Hi everybody,
Today I am going to post my long time compaignon tonearm, the 12 inch SME arm which was definetly the reason to sei up my Conversion Kit. For those who might not have been into such issues, this Conversion kit was made to convert classic SME 3009 Series II into the rare and heavy early version, common named MK1. These have been in times without internet excessivly rare, it was almost impossible to find one without luck. I did use in the early 1990ties a more common SME 3012 Series II at my Garrard 401. In these days I visited London frequently for some assignements, and I alway brought some of the Classic SME back to Germany. I never saw one of the famous MK1 Versions in these days. One Day I got offered the remnants of one, I couldn't even Sam if it hat been a 9 or a 12 inch Version, just the centerbearing Part, not Armtube, no weights, at least nothing at all. This brought me to the stupid idea, to bend my own armtube. It took me years without any result to find somebody able to make such armtube. After three years of research I did find a swiss company which was specialized inti medical surgery equipment, which offered me to make 100 tubes to my exact specifications. The erst of the Story can be find in the first postings of this blog. The Conversion Kit was a good success, I think more than 100 SME 3009 got converted between 2013 and 2019.
Of course my remant of an MK1 arm was the first one equipped with the new heavy stainless steel tube. Within the early Ebay yeras I could as well find the missing original Parts to built up a almost authentic but improved modern Version of this arm. I did use myself this arm on my Platine Verdier deck for this time till some years ago. I have got for out of analoge audio listening, so this arm is open to find a new place for the upcomming years. The arm has got a new headshell Bajonett, is ofcourse euipped with 99,99% pure solid silver wire, and has rhodium played RCA Sockets and a 3mm socket for an Earth wire. The new owner will gut Both balancing weichst, the 160g and the 220g weight. Any interest can use the contact form of this blog.
