This was the last Neumann system that Al had. Unfortunately he passed away before we started to work on it. We were just finishing the last VMS70 and getting ready to start on the 132. Only some very general clean up work has been done.
Good news: The bones of the lathe are good. The turntable system & motor are in good shape. The exterior paint of the depth panel is rough but the electronics are quite clean. Functioning microscope. Tons of spare parts for almost every major component - pitch box, lathe electronics, suspension box, switches, lamp housings, etc. Doubles of almost everything.
Bad news: Obviously needs a lot of work to be a complete system. Cosmetically rough, some oxidation of metal parts. One pitch box has broken switches (we have replacements) that will need to be installed. Plenty of patient engineering work to do to bring it back into health. Every pot/switch will need to be investigated & checked. Plenty of old electrical components will possibly need to be replaced. It's a project.
This should tell you most of what you need to know:
Not pictured yet - suspension boxes for cutterhead (x2) and boxes of spare parts. We have documentation on most parts of the lathe but I can't claim that it's complete. The two pitch boxes are obviously different. The one with the broken push button switches is the pitch box for the VMS62 Special (a later lathe) but was sold as an update for the AM132b. The other pitch box with the LPI "dial" is the orignal AM132b pitch box.
This is a system for someone with a decent amount of electronics experience - the lathe cabinet wiring is old and will probably have to be redone. You should be prepared to put at least 1 year of work into this lathe before getting anywhere. If you need a tech to help we might be able to assist you finding the right person. Obviously you will need to source a head and a rack. A Neumann SX68 will probably cost you $4-$5k. I have no direct experience with any Vinylium/Flo products, but perhaps there is a potential for using the Caruso head / Flo's preamp / Vinylium pitch & depth system, etc.
There are enough spare parts to make this a nice functioning system if someone is willing to take it on as a project. We don't want to sell this to an audiophile who will just use it as a turntable. Ideally this will go out into the world to cut records. It can absolutely be brought back to life.
Priced to move. Prefer to sell to someone local (NY/NJ area etc.). That's why it's not on Ebay. The lathe is located in New Brunswick, NJ. We're not shipping it. If you're not local you'll have to fly here, rent a truck, and pick it up. Same thing if you're outside the US.
Try to ask any questions here in the thread to avoid bombarding me with PMs.
