Rega Planar 3 with RB300 / tungsten counterweight and Brand New Bias 2 Cartridge, Just serviced by my local Rega Dealer and boxed with all original packaging. Lovely original condition Rega Planar 3 from the early 90’s working perfectly. Benefits from a recent oil service, new belt and the fitting of a brand new Rega Bias 2 cartridge (end of line stock) at a cost of £83. These older Planar 3’s are superbly built, reliable decks that are easy to service. This one sounds excellent and will give years of trouble free service to the new owner. Many thanks.

The R200 tonearm has been around for around 40 years and most (all?) suffer from the same problem of the bias belt degrading and finally snapping, which then makes bias adjustment impossible. To check your arm rotate the bias setting dial and if there is no resistance felt it is likely the belt has failed. The ultimate test is to balance the arm at zero tracking and setting bias to zero: no perceptible anti-clockwise force apparent. Then set to 2g: significant anti-clockwise force should be apparent. If you are lucky it will fail stuck at a fixed setting of 1.5-2.0g, but it is difficult to know where it is actually set. Inside the arm pillar is a miniature toothed belt which moves a magnet up and down to set the required outward force for optimum tracking. The belts are no longer supplied by Rega (if they ever were) and I couldn't find a UK supplier. I finally managed to find a USA supplier, but posting was a very high fixed price for one belt, so I bought a batch to sell on here and then again. That was a few years ago now.   The new belt as supplied is materially superior but somewhat less stiff compared to the original, which means a small spacer must be inserted in order to keep the belt taught and maintain the meshing between two gear wheels. This is vital to getting the belt to function properly. I have laser cut these to the correct profile and attached a self-adhesive backing to stick inside the arm housing. I’m not going to pretend this is a trivial 10 min fix, because it isn’t. To get access to the belt you will have to partially strip the arm pillar assembly and remove the bottom ball race, which was factory set all those years ago for optimum friction and bearing play; taking off is relatively easy, but getting it back and adjusted to optimum is not so easy. I spoke with the well-known Glaswegian tonearm expert before attempting my first repair and he told me that he is not keen on working with the R200. Anyway, I have now fixed many veteran arms for myself and others and have received nothing but positive feedback. However, I’m very hands-on and have worked in micro-systems engineering for years. If you want to have a go to restore your arm here is your chance. I have even helped a few purchasers. I will include a brief instruction sheet although there is a fair amount of advice to be found on-line. You will also need to be able to de-solder and solder the fine internal wires back to the socket connection of the phono leads.   To be clear: what you are buying is a new Kevlar reinforced miniature toothed replacement belt + self-adhesive spacer. If you are thinking of replacing the internal arm wire my advice would be to do this at the same time as belt replacement.