Decca 'Deccalian' Mk.4 record player 1964

 

A portable record player with optional wire frame stand and record rack. Found a friend's aunt's loft, who didn't know how it got there? It came to me as a no-runner; missing styli, control knob, section of speaker grille, loud speaker missing and an audio fault. I initially took it on to retrieve the 5 valve push-pull 10 watt amp, but was soon won over by it's nice condition, no damage to blue Rexine, just an air vent cover missing and a fret on grille. 

The repair

After finding a new speaker for it I had no sound, checked all the voltages and all was good. It took a while but I found a wire off at the crossover panel, I expect it fell off when the speaker was robbed, but it was hidden behind control panel and took a while to spot. Next came the styli, somebody had cut a piece of plastic into a point and shoved it in the hole where the original one went? Looked like a child's attempt to repair it. The head shell is a plug in type, Deram made, so only that one will fit, the socket sides had cracked where the bodge had been done, so even if I brought a new styli it would have just fell out. So what to do? I decided to glue in a substitute and hope it aligned-up right. I used a BSR  ST 17 flip over type and removed it from the rubber housing, then glued inside a tiny reservoir of glue and left over night. To my joy the next day it worked fine with louds of volume, in fact more than original I think. The power light, 6.3v had gone, so one was fitted.

Left: My BSR styli glued in place, right: original green fitting styli

After the styli repair came a vacuum and clean-up. I used a nail brush and soapy water to clean Rexine, don't used modern cleaners they will remove colour. I made a small vent cover for the underneath and cut a triangle plastic strut for speaker, colour not exact but will match with time. The Garrard turntable was in surprisingly good condition, just gave a few drops of oil to the right places and it ran quieter. This is the rarer non-automatic drop, but will return arm version, much prized at the time by DJ's for disco-units.

I've added 3 views of the amplifier that may or may not be of use to a restorer. As the unit is well designed it is worth preserving for future generations, the modern cheaply made versions are a sad comparison.

I almost forgot to add a view of the tweeter and crossover panel and pre-amp tone control valve. Hidden under control panel and light.

Also here is a short video showing a test run of unit after repair.