Wilcox-Gay Recordio conversion to magnetic

[tempest]

Hi, All. Newbie here, trying to get my Wilcox-Gay Recordio up and running. I planned to have the crystal head rebuilt, but that does not seem to be an option anymore. So -- I think magnetic is the way to go. I'm hoping that others here have a similar setup, and might be able to help with a few questions:

- Were any mods to the cutter arm or elsewhere required during the installation of the magnetic head?

- Did you use the original amp, or are you using a modern amplifier? If the former, was a stepdown transformer or modification needed? I wouldn't want to fry anything.

Thanks!

[emorritt]

If the unit originally had a crystal head, the drive is coming off the plates of the output tubes (~180 VRMS). This would fry a magnetic head. A magnetic head was made for the Recordio series, the Astatic M-41, which show up on ebay occasionally. However, to use this head with the original electronics, you will have to get into the unit and re-route the wiring to come off the output transformer and not the plate(s) of the output tube (s). Then it will work fine. Many different units were made both ways (Airline, Silvertone, Bell and other manufacturers). Crystal heads have a somewhat brighter sound than the magnetic head, but driving a crystal unit is somewhat more involved than a magnetic. Hope this helps.

[tempest]

Thanks, emorritt! That's good info. The unit indeed has a crystal head. I plan to bypass the W-G amp to avoid these issues when converting to a magnetic cutter.