So, Spring has finally arrived, flowers abundant with colour and the ongoing need to wear thermals. But most importantly, Spring is the season of rebirth, rejuvenation and renewal. With this in mind, we’ll be looking at the subject of transformations in this month’s article. However, not the type I spent over thirty years in the English public education sector teaching about, albeit with a tenuous link to rotations by virtue of the fact that without those, Linn and its famous turntable wouldn’t exist.

“Don’t throw away your records, you haven’t heard what’s on them yet”

— Ivor Tiefenbrun - Founder of Linn

Ivor Tiefenbrun; founder of Linn and designer of the iconic Linn LP12 record deck, hints at the connection with this month’s blog by virtue of transforming a turntable’s rotational energy into the glorious sound a vinyl record can produce.

This is the story of an Linn LP12 and an Audio T customer’s transformation of an iconic deck in memory of someone close to his heart.

In the beginning . . . .

One can never describe a Linn Sondek LP12 as looking mundane, but if you read-on and finish this blog, the image directly below may fit this description.

Spring is a time for rebirth and like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, the deck blossoms into a thing of beauty, full of colour and character, far beyond its humble beginnings, consisting of a Linn LP12 with a White-lined bearing, Linn Akito arm and a Linn K9 cartridge. In its day, this was a fine deck, but as you will witness, the transformation will be quite stunning.

The re-furnishing of the plinth was a personal quest from a good friend of John and Paul’s here at Audio T in Brighton and done to commemorate the loss of a personal friend, whilst simultaneously paying due respect to an icon of rock guitar. As you will see, from the pictures coming up, he did an immaculate job.

09 Plinth after sanding front angle 03.jpg

It’s all gone a bit Eddie Van Halen . . . .

Guitarists everywhere were steeped in sorrow over the recent death of Eddie Van Halen. Whether you are playing your vinyl on a Rega Planar 3 with an Exact cartridge, the top of the range Rega Planar 10 or the Linn LP12, in one of its various incarnations, EVH was one of the most creative, influential and recognisable guitar players of his generation and his intense playing tested the tracking ability of decks and the strength of speaker drive units, the world over.

Let’s cut to the chase

13 Plinth Red & White front LH corner above.jpg

In its final assembly, the resulting plinth is a fitting tribute to a personal friend and the late, great EVH, transforming it into a unique Linn LP12 which conjures up an image and sound before even spinning a record. This is borne out when a record is put on.

The finer machinations and assembly on the jig at Audio T in Brighton can be seen in the carousel of pictures above, giving a good insight into the complexities and engineering that go into the making of a Linn LP12.

A great example of the attention to detail in the making of this deck, is in the picture of a “quarter” coin. Apparently, EVH used a quarter to lock the bridge of his guitar, negating the potential tuning issues that occur when bending strings on a guitar equipped with a “whammy-bar”.

To add my personal 25 cents worth to this article, as a guitar player myself with this type of tremolo system, I know all about the “flattening” effect to the sound of the strings when they are bent in extremis and the inherent difficulties that come with maintaining the correct pitch and tuning of an electric guitar whilst playing it when using this system. I certainly didn’t use a “quarter” myself to lock the tremolo system on my Jackson Performa Strat copy.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I’m not such a good guitarist as EVH . . . . or more likely, a lack of practise and talent!

Here at Audio T in Brighton, it’s all part of the service . . .

For all the effort that clearly went into the finishing of the plinth, upgrading the mechanics of the Linn Sondek LP12 did require the service facilities available at Audio T in Brighton .

Shop manager, John Killick, has been upgrading Linn LP12’s for over 30 years and in the turntable servicing business, there are none better or more knowledgeable about the requirements to get your deck up and running at its best, so it seems fitting (pun intended) that he was asked to work on this Linn LP12.

You can read one of our past articles about the in depth process of LP12 maintenance Here.

Linn offer many different finishes and these can be viewed Here, just don’t expect an EVH finish like you’ve seen in this article.

So what about the sound?

In a nutshell… It rocks! Sounds a bit clichéd, I know, but it’s true. The final deck was a Linn Sondek LP12 with a Lingo power supply, Linn Ittok arm and a nice red Dynavector 10X5Mk2 cartridge to complete the package visually and sonically.

This combination exudes quality, with a classy, yet punchy sound. Eddie’s guitar sounds both sweet and raw when it needs to be.

Let’s just say that the Van Halen track “Eruption”, from their first album, sounds exactly as the track name describes and “Jamie’s Cryin’” leaves you in tears.

A fitting memoire . . . .

I hope that these few paragraphs do justice to such a fine piece of craftsmanship and that the creator gets many hours of fun listening to a deck that will always serve as a reminder to two people close to his heart.

Thanks for reading - Ade, John and Paul - Audio T Brighton

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