The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Should the face of the reproducer be 90* from the record surface. My tone arm is worn and is not 90*from the record surface.
It is about 5* tilted.
Will this wear the records?

What kind of phonograph is it? There may be an adjustment to repair it.

For lateral cut recordings, the diaphragm should be nearly perfectly perpendicular to the record surface. Yes, being off that much could cause more than normal groove wear. Cheers, Russie.

Here's from the Vocalion manual on the position of the reproducer for lateral or vertical records.
(http://nipperhead.com/old/aeolian09.htm)

Thanks for all the input. The problem was the mid-section of the tone arm. It was broke an I had it taped on. I luckily found one on the net. My original tone arm was held on by a pin, this one by two set screws.
I drilled the two set screw holes and put the pin in. That’s why it was out of alignment. I elongated the pin holes to get the correct alignment, filled holes with Bondic and redrilled.
Perfect now.
Thanks Steve

SCD53 wrote:Thanks for all the input. The problem was the mid-section of the tone arm. It was broke an I had it taped on. I luckily found one on the net. My original tone arm was held on by a pin, this one by two set screws.
I drilled the two set screw holes and put the pin in. That’s why it was out of alignment. I elongated the pin holes to get the correct alignment, filled holes with Bondic and redrilled.
Perfect now.
Thanks Steve

Be cautions when working on Vocalion tonearms, they're plagued with pot metal that can be very brittle.