Have anyone replace VPI SSM belt with string?

Thanks for the suggestions. I have cleaned my platter with Windex and my VPI SSM does have those one piece black nitrile belt, but those small belts still make some noises from time to time. Wouldn't boiling the belts make them brittle and crack easily? My VPI SSM belts do not seem to have any talcs on them when I first used them unlike the older VPI TNT Jr that I used to own.

So dental floss will not have enough friction to drive the flywheel or platter? My friend who has a Micro Seiki replaced his string with dental floss and that's what Micro Seiki forum suggested as well. Maybe I have to experiment with different floss materials. One of the advantage of using floss or string is to reduce speed variation since belts stretch, but some floss are too slippery for this application apparently. So no wax, no nylon type if I want to experiment with floss?

Fortunately, my SSM does come with SDS so I can dial in the speed easily.

Yes, the floss I tried was waxed (that's what I had around :-) and I haven't tried the unwaxed. I'll buy some next time I'm at the drugstore and see what happens.

Well worth the time to try this. I'll keep this thread tabbed to see the results of your experiments.

I've used carpet/button thread with a TNT III/flywheel set-up and can report quite an improvement in focus & musicality & relief from slurring in the bass region. If the string can't be tensioned, the tricked is to tie knots within knots to the point that there is enough tension for friction, but not so much that you hear the knot ping when passing through the pulleys. If you can get this working you won't go back to rubber bands. With a little practice you can get two threads +/- 1mm.

Thanks for all the input. I am in transistion right now, taking on an assignment oversea that uses a different voltage and I have to build a system from scratch. Did bring my VPI SSM with me, but it's been sitting in the box for the past few months as I have no phono stage to hook it up to. But hearing all the positive feedback of using strings I am inclined to give it a try since there is little to lose.

I wonder if I only replace the long belt with string and keep the motor/flywheel belts, will I hear any improvement? It will be easy to do as I can move the motor assembly in/out to adjust tension. But most of the belt noise is coming from those short belts, so I won't be cutting down the noise there. With the old TNT flywheel setup, I assumed one can move the motor/flywheel around to adjust string tension as well?

Semi, yes with the TNT/single motor/flywheel it is easier because only the long thread around the platter must be cut exactly in order to be self-tensioning.