Problem with turntable

every time im trying to practice scratching or sometimes even when i just spin the record back, the needle jumps to a different part on the record (not much, just a few grooves over). i was wondering what part i should tighten/adjust. the whole arm seems to be a bit loose. if i move the record back and forth the arm wobbles. ive experimented with tightening certain screws and fixed this problem temporarily but it always seems to come back

What deck is it?

technics 1200

A small coin on the headshell usually sorts this out.

More weight will only make the problem worse...well a new problem your stylus life and records lol
What cart/stylus are you using and how are you tracking it? more to the point

i don't even know

There's your problem
I know it sounds lame but have you read the manual for your 1200? It puts a lot of things into perspective especially if you have never owned a turntable before.

Here is how to balance your arm..I know I say for general mixing and not scratching but this is a good starting point depending what cart you are using...I will state though for scratching you want the anti-skate at 0 all the time and you may want to adjust the overhang of the stylus (how far the cart sits in the headshell) all the way forward if the normal method don't work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OpNcXSdSj4

You should balance your arm as you would for listening or sampling records. Too much pressure being applied to the wax is likely to damage the sound quality. Honestly it takes practice to get a smooth enough hand to scratch records without skipping them. It's basically a steady hand that keeps your record from skipping. But, you should get some records specifically for scratching; these are especially designed not to skip, and have great samples.
http://www.amazon.com/Thud-Rumble-Relm-Zodyax-System/dp/B000U04SNA Here's one that I picked up a while ago that is awesome for scratching. I highly recommend it.

thanks all
ill check out that video and when i get money ill buy that record

Aiit no probs, try and see what stylus you got on your 1200 and then you can find out the optimal weight you should track at.
With a lot of needles the more weight you apply/go over the recommended specs the more wobbly it becomes when you go wikki wikki some needles have a stiffer suspension and are less susceptible to it etc

Oh and another thing make sure you are not scratching with a stylus for hi-fi use then indeed you will get a lot of wobble

I forgot to mention you should NEVER adjust the screws on your arm or you will bugger it up, the bearings are extremely fragile and are tightened up to some super tight specs to have very low bearing friction.
When you say the arm was loose > Was it loose even when it was locked into place not on a record? If so this isn't good...any skipping will be down to mashed bearings...fix; buy a new arm
Luckily they are not too pricey

Just get a Shure m44-7 for scratching. It's tried and true.

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/ ... f_en_M44-7

happyhour wrote:Just get a Shure m44-7 for scratching. It's tried and true.

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/ ... f_en_M44-7

+1

if it's loose - tighten it
if it's light - make it heavier
if it's heavy - make it lighter

BOOM
DONE

vinyl_junkie_1620 wrote:

happyhour wrote:Just get a Shure m44-7 for scratching. It's tried and true.

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/ ... f_en_M44-7

+1

when i get some money together ill look into that



pardon me cause i dont know the correct names for anything but you know the two screws that are on top (at the end of the arm, the needle side) that hold the cartridge on i guess? would tightening them be good? or is this what you warned against? they loosen up over time and when i tighten them everything seems to be better. but i wanted to make sure im not causing any damage. it doesnt seem like i am, at all