Anyone using a Rubato Copper turntable mat?

Hi Schiss,
I realize you posted your question well over a year ago. Were you able to make any progress on your Gates turntable? I just gote mine a couple of days ago. This thing is just unreal...and it's still in vintage 1960's condition. Compared to my Linn, this thing is a dazzling tour de force of engineering. The Linn is rather disappointing. The CB-77 came with a Gray Research tonearm and a Stanton cartridge. I'm unsure which Gray arm it is yet. Anyhoo, I'm going to do some basic maintenance on it to get it in proper running shapea and get to know how it sounds. Then I'd like to have the bearing, spindle and platter machined to more precise tolerances.
What sort of work did you end up doing to your CB-77? What sort of plinth did you end up fabricating? Did you ground the bearing? What about grounding the motor? Any special motor controller? I'm wondering about these, as I've read that the Garrards benefit tremendously from a higher quality controller - especially those which offer variable voltage to the motor. Apparently a lower voltage to the motor results in less motor noise, which has noticeably positive affects on it's musicality.
Also, and I hope you don't mind my forwardness in asking you so many questions, What sort of tonearm(s) and cartridges have you found success with? I'm really wanting to set up facilities to play back stereo, mono and 78s. I have no real experience with either mono or 78s, so I'm still not very far along the learning curve. The Schick tonearm looks very intriguing. The Jelcos also look like very nice alternatives for setting up a variety of configurations. I haven't been able to find any to listen to, but the Schick has very nice reviews across the board, and Jelco has OEM'd a number of nice tonearms over the years, including the Linn Ittok that I have on the LP12. I'm going to see if I can get the Gray cleaned and adjusted...while I look for a cartridge that will mate with this very high mass tonearm. So many things to sort out and figure out...
Also, the Gates has some sort of phono preamp attached to the underside. The cartridge runs into to it, then the output is sent to the phono out plugs. There is also a selector switch (RIAA/filter) on the right hand side of the 'table. I'm unsure yet if this is a device to keep and put to use, or if it's something to sell and put the money to use somewhere in the system.
Schiss, thank you for your patience with my new guy questions.
Cheers,
~james

You might find the Russcoturntable.com site helpful. For a motor controller consider the Sound-Carrier. It is used by a few of the members of Lencoheaven.

@James, post some picts?

Hey Jamesbythebay, It's bizarre that I found your post 1 1/2 years after my original post. I was actually googling to find another Rubato copper mat when my old post came up. Here we go. I've had a collection of turntables accumulated over the years that one day I'd get to put back in service. The collection consisted of 2) Garrard 301's, 1) Thorens TD124 which I was using, 1) Garrard 401, 2) Rek-o-cut L34's, and The Gates CB-77.

Having recently retired at the tender age of 54 it was time to delve into these projects. Thinking the Gates was at the bottom of the food chain in this assortment I decided to start with this one 1st. The motor ran smooth so I disassembled and cleaned everything. The cast housing was striped and powdercoated gunmetal metallic gray. I micropolished the platter to a mirror finish. Reassembled lubed and adjusted until everything worked smoothly. Topped it off with the Rubato copper mat. It came with a Gray Micro-Trak 303 wooden tonearm so I used it as I wasn't expecting any audio revelations with this project. I custom built a wooden plinth out of 4" thick Douglas Fir as it was easy to work with, cheap, and readily available. Finished it up with a Zu-103 modified DL-103 cartridge.

I was astounded at the results. Very authoritative without being "in your face" presentation. Very quiet. Quick to change and get up to speed. Very quiet.

I was so impressed that I sold off the rest of my collection and purchased several more CB-77's.

Next. What would this sound like with a high end tone arm? I decide to build another one, this time with a larger, heavier plinth (still of Doug Fir), and a 12" Schick tone arm. The results were terrific.

Speed. These do tend to run slightly slow (I think that was intentional). I'm considering implementing a VPI SDS controller as these not only control voltage but also control frequency. But as is the music just sings from this deck.

The pre-amp you have is an ad on accessory that was offered by Gates. I have 1 of my units that has one but I don't tend to use it. For a phono stage I use a Bottle Head Seduction along with a Bob's Deviced SUT for the MC cart. Seems to work very well.

Other components, Oswalds Mill slate headshell, Oswalds Mill Mini speakers, and a ViVa Solista integrated SET amp.

Hope this helps.
Scott out

Schiss, Be careful using an SDS, or Heed speed controllers. From my research, they cannot handle the power demands of motors from Gates, Lencos, Garrards, Russcos, and Duals. They will burn out the SDS.

Check out the Sound Carrier. It was designed to mate with Lencos and Garrards. I should imagine the Gates is a comparably demanding motor.

Thanks Redglobe, I'll check it out.