Rega P1 cable fault

[iemslie]

After a break of a couple of months I decided to play a few records on my Rega P1 this evening. Unfortunately one of the channels was not coming through and after a bit of investigation it seems that either the connection of the phono cable to the arm or the cable itself is the problem. Wiggling the cable brings both channels back, but not for long so presumably there a contact problem somewhere. As the cable is fixed directly to the arm housing it's not a simple case of just replacing the cable.
Does anyone know whether this can be easily fixed by me or whether it would require a dealer service and what the costs might be?
I'm a bit disappointed that this has happened all of a sudden. The turntable basically just sits there, so I'm surprised that this fault has occured at all. Any thoughts?
Cheers

 

[fatboyslimfast]

Is there any chance that it could be at the phono plug end? If so, it's a far easier fix. The arm end would need a trip back to Rega really.

 

[iemslie]

I decided to take it apart. The phono cable has a moulded plug at one end which fits to the arm 'post' on the underside of the plinth. This is the connection between the tonearm wires and the phono cable. Each tonearm wire is soldered to contact points on the moulded plug and looks very fiddly.

I noticed when doing this that the plug was partially pulled out and thankfully on inspection the tonearm wire solders had not failed and all wires were intact. Once reassembled everything was back to normal. Phew!

I'm guessing that somehow the phono cable has been pulled and created stress on the connecting wires. Had the wires or contacts been broken it would definately have been a trip back to Rega. My hands are way too unsteady for that kind of soldering!.

Cheers