Garrard 60 Mk II
A compact automatic that tracks at half a gram and dials in stylus pressure like a fine camera. The cueing lever is the standout feature.
Overview
The 60 Mk II descends from the AT60, a unit the company's own literature calls a "best buy" among automatics. The Mk II rework adds a new turntable mat and a large trim ring borrowed from the 70 Mk II's styling. It also inherits the engineering that Garrard had been refining across its line.
The tone arm is a tubular, dynamically balanced design with a counterweight on a new resilient mounting. Garrard claims the arm system will track flawlessly at 1/2 gram. The arm is described as the same type and construction found on Garrard's highest-priced automatics and popular separate arms. That's the kind of claim collectors learn to treat with some skepticism. But the specification sheet backs up the intent: this is not a budget arm on a budget chassis.
Stylus pressure is set by turning an optical-type knurled knob. The dial arrangement is explicitly compared to fine cameras and precision optical instruments. If you turn it past 5 grams it clicks back to the starting position, so you can't accidentally crank the tracking force up and not notice. The gauge itself is built into the arm, a development Garrard traces from the Type A through the AT6 and finally to full realization in the Lab 80 Mk II, 70 Mk II, and 60 Mk II.
Anti-skating is handled by a preset-weight version of Garrard's patented compensator. The Lab 80 and 70 Mk II use a sliding counterweight calibrated in grams, which the user adjusts to match stylus pressure. The 60 Mk II uses a fixed preset weight that does the same job without adjustment. The principle is the same - canceling the natural inward side pressure that the offset angle of any cartridge creates, which otherwise causes right-channel distortion and uneven record wear - but the execution is simpler. Garrard notes there are no springs or delicate mechanisms to get out of order.
The cueing and pause control gets the most ink in the period literature. It's a lever device, simpler in use than the hydraulically operated squeeze control on the Lab 80. It lets you place the tone arm safely on any groove or lift it off at any point. It doubles as a pause: lift the lever mid-side and the arm stays above the record as long as you hold it, then the playing cycle continues when you release. Garrard's own advertising billed cueing as "the most wanted feature on record player units today," and the company was clearly proud of having brought it down to this price point.
The turntable is a cast, balanced, oversized platter of non-magnetic metal, dynamically balanced on special Garrard equipment, with the new decorative mat and large trim ring. The oversized platter provides flywheel action to smooth out motor speed variations. The motor is a double-shielded Laboratory Series four-pole shaded design built exclusively for the 60 Mk II. Four speeds are provided - 16⅔, 33⅓, 45, and 78 rpm - and the unit runs on 100-130 volts, 60 cycles AC, with a 50-cycle pulley available for other markets.
Two spindles come with the table: a short one for single or manual play, and an interchangeable center drop spindle for automatic play. The spindles remove for safety and convenience when taking records off the turntable. The trip mechanism is described as super-sensitive, with DuPont Teflon to offset friction, and it operates with high-compliance pickups at correct minimal tracking force. The lightweight cutaway shell has a cueing pointer and finger lift, with a positive bayonet fitting.
High Fidelity (August 1967, p.65) reviewed the 60 Mk II as a four-speed intermix automatic and noted that tripping the automatic change mechanism required at least 0.9 grams of stylus force — a useful data point for anyone planning to run a very high-compliance cartridge at the arm's minimum. The same review listed the price at $74.50 less base, with dimensions of 15⅜ by 13⅛ inches and clearance requirements of 4⅞ inches above and 2⅞ inches below the motorboard. Garrard's own advertising in Audio (April 1967, p.5) described the anti-skating control as eliminating a cause of distortion and prolonging record and stylus life, and noted that anti-skating was also built into the 70 Mk II alongside the 60 Mk II.
The 60 Mk II is described as ultra-compact and fits easily into any record changer space, which helps with a period console or a tight shelf. Minimum cabinet dimensions are given as 15⅜ inches left to right, 13⅛ inches front to rear, with 4⅞ inches above and 2⅞ inches below the motor board.
The 60 Mk II brings together the cueing control, the precision stylus pressure dial, the anti-skating compensator, and the dynamically balanced arm in a compact, relatively affordable package. It's not the flagship Lab 80 Mk II, and it doesn't have the user-adjustable anti-skating of the 70 Mk II. It does have the features that make an automatic usable with delicate modern cartridges. The preset anti-skating is the trade-off: less flexible than the sliding-weight system, but less to go wrong. The 1/2-gram tracking claim and the 0.9-gram trip requirement are the numbers to keep in mind when pairing it with a cartridge. A very high-compliance design at the lower end of its range may not reliably trip the changer.
Maintenance concerns center on the usual automatic-turntable suspects: the cueing mechanism's lever and the trip linkage, the idler (though the manual doesn't detail the drive system in the excerpts available), and the stylus pressure dial's calibration. The preset anti-skating weight has no user adjustment, so if it's been tampered with or damaged, correction is not a simple matter of sliding a counterweight. The removable spindles can also go missing, so check that both the short and long spindles are present on any example offered for sale.
The cueing lever and the optical-style pressure dial are the details that make the 60 Mk II feel more expensive than it is. The half-gram tracking claim is the one to verify on the bench before trusting it with a valuable record.
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