Rega Turntable Maintenance, Tips and Tricks

Congratulations on getting your new Rega turntable!

Just like all things made with great engineering, there are a few simple steps that will help maintain the life of your turntable. Most people hold on to a good turntable for decades, so whenever the need arises, just use these tips and tricks with your Rega table.

How to Adjust the Cueing Platform Height

Every so often something will happen in shipping and the cueing platform on your new Rega turntable will not be set at the correct height. If it is set too low, when you raise the tonearm cue lever at the end of the record, it will not lift the tonearm off the record surface. If it is set too high, you might not properly track the record or the tonearm may not even be able to go all the way down.

Luckily, this is a very simple issue to fix, but you will need a 1.25mm hex wrench. The cueing platform on your Rega tonearm is a small, black piece with rubber on the top that is parallel to the record surface. If you are looking at your tonearm from the front, it is on the left side at the back of the tonearm shaft.

The idea is when the cue lever is all the way down, and you are playing a record, there should be about ⅛” to ¼” of clearance between the cueing platform and the bottom of the tonearm. You will see a small hex key on the shaft of the cueing mechanism.

Just follow these steps:

  1. Wash your hands first to keep from getting any oils on your tonearm.
  2. Loosen the hex key slightly until you can feel that you can move the black cueing platform. You need to bear in mind, a tiny amount of movement will make a big difference.
  3. If your tonearm was not lifting up all the way at the end, pull it slightly up. If you could not get your arm on the record, push it down a bit.
  4. Tighten the set screw back up and test to see if the arm lifts off the surface at the end. If yes, put a record on and make sure there is at least ⅛” clearance between the cueing platform and the bottom of the tonearm. Don’t worry if you do not get it right the first time, it could take a few tries as we usually take a few ourselves.
  5. Once you have it set, finger tightens the hex key but do not overtighten it.

We hope these simple steps helped you get the cueing platform on your Rega table in the position it needed to be.

How to Ground a Rega Turntable

Rega turntables do not have the typical ground system found on many other turntables. Rega actually has a good reason for doing this as they put the ground on the left channel audio cable. They believe doing it this way sounds better and it is hard to argue with their decades of experience.

However, sometimes we will run into a certain combination of equipment where we need to ground a Rega turntable beyond the audio cable ground. If you just added a new Rega turntable and are experiencing audio hum, you may have one of those combinations.

There are two ways to add a ground based on the gear you have:

Method One: (Used when you have a Rega phono preamp in the system.)

  1. You simply need to get a small piece of stranded wire to use as a ground wire. The wire can be of very small gauge, nothing thick is necessary. You will need to strip the insulation back off the ends of the wire about ½”
  2. Connect one end of the small wire to the ground screw on the back of your Rega phono preamp.
  3. Connect the other end of the grounding wire to either a ground screw on your amp or if there is no ground screw, simply loosen any of the small screws on the back of your amp that hold on the top cover. Slip the wire under the screw, tighten it back up, and you are done.

Method Two: (Used when you do not have a Rega phono preamp in the system.)

  1. This one is a little tricker, but still pretty simple. Get a piece of small stranded wire to use as the ground wire. Strip back the insulation about ½” on each end
  2. Locate the left channel phono cable coming out of your Rega turntable. It will usually have either a white or black connecting plug or be labeled with an “L” or left. It is never the red one as red is the universal color for the right channel in the world of turntables.
  3. The connector has a center round pin and an outer shield. When you plug the cable into your phono preamp or amp you can see the center pin goes into a hole and the outer shield connector wraps around the outside of that plug.
  4. What you now need to do is get a couple of strands of the small wire to go in between the left cable turntable connection and the input plug. It will be a slightly tight fit, but this should work ok
  5. Connect the other end of the grounding wire to either a ground screw on your amp or if there is no ground screw, simply loosen any of the small screws on the back of your amp that hold on the top cover. Slip the wire under the screw, tighten it back up, and you are done.

This should eliminate the hum you were experiencing. If it does not, it is likely a piece of equipment is physically too close to your turntable that has a large hum field. That issue is a whole different matter that you will need to experiment with the physical locations of your gear to resolve.



How to Add Oil to a Rega Motor

The motor found on Rega turntables needs a little bit of oil to run properly. You may want to add some after about 15-20 years of service. The symptom is a noisy motor.

However, every once in a while, the shipping company will put a new Rega turntable upside down in their delivery truck, causing some oil to leak out. You would experience this as a noisy motor on a brand new turntable.

But fear not, if you purchased your Rega from Audio Advice we are here to help you. The first step is to let us know you are having a problem. Just reach out to one of our tech support experts and they will send you a small syringe containing a few drops of Rega motor oil.

Then, simply take the following steps:

  1. Wash your hands first to remove any oils on your fingers.
  2. Remove the outer platter.
  3. Remove the belt that goes around the inner platter and motor.
  4. Take a paper towel and cut a small slot in it and put it under the motor pulley. This is to act as a shield in case you spill any oil. The motor pulley is the small round piece the belt was on.
  5. Take the syringe and put 2 small drops of oil right into the center of the motor pulley. Do this carefully so the oil just drops into the center indentation.
  6. Turn on the turntable, then after a few seconds remove the paper towel.
  7. Let it run this way for at least 24 hours, which will give time for the oil to seep back into the motor.

After you have done this process, you should now have a quiet motor! Keep the oil in a safe place as you might need it again in 15-20 years.

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