Spend my $1000 on a turntable

Gents, I’m assuming we are all gents. The table is old, it was a DJ table but it’s in decent shape. The dust cover is trashed, someone tried to take off the DJ’s name with a scotch bright pad. I can polish it off with headlight restore. I have a bad channel, so I did the KAB Cardas tone arm rewire, still a bad channel. The interconnects were replaced a few years ago when I was trying to sort out that bad channel. I need to figure out did I rewire it correctly? Could it be a bad cartridge? Is a pin bad at the end of the tone arm? If anyone has a link to a diagram of the technics wiring at the head shell area and the board is apprecieate it. Our living room is now nice and the GF/Wife feels like its old, the trashes dust cover doesn’t help. I live in Los Angeles so moving this “DJ” table should be ‘easy’. But maybe I look at sorting out the wiring, I need to anyway before selling it as well as the dust cover. I just didn’t want to get a new cart + head shell then sell the whole thing at a near loss. 

Try the cart in a different table.  

There are a lot of possible irreparable or expensive to repair problems with that table and / or arm.  If the table is truly trashed, then maybe a different table is in order as suggested above.  My opinions on a "new" table stand on their own +/- merits. 

You should carefully consider the comments on this tread, listen carefully to tables and arms, and make up your own mind as to what is the best option for you.

In my experience, there are so called “entry level turntables”, and then there are high end turntables. All the Pro-Ject Debut, less expensive Rega, And Orbit record players are nice. I had a Debut that I outfitted with an acrylic platter, and Grado Gold cart, and it was great! But, I soon outgrew this entry level outfit. And when I moved into the more affordable high end tables, the Scout, I was floored by the difference. A real step up! My son in law wanted to get into vinyl, so I gave him the Project. He loved it! But, it wasn’t a year and he had upgraded to a Music Hall Ikura. If you jump up to the $1600 to $2000 range, you are moving into some really nice record players that you will be sure not to outgrow any time soon. Of course, if you are shopping used, you can aquire something in this price range for much less, hopefully around $1000. In my personal experience, once again, I have never regretted spending money on something nice, and I tend to shop towards the top of my price range, to ward off the need to upgrade for as long as possible. But, that’s just me. And it also depends on your anchillary equipment, if your stereo is quite modest, perhaps the less expensive ‘tables are a better match?  Just my 2 cents. 

If you were happy w'technics buy a denon vj12 which is a well built OEM tt and from reviews I've read spanks VPI Traveler's and that ilk for sound quality and has a ring around the platter that changes colors with the flick of a knob.

why not just keep what you have and get a better cartridge or maybe upgrade the arm.  I am not sure how the older technics arms perform with newer carts.  I had one when I was younger and I loved it.