Cartridge install and upgrade tech tips

While original cartridges are having trouble and needed to be replaced, there are sometimes some tricks to get different newer cartridges installed. or even general how to make a job easier for you. We started to compile our notes here in a space to share. if you have a small writeup you would like to preserve, please reach out.

General Cartridge tips and tricks:

Never solder directly to the pins, use clips. Direct soldering can cause too much heat to go inside the cartridge and either damage the plastic parts or cause the thin delicate wires to come off the inside of the pins. Some cartridges don’t come with new clips, victory glass sells them in a set of 6.

Often the best cartridge for your mono jukebox is a stereo cartridge. In this case you simply tie the grounds together and the output together. This can be done right at the cartridge clips or right below the tine arm. Victory glass sells a short three wire tone arm harness with super flexible wires. We have put a small terminal strip near the base of the tone arm and wires the harness and the output cable to this.

Always use good flexible wire from the cartridge to the base of the tone arm. The original wire insulation may be cracking hardened or falling apart. You can replace the entire length with a few options, some premium wires available made by Beldon specifically for tone arm pickup wires. Or you can use our short tone arm harnesses and use a terminal strip as described above. For 78 RPM jukeboxes we have a thin coax wire available.

AMI 1954 through 1962:

Originally these jukeboxes shipped with a VR or VR2 cartridge. A popular replacement was the Sure M44, which is no longer available. But if you have one its a perfectly good working cartridge. The modern available replacement is the AT3600 Cartridge.

Both of these are stereo, for mono AMI’s you simply have to tie the ground pins together and the output pins together. On stereo models you have to be more careful and wire all four wires, the left channel needs to be “out of phase”, what that means is the channel ground and signal wires needs to be swapped on the cartridge. The right is normal. I used the two wire premium tone arm wire. The 900 series mechanisms have a small 7 pin plug and socket. From the cartridge to socket is 19.25 inches, i used 20 inches times two for a recent stereo setup. It is common for these to break off while servicing or cleaning, the socket factory wiring is as follows;

  1. Channel 1
  2. Channel 1 ground
  3. Channel 1 shield
  4. Channel 2 shield
  5. Channel 2 ground
  6. Channel 2

Both the M44 or the AT3600 carts are taller than the original. Adjustment to make it clear the record and gripper arm on a B side selection but still have enough pressure for a record is tricky, and a very narrow sweet spot. On the back of the tone arm is the height adjustment, at first you will think to just raise this up, in fact that will make it worse. This also determines the amount of lift from the cam, therefore you want to lower this down to increase the travel by loosening it, counter clockwise. The next two adjustments are the small set screw on the front of the tone arm base. This needs to be loosened to increase the bottom out when picked up. Lastly by increasing or decreasing the bend on the spring you can adjust the stylus pressure. Please note the adjustment for tone arm set down location is done by loosening the screw behind the tome arm pivot and also a broken or missing keeper spring will give you sporadic set down locations.

Wurlitzer 78 RPM model 1100 and older:

The original cartridge is very heavy and uses a needle that requires some force to sounds correct. It is a popular update to install a p51 lightweight cartridge in place of the original large puck cartridge. The cartridges is all the same but comes with three different needle sizes.

Victory glass offers the components and also all there in kits with everything you will need. For these we recommend using the thin coax wire as it both transmits the audio well and remains flexible unlike some older offerings. As part of this conversion you will need to either update the volume control box or replace it with a special made preamp. We offer a kit for upgrading the volume box.

A couple challenges with this setup is it requires much less tracking force, you will have to lighten the counterweight, and also the adjustment for the tone arm trip is much more sensitive. They can be adjusted without permanent modification, don’t start bending or cutting the wire. The gate on the arm also can be adjusted for a more “hair trigger” that is the key to getting it to trip.

Products Available from Victory Glass:

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Victory Glass

2231 East Glendale Ave
Appleton, WI 54911