Victor #4 soundbox - pivots adjustment tip

[frenchmarky]

I was doing a reconditioning of a #4 soundbox I picked up, and something came up that hadn't on the other #4 I've got. While tightening the pivot nuts, I was ending up with a LOT of stiffness in the needlearm, but discovered that there was *still* a ton of play between the pivots... I could still shift the arm back and forth between the pivots.

It ended up that apparently one of the pivots may be slightly bent or tweaked, probably from being dropped. Or may be partly due to the pot metal aging. Anyway it was causing drag in the needlearm even when all the play hadn't been taken out yet. So I decided to try rotating one of the pivots (the pivots have screwdriver slots on top) about 180 degrees and sure enough, it magically fixed the problem. I was then able to have zero play and close to zero resistance in the arm, just as it should be.

So just a tip that if you encounter a problem like this on a box with moveable pivots like the #4, try rotating one or both of the pivots to different positions, and see if smooths out your shouldn't-be-stiff needlearm.
Mark