Hi @pindac
I certainly need to look at thee mod given that he deck is now over 40 years old and regardless will need to be carefully looked at.
When Wilkinsons worked on my QL10 i got a new teflon thrust pad and a ceramic ball bearing. I am minded to use the watch bearing oil that I bought from Reson (they made a deck called the rota and i read the watch oil used is very clever stuff as it is designed to not displace and go into very small gaps and maintain a film)
The TTS 8000 i may have to wait a bit for as i have seen the bill for my EMT restoration and it ain't cheap - that said its a full overhaul of the electrics and the tonearm which in fairness is not an unreasonable price.
I need to ask if pitch control can be added to the deck.
@dover I have the narrowline version. It was from an Austrian radio station so it had Lemo connectors - i am getting those changed to standard XLR unless i can be persuaded that Lemo connectors are brilliant. As it happens it did not have the MC boards - the transformer prices are a bit juicy too but I do want to hear the whole thing optimised.
As it happened it didn't come with an arm so i had to source one at a time when the 929's weren't being made. Annoyingly the one i sourced was from someone that put horrible wire in it and had mis-adjusted it.
Likewise the TSD15 I bought was when EMT carts were hard to get in the UK - i bought it with a view to getting it re-tipped - but it had been owned by total idiot (less said the better) The cost of a rebuild may be un-economic and as such i may get a new TSD15. That said Benjamin has a Thorens VDH tip TSD15 which may be worth getting.
I have asked Benjamin if he'd do an interview to put onto my direct drive page which is on a well known social network site, or I may ask Jason Kennedy at 'the ear' if he'd post it there.
The interesting/sad thing with DD's is that the real brains that devised the Japanese superdecks are a very shy breed and I've never corresponded with one of them - it will be sad if such knowledge died/disappeared. Thankfully Benjamin took the reins from his father and as such EMT's the world over can be restored to original.