distorted decks

hi
i seem to have a problem with one of me 1210s, i seem to get quite bad crackling like distortion on some tracks, and the needle seems to skate accross white labels unless i put loads of weight on the front of the arm, the distortion seems to get worse as i move the weight backwards, ive tried different stylus 2 of which are new, only stanton 500al copies granted, but theyve only been used a couple of times.
i also seem to have a big difference in sound level between the two decks, and one seems to engulf the other during mix, so i try to compencate for this by using eq.
any ideas would be cool
thanks

get other needles?

might have to, but like i said the sylus have only been used about 5 times, and my other decks fine with the same needle, i wonder wether the arm is set up correctly.

stanton 500's are not exactly the best needles in the world, i have had problems with em too

could be your mixer too maybe? spray some contactspray in the faders

yeah i agree theyre pretty pants, i had a pair of shures £80.00 a peice and sold them for feck all like a knob, never mind ill have to get saving
cheers kid.

Check whether your grounding is secure and that it exists I met similar problems with people that had their ground damaged.

will do dude

Make sure the headshell is not too tightly screwed on to the tone arm as this can cause distortion, if this is the case u may have to buy a new headshell!

Probably just repeated what Muad'Dib said but ah well!

sounds like fucked needles to me but it could be any of the other things people have mentioned.

the shures are tasty needles, they have a lovely sound but they are quire fragile though.

dodgy cables? dodgy input on your mixer? u tried running the other deck on the same mixer channel as the the other? it seems odd that moving the the weight around is affecting the level of the distortion. i would normally say get new needles but youve already tried that. have you tried swapping the headshells over ? other than that maudib may have got it

I had the same problem, with SL1210's too. I think it was the ground but I dunno for shure, the red cable looked fucked to me but I guess it wasn't that since I don't have that problem any more. I have Concorde Pro needles, so I don't think the needles are the prob...but it could be a totally different problem..just get an entirly new tt lol