
The PL-12
had its weaknesses, but it was cheap
and plentiful...

Pioneer's all conquering budget turntable
from the golden era. Even if you've only ever
glanced on eBay from time to time you can't miss
these, they're everywhere. Simplistic engineering
with just a simple shaded pole motor driving the
platter through a flat section belt with a
derailleur type speed change and an alloy S shape
arm. What you see is what you get, which in this
case can be quite a lot. In many ways a 'lite'
version of a belt drive Thorens of the same era.
The reason I like the PL-12 so much
is that it's so inexpensive, plentiful and simple
yet what is there is substantial enough to build
onto. I'm not trying to argue that these could
compete with high end turntables, it's not apples
and apples - you wouldn't see a Lenco or a Linn LP12
for sale on eBay for a quid. But even these days
they make a great first step into vinyl for a lot of
people, or when upgraded can be a capable
alternative to many other entry level turntables - a
great sound for little outlay.
Buying
Most PL-12s come with Shure M series
cartridges and knackered styluses, the Shures tend
to have a warm soundstage with a strong but not
overpowering bass, in comparison to a modern
cartridge they could be described as sounding quite
'woolly', a characteristic shared by a lot of
vintage loudspeakers and derided by a lot of
purists. But that's not a bad thing, a well set up
PL-12 can still sound quite impressive if played
side by side with a modern CD player, that woolly
sound can also go a long way to improving the
soundstage if your speakers and room setup are less
than perfect.
Vintage era amplifiers tend to sound
quite bright so the deep tone of the PL-12/Shure
combo can be a well suited addition to a vintage
system. If you're after a modern, cool, transparent
sound then the humble Shure M series cartridge
probably won't cut it - there are other cartridges
around which tend to work well, the majority of
similar era Audio Technica, Ortofon and Goldring
cartridges can sound good on the stock alloy arm. To
be fair, if you're looking for a modern purist
sound, the PL-12 isn't going to work for you anyway.
 |
A
typical battered PL-12D |
Condition wise, it depends what
you're looking for. If you don't care for cosmetics
then you can pick a PL-12 up for a couple of ££, the
shipping will probably cost more.
The most common fault which the
PL-12 suffers from are breaks in the audio leads
where they get tugged around over the years near
where they enter the cabinet. No cure for this
except for a new pair of leads. If you've got
intermittent sound through one or both channels,
give the audio leads a good flex and also wobble the
plugs where they go into the amplifier.
Failing this, unscrew the knurled
collar on the tone arm and remove the headshell, rub
the gold contacts on some rough paper - the
headshell to arm connections are through four spring
loaded pins and as there's not much pressure
connecting them and no movement to clean them, they
tend to suffer from dirt build up.
Speed problems
There's no form of pitch control on the
PL-12. The motor is a synchronous induction motor, this
means that its speed is dependent on mains frequency - for
this reason, Pioneer used to ship two different motor
pulleys with the turntable, one each for 50Hz and 60Hz mains
supplies. If you have the wrong pulley fitted (unlikely
unless the turntable was bought from a different country),
the speed will either be roughly 15% too slow or 20% too
fast - this difference in speed would be very noticeable,
enough to turn Barry White into a Soprano or
vice-versa.
Strangely, PL-12's do commonly have issues
with speed, usually they run slightly too fast - I used to
get a lot of people asking for advice about this. A new
drive belt will help slow things a lot, but sometimes they
still run ever so slightly faster than they should. The best
way I found to deal with this was to cut strips of artists'
card and fix this around the pulley surface under the
platter - one layer at a time, checking the speed each time
- this sounds like a DIY bodge but it works well to slow the
speed in small increments.
Another (less common) possible cause for
speed problems is the belt not sitting squarely on the motor
pulley, or rubbing on the derailleur fork, probably the
easiest way to correct this is to adjust the height of the
motor pulley.
A good way to measure the speed is to use a
stroboscope disc - this won't tell you the exact speed but
will give you an idea whether it's too fast or slow.
Restoration
These turntables are as simple as
they come, apart from some new oil in the main
bearing to help cure the inevitable rumble, a couple
of drops of oil in the motor and a new drive belt,
they will go on happily for an indefinite time. Not
to say that an untouched PL-12 wouldn't benefit from a few things,
of course it would, it's 30+ years old after all -
but it's not a life and death matter of getting it
'serviced' before it breaks.
 |
The
workings of a PL-12D |
A complete restoration should
involve a complete strip down and clean of
individual parts, the arm being cleaned and oiled
and the cueing control re-greased, I'll usually do
this to a loft find. One issue with the PL-12 in
particular is that the foam which damps the springs
under the deck disintegrates, this will cause the
deck to wobble more than usual when you touch it (the
foam acts as the shock absorbers on a car would,
they stop the car bouncing endlessly up and down
when it hits a bump) - this should be replaced to
make it stable again. Some people also claim that
this is the cause of hum and rumble, although I
haven't noticed that myself.
The dust cover can be refinished and
then polished, this process will remove most
hairline marks if you're willing to spend long
enough on it but deep gouges and cracks are
impossible to remedy with any method. The internal
wiring is stable and of good quality and is fine
left alone but the mains lead and plug ideally
should be replaced, as on much old electronics gear
the mains lead is a single insulated 'figure of 8'
lead which is a health and safety nightmare.
Although the plinth is made from
wood (plywood), the covering is merely a Fablon type
material. This isn't the finest imitation wood
finish ever made but it does seem more durable than
the more realistic stuff which graced some of Pioneer's smaller
receivers.
Upgrades
The cheapest sound upgrade you'll
ever make is to remove the dust cover when you play
it, the cover is hollow plastic and acts like a
crude microphone, catching acoustic waves from your
speakers and sending them back to the plinth and
through the arm. Dust covers are for dust, not for
sound - remove it when you're playing music and
things will
sound a lot better as a result.
Finally, if you're feeling really
eccentric, you might even try filling the plinth
with a heavy material such as sand - you might be
very surprised at the difference it makes to the
sound...
Upgrades, both cosmetic and sound
are another step and are covered in the
PL-12D Bronze section.
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