Garrardzilla!

After the giant spindle for our beloved 301s - see a previous, recent post - I'm finishing another "hommage" to Garrard 301 and its GREATNESS... only (a little) better:-)

An extremely limited batch, an handful, plainly said, of replicas of 301's strobo-less platters, super accurately lathed from a single B14 bell-bronze "slice" bullion, maniacally balanced to stand still on a zero degrees flat seismic platform - same happens to your car tyres and wheels, when balanced at the tyre workshop, only MUCH more carefully and precisely - my friend Mario copiously ejaculated:-) when the first samplers, finished in mirror-like appearance, brought to the balancing workshop, a NASA-like white coats (lunatics) place simply didn't need ANY balancing at all!

People there hand-clapped:-)... a machinist's machinist dream.

This one-of-a-kind replica platter is weighting about 14 kilos and to be safely used with standard 301 chassis needs a sort-of stainless-steel ring underside the chassis, to be sandwiched with my own spindle, sturdier and more apt to accept such a weight... while it's SIMPLY an heavenly mechanical matching with Ray's solid, thicker bespoke chassis.

Like a friend from NYC (she knows who's...) told me, I'm bringing 301 to its higher limits, like a mix between a Micro old, superb turntable and... something new, a super-breed which only a bunch of us tempted to reach, out there.



So, here is the "Garrardzilla" a totally new breed of Garrard 301, using the best available replicas parts around, ALL made as a labour-of-love, first, by people who loved 301 for decades... Ray, myself and a bunch of lunatics... stainless steel brand new springs, my own spindle, platter, slate plinth and arm-bases, Ray's solid chassis... sure a further step to improve vinyl playing and music retrival.

I'll finish platters in chassis matching colour, butter white, grey hammertone... or any colour of choice, also craziest:-)

Price? I apologize, quite steeply priced, folks... the lathing begins from a 50 kilos bronze bullion of best extruded quality, quite expensive also as a raw material, so the most of material goes in debrises... and also careful, lengthy, ultra-precise manual machining had its costs, of course.

I made it for my very own super-duper 301, and painted it grey to match Ray's grey hammertone "solid"... I'll soon eBay my full Shindo's combo: spindle, platter and blue 800 grams leaded-cloth mat, with no regrets at all.

A dear friend of mine, with VERY same 301's combo, already did it:-)

Anyway, only a couple left, still raw bronze... anyone interested?

Detailed pictures will follow...