Vintage (ish) Sugden Turntable...

Sold in kit form, the Connoisseur BD1 was designed and made by A.R. Sugden of Brighouse (Yorkshire):

Arnold Sugden (no relation to R.E. Sugden of Sugden Audio btw) was a remarkable fellow. He left school age 14 and became an apprentice undertaker before deciding to turn to engineering. In 1953, with no formal training in mechanical or electrical engineering Sugden set about making high-fidelity turntables, tone-arms and pickups under the name of "Connoisseur" and (since this was in the days before stereo records), he also built his own disc cutting lathe for producing stereophonic microgroove discs to manufacture the records to play on the turntables he was producing. Since he didn't invent binaural discs his name has been a little forgotten in the history of stereo records and record players, (that honour goes to Alan Blumlein of EMI, but EMI never pursued the format), but it was Arnold Sugden who pioneered the use of stereo cartridges, lightweight tonearms and belt-drive turntables, long before the names we know today.

So, to my little gem re-discovery. I originally bought this by happenstance, needing a decent turntable I went along to a local hif-fi specialist with the hope of buying a good quality used one but they had nothing in stock in my meagre price-range. Taking pity on me the guy suggested the BD1 and said he'd throw in a used tone-arm that he'd just taken off a brand new Thorens turntable because its owner wanted it fitted with an SME arm. So I left the shop with a small box of bits and a used but brand new Thorens TP13 tonearm, complete with cartridge. All I needed to do was make a plinth and having a carpenter for a Dad that presented no problem. The plinth in the photographs is the original that we made back in 1973, contrary to the fashion in the 70s for big chunky plinths I wanted it to be low-profile but was limited by how Mr Sugden had mounted the motor, in the end we managed to squeeze it all into a plinth that was 2¼" (57mm) high; we mounted the TP13 on an aluminium plate that was once the push-plate from an old door and fashioned the lever for the arm-lift out of an old rotary switch mechanism. Everything was direct mounted to the plinth with no isolation or suspension, I simply stood the whole thing on pieces of neoprene foam that were offcuts from making a wet suit and everything was hunky-dory.

(the eagle-eyed may spot the cigarette-burn on the plinth by the on/off switch, as I said, this turntable serve me through my teenage years, including my 3 years at university - this TT was for chilling and grooving)

So there it is, looking a little worse for wear, the drive-belt is missing, the elastic bands that suspended the motor under the platter have long-since perished and the on/off knob has corroded (but that's easily remedied). The tone-arm is safely packed away elsewhere, having long-since been removed from the turntable and kept as a "spare" for my Thorens TD130 turntable that is equipped with the same arm. Out of idle curiosity I gave the 10-inch aluminium platter a flick with my finger and remarkably (considering it hadn't been used for over thirty years) it span for almost two minutes before finally coming to rest. The bearing that Sugden pioneered back in the 1960s is simple - a hardened steel spindle runs in a phosphor-bronze tube that has a single ball bearing in the bottom, this design is still used today, though Rega et al seem to favour ceramic or sapphire balls these days.The motor suspension using three elastic bands on the other-hand I think can be improved, as can the speed selection.

Because this was my first turntable I've always been loathed to part with it and it always sounded great, so I am considering re-plinthing project for the summer; this time with complete decoupling between the motor, the platter and the tone arm and all the modern niceties of isolation cones and sound-absorbing foam. Sadly my Dad is no longer alive to help, but I'm sure I've picked-up enough carpentry skills to complete the task. I'm also toying with an idea of driving the motor from some custom electronics that will provide the speed selection and speed control, I haven't worked out the details of that yet, but it could involve an optical sensor to monitor the platter speed, a phase-locked-loop and a power-amp/isolation transformer set-up to drive the motor coils. I'd also consider doing something about the 10" platter but that's more complex as the drive-belt runs around the rim, however something as simple as putting a 3mm 12" acrylic mat on top could be enough.

So, perhaps one day it could look like this:

Sounds like a fantastic project to me.

Last night (nothing on TV again after The Blacklist) I gave some more thought to the plinth design:

For me nothing can quite match the ritual of picking up that black round thing placing it on the platter and lowering the arm while watching that cantilever take the strain. 

Reading your thought process leads me to believe the end result could be something special. Please keep us updated.

Having the tonearm separate is a common feature of high-end turntables:

While there is no direct connection between the pivotal point of the tonearm and the spindle of the platter the weight of both plinths acting through the spikes should be enough to ensure a degree of rigidity between them. If the vibration in both is kept to a minimum then the complete decoupling should not present a problem, (given the wavelength of acoustic vibration is measured in metres not millimetres any residual vibration is sympathetic anyway). I can always add weight to reduce vibration and increase rigidity.

The obvious advantage is the geometry can be adjusted which is something that is difficult to achieve on a one-piece plinth, while I took measurements from my Thorens TD160 to get the approximate position of the arm, I cannot claim my measurements were in any way accurate so some tweaking will be necessary. 

But as I said, from the perspective of this design it's purely aesthetic.