LAD/Jelco

[Chopsaw]

Nowt wrong with aluminium. It's light yet strong and durable depending how you use it and it's easy to work with. It can however ring like a bell unless it's well damped. The LAD plinth is a nicely made thing but it's a bit lively. I'm sure some damping applied to the inner surfaces of the plinth will enhance it's performance.

[vincitsemper]

I also have a couple of LAD G828s, but my speed controller is different than the one pictured here.

As far as I know they only ever made a couple of models but I have just found this on you know where:

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CM-Labs-LAD-200-Turntable-Ichikawa-Jelco-Tonearm-London-Acoustical-UK-Broadcast-/170878012560?pt=US_Record_Players_Home_Turntables&hash=item27c91f8c90

Of course, I have no affiliation with the seller.

Someone checked one of the decks over for me last year, and told me the motor was a high torque JVC. Never did listen to it, though, as I had the arm fitted to a GL75.

Cheers,

Victor.

[Chopsaw]

Mine are 828s Vic. I'll let you know what they sound like anytime soon.

[vincitsemper]

Hello Si,

Mine are LADs 828p.

Bit off thread's track, I last week spoke to a sound engineer who works with Van Dam. He says that all Van Dam cables are designed to be directionable and that the V is meant to be at the source's end.

Apparently, a chap from Van Dam can hear when a cable has been incorrectly connected.

He also told me that a well known amplifiers manufacturer uses Van Dam cables from which the writing has been scraped off and, by hand, Vs have been drawn on. A guy there is paid to specifically do that!

Will  you be keeping the decks blue?

Regards,

Victor.

[hamish huddersfield]

LAD made a couple of decks, their first as I remember was a dual deck disco thing without a mixer, I think it was belt drive, much better than the BSR & Garrard equivalent fitted to the FAL and Citronic doubledecks.

The 828 came in two models my one 828 and the 828 P identical but the P had a more torque for quicker start up times, they were both direct competition for the Technics SL 1200, but if I remember at the time the LAD was over £300, whereas I picked up my SL 1200s for £279(ea, 1986) on Tottenham Court Rd, whereas the LAD were only sold in disco shops. They never came with a lid either.

The main USP was the control panel that could be unscrewed and mounted out of the way, thus making remote starts easier, the SL 1200 couldn't be remote started without some electonic knowledge, however this was never really an issue in clubs besides it left a nasty looking hole in the deck. They then introduced another model after feedback about the pitch control, and this was then put on a fader a la SL1200.

I'd forgotten about them until I started seeing the Jelco/LAD threads on this and other forums, I'm going to take Si's advice and damp my one a bit.

Bit of history, John Peel could have specified any turntables for Peel acres and afforded them, but he went for the LAD , just like Peel himself , British and slightly quirky... ok I know it's a Japanese arm and motor...but still.

[Chopsaw]

Both of mine have GAJ 838 in white writing at the bottom right hand corner. There are three stalk switches and a rotary mounted in a black panel in the same place as the control panel on Hamish's deck. The decks are all blue with other markings and I'm going to leave them blue I think. My camera's at work so I'll fetch it home tomorrow and post a few pics.

I didn't know that Van Damme was directional Vic but out of habit I always make up my cables with the writing running from left to right with the source on the left left so I must have fallen lucky there. A chap in the industry once told me that a cable only becomes directional when you start using it and that includes non directional cable too so make up all cables with the writing running from left to right. I've also had a rethink about the earthing and shielding connections when using the pseudo balanced wiring layout. I'll post an explanation on the other thread when I have some time to spare.

[vincitsemper]

Hello Si,

I shall have to upload a photo of my LAD, the controls are fitted so as to be  read from the side rather than  from the front.

Please do explain what you mean about the cable configuration on the other thread, when you have time.

Van Dam says the cable is directionable due to the way the copper was extruded.

Regards,

Victor.

[Chopsaw]

Yes the controls on my LADs are sideways too so I'm sure my decks are the same as yours Vic.

Very interesting stuff re the Van Damme Vic and I'll explain my thoughts tonight when I get back home. The idea though is to connect the screen to the cold conductor at the output end ie not the source end. There's a damme good reason for doing this lol.

[vincitsemper]

I see what you did there, Si.

By the way, I nearly bought the decks you ended up with but as I already have two it was probably a good  thing I didn't.

Regards,

Victor.

[Beobloke]

The 828 and 828P were slightly different variants on the same theme and then there was a later 942 variant which did come with a lid. The final version was the EL-80 which was generally a bit smarter, but otherwise similar to the 942.

The belt drive twin unit was the GAJ835 - early versions had the decks on separate plates with a single 2U rack-mountable control panel but the later types had two decks on one top plate.

I have owned most of these models and think they are very good - they sound much better then an unmodified Technics SL-1200! The only one I have left is a twin deck GAJ835 built into a 'Sound Creations' SC909 disco console - I spotted it on eBay and put a £50 bid on it before going away for the weekend- I was very surprised when  returned on Monday to find I was the only bidder and had won it for 99p! When I went to collect it, the outside case was a little battered but inside it is absolutely pristine - it looks like it's never been used and all the faders and markings are perfect. I no longer DJ but cannot bear to get rid of it!

Finally, I have a PDF of a scanned original LAD brochure showing most of these models. If anyone would like a copy, PM me your email address.

[hamish huddersfield]

I'm using it to go through a load of old records today, I picked up what I could get in my car from the lock up




What hasn't made it through QC

[hamish huddersfield]

The 828 and 828P were slightly different variants on the same theme and then there was a later 942 variant which did come with a lid. The final version was the EL-80 which was generally a bit smarter, but otherwise similar to the 942.

The belt drive twin unit was the GAJ835 - early versions had the decks on separate plates with a single 2U rack-mountable control panel but the later types had two decks on one top plate.

I have owned most of these models and think they are very good - they sound much better then an unmodified Technics SL-1200! The only one I have left is a twin deck GAJ835 built into a 'Sound Creations' SC909 disco console - I spotted it on eBay and put a £50 bid on it before going away for the weekend- I was very surprised when  returned on Monday to find I was the only bidder and had won it for 99p! When I went to collect it, the outside case was a little battered but inside it is absolutely pristine - it looks like it's never been used and all the faders and markings are perfect. I no longer DJ but cannot bear to get rid of it!

Finally, I have a PDF of a scanned original LAD brochure showing most of these models. If anyone would like a copy, PM me your email address.

That's really interesting, I never used the Belt drive ones, were they based on some other deck ??

They go backwards too ?

[Chopsaw]

I see what you did there, Si.

By the way, I nearly bought the decks you ended up with but as I already have two it was probably a good  thing I didn't.

Regards,

Victor.

Haha yes Vic, couldn't resist it.

I originally bought the two LADs for the tonearms and hoped to get say forty quid apiece for each armless deck. However the decks look too good to break so I'm going to have to review the situation.

Thanks for posting the info Beobloke. Looks like I've got some thinking to do.

[vincitsemper]

If Beobloke is right, and the LADs are as good as a stock SL1200, then an armless one should be worth more than £40.

I know Beobloke is very knowledgeable, from reading many of his contributions, but I dare say that a SL1200 may be a better sounding  better built machine.

By the way, how are your horizontal bearings on the LAD tonearms? They are very well engineered arms but the bearing assemblies sometimes work themselves loose.

The horizontal bearings are held by an assembly which employes screws on one end and a push fit sytem on the other. There is glue holding the push design firmly but at times the glue fails and the bits come apart causing play in the bearing.

Trying to tighten up the horizontal bearing will cause the push fitted parts to separate, rather than to remove  excessive play.

Depends on the amount of hard use these decks may have had, they are after all studio equipments.

Cheers,

Victor.

[Chopsaw]

Thanks for that Vic. I've only had a quick look at the decks at the moment and there is a small amount of play in one arm. When my contract finishes in five maybe six weeks time I intend to strip the decks/arms down and do whatever needs doing. I will be rewiring the arms for sure anyway.