Check the Transit Screws
Here's some good advice: Read all the way through the manual and get familiar with it so you know what you're doing, then perform any necessary maintenance before you fire up the table for the first time. The manual's a good read and there's lots of useful information. Good friend Pete Riggle and I went to the section marked Installation to do an important first check on the transit screws before doing anything else:


"To protect the electric motor during transit, it is firmly clamped by means of two transit screws, Diagram 5 (emphasis Garrard's). These screws, the heads of which are colored red, must be unscrewed as far as they will go to release the motor clamp plate which allows the motor to float freely on its suspension springs."


To loosen the transit screws, you have to remove the platter - or in Garrard-speak, the 'turntable':

"The motor must be in the switched-off position before removing or replacing the turntable. The turntable is an accurate taper fit on its spindle and if difficulty is experienced in removing it, the spindle top should be given a downward tap with a small block of wood while the turntable is lifted."

I lifted up on the platter to remove it to no avail - it was wedged firmly onto the spindle. Pete tapped the spindle with a small block of wood while I lifted up on the platter and the platter slid off neatly. We located the transit screws in the above diagram and when Pete checked them with a screwdriver, he found that they had not been fully tightened or perhaps had come somewhat loose during shipping. Pete unscrewed them all the way out so the motor floated freely on its spring suspension.


Oil the Bearings
While we had the hood up, we decided to check the oil bearing to see if it needed a refill:

"The turntable spindle, motor and intermediate wheel bearings being of the oil-retaining type rarely need lubricating. When however the need for oil is apparent, remove the turntable and sparingly lubricate these bearings with a few drops of the oil supplied, afterwards removing all surplus and making sure that no oil is present on the motor pulley or intermediate wheel before replacing the turntable. These oiling points are indicated on Diagram 5, the oil recess in the top motor bearing being accessible through one of the three holes in the aluminum disc of the eddy current brake."

It turned out that the oil bearing needed a couple of drops of oil, which isn't bad after 50 years of use. The model I bought didn't seem to have an oiling point accessible through the Eddy Current Brake aluminum disk described above though Jonathan is certain it should be there and I'll have to double-check. Pete and I oohed and aahed over the superb level of engineering and quality. Pete said, 'You can tell this was done during the height of the Golden Age of Engineering. Just look at the incredible quality of design that went into this. You couldn't afford to build one of these now because it would just be impractically cost-prohibitive." Pete wasn't kidding, either. Just take a look at the technical specifications and drawings. The motor used to drive the platter is so big and robust that it looks as though it could drive my washing machine in a pinch. I tip my hat to the boys at Swindon for their grand work of engineering in the 301.
After having taken care of those preliminary steps, I placed the platter back on the spindle. Pete mounted a temporary outboard armboard with installed VTAF™ bushing on the crusty old Garrard plinth and then installed the Origin Live-modified Rega tonearm that he uses on his vintage Thorens 124. Pete came up with a really brilliant idea for adjusting the vertical tracking angle on the fly. He calls it VTAF™ (pronounced "vee-taff"). In case it's not completely obvious from the acronym, VTAF stands for "Vertical Tracking Angle on the Fly." Pete makes the VTAF™ for the Rega™ RB250, RB300 and RB600 tone arms and other arms with a similar mounting post. The VTAF™ turned out to be really handy when comparing the Garrard 301 and Pete's beautiful Thorens 124. Pete installed VTAF™ bushings on both turntables to allow us to swap tone arms in less time than it took me to write this paragraph! Once the VTAF™ bushing is installed, an arm can be removed and restored in moments without breaking or making mechanical connections;
without removing the arm board; and without getting underneath the turntable plinth. While Pete's original purpose in designing the VTAF' was an easy way to adjust vertical tracking angle on the fly, it turns out that it also sounds better than the standard ways of mounting a Rega or Origin Live arm. The VTAF' gives markedly improved nuance, inner detail, air and soundstaging over the original rigid mounting system. At $99, Pete's VTAF™ is ridiculously inexpensive for what it offers. You can read more about it by going to eBay and searching for key word 'VTA on the fly'.


After Pete installed the Denon 103 moving coil cartridge that Jules Coleman kindly loaned me for this article, TASmanian devil Stephæn Harrell reached into his bag of tricks and used his analog tools to get it adjusted correctly. The Denon 103 cartridge and SME 3012 tonearm is one of the classic cartridge/tonearm combinations used with Garrard 301s. The Denon 103 is of legendary status itself and keen-eyed readers will notice that 103 is 301 in reverse. There's a reason. I'll report on that classic combination thanks to Jules -- who loaned us his personal Denon 103 – and thanks to Jonathan Halpern for making his classic SME 3012 tonearm available for an upcoming installment. Man is this going to be fun!