Montgomery Ward Marantz turntable

[thenewkidintown]

Just acquired an older record player that is apparently a pairing of two manufacturers I was unaware of...

Model # GEN6781A

Is it worthy of putting a new cartridge in ? It's direct drive..

 

[slipperybidness]

I'm not so sure the TT is from Marantz, looks like it's branded as MW.

The cartridge is branded as Marantz.

Looks like they are aping the SL1200 to me.

 

[Phase 2]

Anyone remember the brand name Lloyd's? You'll have to be about 60+ years old to have remembered what a piece of junk they used to put out..lol

 

[thenewkidintown]

The tonearm has Marantz stamped into it (I guess thats part of cartridge ); I found that to be odd & its direct drive ...I wonder what they charged for these when new ? better yet, are they worth anything now since so many are after 'record players' ? - after scouring hifisharks site - it seems like if this were a car, itd be an AMC as it appears to have different parts from different TT's ?s

 

[lovinthehd]

Some of the department stores branded some decent audio gear back in these days. Not familiar with these myself but if you find maybe a vintage audio/turntable group on Facebook it might be worth asking around about. Maybe on vinylengine.com. Got a pic of the tonearm with the Marantz branding? Does seem to be a Marantz cartridge at least, and per the panel on the back it seems MW had their own cartridge/stylus for this model, but then I've never heard of a Marantz-branded cartridge either but maybe MW simply contracted with Marantz. You sure the current stylus is shot and not worth a try to make some judgements about proceeding?

Does the platter turn without any obvious issues? Is the tone arm moving freely/good feel on the bearings?

 

[thenewkidintown]

Some of the department stores branded some decent audio gear back in these days. Not familiar with these myself but if you find maybe a vintage audio/turntable group on Facebook it might be worth asking around about. Maybe on vinylengine.com. Got a pic of the tonearm with the Marantz branding? Does seem to be a Marantz cartridge at least, and per the panel on the back it seems MW had their own cartridge/stylus for this model, but then I've never heard of a Marantz-branded cartridge either but maybe MW simply contracted with Marantz. You sure the current stylus is shot and not worth a try to make some judgements about proceeding?

Does the platter turn without any obvious issues? Is the tone arm moving freely/good feel on the bearings?

It powers on & apparently still running at the correct speeds when adjusted to make the marks stationary on the platter.
Weird how the construction underneath is rather old school looking as the body (and strobe location/design) resemble a few Marantz models
...i'll upload a pic (of the bottom) as soon as it goes through