Rewiring a tonearm is not a casual endeavour as Matt Miller suggests. It does require a specific type of wire for both good conductivity and flexibility where it passes from the arm through the pivot and through the plinth to prevent it from causing torsional mechanical resistance to the motion of the tonearm. Also, the “p” clips that another member suggested are not suitable for this task, as they provide very tiny contact area, and are meant for applications where precision is not a requirement.
Small-signal devices usually benefit from litz wire, where each conductor (strand) is individually insulated with a material that sublimates at soldering temperature. In my case, I’ve rewired tonearms with KAB-USA’s silicone-jacketed litz wire, which is extremely flexible. A challenge with silicone insulation is that it doesn’t readily melt when exposed to a hot soldering iron, so a 33AWG wire stripper is required, along with great care to avoid cutting any of the 37 ultra-fine strands.
With the wire successfully stripped, it must then be tinned before attempting to solder to the clips and the interconnect. For this task, I first dip the stripped end in rosin flux, the use a solder pot to simultaneously remove the litz insulation and tin the wire. Finally, I use a small amount of flux and solder the tonearm wire to each clip with 63/37 solder and then apply clear heat-shrink tubing (never use electrical tape) to reduce stress on the connection.
This method requires a very fine tip soldering iron (I use a Weller WESD-51) and a good magnifier lamp, along with a set of “helping hands” which are alligator clips attached with articulated arms to a weighted base.
Small-signal devices usually benefit from litz wire, where each conductor (strand) is individually insulated with a material that sublimates at soldering temperature. In my case, I’ve rewired tonearms with KAB-USA’s silicone-jacketed litz wire, which is extremely flexible. A challenge with silicone insulation is that it doesn’t readily melt when exposed to a hot soldering iron, so a 33AWG wire stripper is required, along with great care to avoid cutting any of the 37 ultra-fine strands.
With the wire successfully stripped, it must then be tinned before attempting to solder to the clips and the interconnect. For this task, I first dip the stripped end in rosin flux, the use a solder pot to simultaneously remove the litz insulation and tin the wire. Finally, I use a small amount of flux and solder the tonearm wire to each clip with 63/37 solder and then apply clear heat-shrink tubing (never use electrical tape) to reduce stress on the connection.
This method requires a very fine tip soldering iron (I use a Weller WESD-51) and a good magnifier lamp, along with a set of “helping hands” which are alligator clips attached with articulated arms to a weighted base.