before rubber rings start to decay and lubrication of rings will dry. So, go for it!

Agree with the exception of some very rare, or very early reproducers where the rebuild could actually result into some lost information.

[JerryVan]

I've had gaskets go bad in reproducers I rebuilt years before.

[CarlosV]

I've had gaskets go bad in reproducers I rebuilt years before.

Jerry, I would guess the life of rubber gaskets to be around 10 years when kept in a controlled environment. The reasoning I follow for immediate rebuild is that a frozen-dried-hardened soundbox does not get any better as time goes by, so storing for future rebuild will make it a harder job years later.

As a clarification, I would only recommend to rebuild soundboxes that are in substandard conditions. The ones that sound well, the needle arm moves freely and still have compliant gaskets, I leave them alone. And yes, very old or rare ones are also to be left alone.

Pot metal ones are also better left alone, or their rebuild procured to the experts in this black art, my experience in rebuilding pot metal soundboxes ended up in catastrophe most of the time.