The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a spare tone arm (Heineman, I believe No. 11) with the spring loaded tone arm and back bracket. I was going through some parts and found the bottom had broken apart at the cross bar and when I picked it up it just fell out. It seems the springs were too hard and stiff for these pot metal tone arms. I do have a similar one on my Magnola Talking Machine and do not want this to happen to it. Would it be advisable to remove the spring or use a lighter tension spring?

The tone-arm balance spring is very important in the No.11, without it there is 3x more needle pressure on the record than there should be and it will tear up your 78s!

The spring tension is adjustable by raising/lowering the spring attachment screw in the nut at the top bend of the arm. The spring tension should be adjusted until the reproducer weighs ~120 grams.

Player-Tone wrote:The tone-arm balance spring is very important in the No.11, without it there is 3x more needle pressure on the record than there should be and it will tear up your 78s!

The spring tension is adjustable by raising/lowering the spring attachment screw in the nut at the top bend of the arm. The spring tension should be adjusted until the reproducer weighs ~120 grams.

Thank you Mike! I guess there is really no way around the pot metal problems. At least the one on there is ok for now.