[Guest]

Hi Ron! Thanks for getting back to me. I e-mailed west tech services earlier this afternoon. Waiting for a reply. In one of their old catalogs they have a PH-10 needle listed for Philco 76-1622 that looks identical to my needle. The Philco service manual calls it an "offset-type needle". Like a flat "j" with the needle at the bottom. The tone arm has the later screw-on "new-type guard". The question is whether that type of needle is still in production by another manufacturer. Is 76-1622 the right part number for the cartridge in a 48-1270 model?

My gut tells me the problem lies with a worn needle since I've used the machine well beyond the 10-hour recommended needle life-span. It appears that this radio was stored for decades prior to my purchasing it. I knew nothing about radios at the time & was VERY fortunate it didn't explode the first time I plugged it in!!! LOL! The unit had minimal wear and LOTS of dust. The tone arm was extremely stiff at first and needed copious amounts of WD-40 to play a record completely through without sticking. I'm just curious why the needle would have been removed and stored in such an odd manner.

How can one tell if the magnetic cartridge has been damaged? Is there a tell-tale noise to listen for? I put the original needle back in the tone arm right after I purchased it. Yesterday, I pulled it out a second time to take it to an electronics shop for identification. I replaced the same needle last night with no apparent problem. Is there proper way to do this to minimize the risk of damaging the cartridge?

Thanks!