Oops, forgot to mention something about
the SL1200!
Have you ever heard anyone say his turntable was "fighting the beats"?
Well, this is a feature of the SL (but most of the time seen as a drawback by dj's)
When the SL was released, Technics boasted about it's very accurate speed retention. They had installed a feature (still on today Techies) that you can very easily test.
You see the strobe dots on the platter right, well set the pitch to 0%, so they stand still. Now follow my explanation : when you touch the platter or the record, the rotation speed of the platter decreases, right? This should mean that the strobe dots should go backwards for a moment (because they don't move when on 0%, but you slow the platter down), then stand still at a new position. Well notice what happens...
If you look good you'll see that the dots move backwards, but as soon as you release the plattern the dots make a short burst forward, to take their initial position again (fix one point, for example on the 9 o' clock point of the platter). They did NOT just stop again when you released the platter. Technics included this to catch up when there was something that could slow down the tune, so the song would still be at the same point and speed it should be like nothing happened. This feature jumps in action only with small adjustments, don't you think if you slow the platter a lot down, the platter will suddenly move faster a long time.
But this is a drawback for dj's when they make SMALL adjustments while beatmatching, when slowing down the record to get the beats in sync, as soon as you release the record, the SL will push the platter again a little forward so the beats are of sync again (it fights the beat).
This is the main difficulty for mastering the SL when coming from other TT's.
But it doesn't take very long to overcome that problem (generally a couple of minutes if you know what you're doing). Just apply a tad more pressure (or push it further) on the platter than you would on an other TT, and it'll all go fine.
Or better yet, do like me, as soon as the record plays in the room, don't touch the platter anymore. Use your pitch slider to make the adjustments. This has the big advantage not to have that nasty "chipmunk" effect when you adjust on the platter/record.
By the way, there is a way to disable that SL "fighting the beat" feature, involving replacing a certain resistance on the circuitboard of the SL. But as I don't find the schematics anymore, of which one to replace with what, I won't risk telling anything about it now....
Peace
Dj Thy