FR64S tonearm overhaul

silver wire would not be as good with SPU cartridges unless you want to use it just with the Silver Meister....and even then I think if you have to "tweek it" I would use 8N copper....

To get some idea about the complexity of the job look at: www.thomas-schick.com-FR 64
BTW there are those who prefer silver wire but also those who prefer copper wire. If you prefer silver wire then sell your FR-64 and buy one with silver wire inside. I own both and have no preference for one or the other. Anyway don't mess with an good FR-64 specimen.

I love my copper wired RMG 309 with the SPUs so maybe I should just stay with copper on the FR64. I also had seen the Thomas Schick site and think I can handle the job. If there is no significant difference between the sonics of the silver vs copper version I agree that keeping it as a copper version makes more sense. Is Cardas copper wire the best or are there better alternatives?

I agree with Nandric - dont touch the FR64. The FR's have excellent bearings, better than most arms today and I would not risk disturbing them. The Cardas wire in my view is not worth the investment. Firstly it is a springy wire and tends to exert additional forces on the arm movement. Secondly on my ET2 it sounded no better than a high quality silk litz ofc wire. The van den hul silver wire sounds brittle and is prone to picking up rf. The best tonearm wires in my view are the hair thin rectangular Magnan wire as used in the SME iV.5.
Personally I would not touch an FR64 unless it is broken - and then it must have had some abuse. I own 2 of them and they are original and in excellent condition. I think you will get very little gain on rewiring unless you are rewiring to eliminate all the additional internal connections, i.e. 1 continuous run from cartridge to phono input.

Are you sure its copper and not silver? I have 3 FR-64s arms with silver wires inside and wouldn't mind exchanging one with yours if its definitely copper and in mint condition.

The silver kind are marked as such on the box and on
the armwand near the headshell (with a sticker). Some
'purist' removed this sticker because to them the arm
looks better without. But those can probably be only sold
as copper kind (grin).
Dkarmeli, the silver kind are more expensive.

Nandric described it well.
I had both Arms, silver wired and copper wired. The silver wire can transport 6% more information based on its structure than copper (AES Standard copper in purest=100, Ag=106).
You hear at once a deeper soundstage, a better headroom and the details are bit more precise and present. that wired Arm is a touch closer to a real thing reproduction. Of course I sold the copper wired Arm :-)

Btw. my FR-66s is also silver wired ....

If anything, leave the internal wiring (and therefore the bearings, etc) alone. Just remove the DIN plug altogether and solder directly to the internal wiring where it meets the DIN plug leads, so as to create a straight shot from headshell to phono input. You can do that without de-constructing the entire tonearm.

Dear Lew, The only sense I can discover in your proposal
is that this way one can check if the wire is copper or
silver. Assuming of course that the silver marking is lost.
Why should whomever remove the 5 Din connector?
The only reason I can think of is the conviction that one
can make somethig better instead. If so one should produce
those an get rich.

It sounds like the consensus is to leave it completely alone. I just thought an overhaul may be in order due to the age of the internal wiring. I have not yet had the chance to listen to it because I will need to make another armboard and riser to mount it to my TW AC3. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to my RMG 309 with the SPU cartridges.

If it's in excellent condition externally, it's unlikely that any significant degradation of the internal wiring has occurred, and if it did, you will soon know it, because the circuit would short itself out if bare wires are touching each other or touching the inner walls of the arm tube. (This assumes that the degradation would involve the insulation; the conductors per se should be ok no matter what, altho naked copper would eventually oxidize. Oxidized copper is not so conductive; oxidized silver is as good as pure silver.)

Has anybody else tried the spring removal like Thomas Schick? Is it the way to go?