The Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company of

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, was a British company that was famous for producing high-quality

gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

turntables. It was formed by the jewellers

Garrard & Co Garrard & Co. Limited designs and manufactures luxury jewellery and silver. George Wickes founded Garrard in London in 1735 and the brand is headquartered at Albemarle Street in Mayfair, London. Garrard also has a presence in a number of other ...

in 1915. The company was sold to

Plessey The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...

, an electronics conglomerate, in 1960. During the period 1976-1978, Garrard developed demonstrators of the novel video disc technology. Although the team recognised the future potential of this data storage technology, Plessey chose not to invest. After several years in decline, Garrard was sold by Plessey to Gradiente Electronics of Brazil in 1979 and series production was moved to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

(Manaus). The remaining Garrard research and development operation in Swindon was reduced to a skeleton operation until 1992. Then, Gradiente licensed the Garrard name to Terence O'Sullivan, who operated as Loricraft Audio, in 1997. Garrard Turntable

Between 1992 and 1997, the Garrard brand name was licensed to other companies in the US, which imported electronic items built by different, unrelated Far Eastern manufacturers. These included "Garrard" branded cassette decks, CD players, stereo receivers, portable radio/cassette players, portable "Walkman" type cassette players, serial-port printer cables, universal TV/audio remote controls, and other miscellany, including turntables that had no connection with any original Garrard design. In 2018, Cadence Audio SA, which also owns the British turntable and tonearm manufacturer

SME Limited SME is a brand name of an English company that produces high end tonearms and turntables, whose name has become synonymous with the industry standard detachable headshell mount. History SME was founded by Alastair Robertson-Aikman in 1946 un ...

, took ownership of the Garrard brand and registered trademarks when it purchased Loricraft Audio Ltd. The business was restructured to run under the name of Garrard Turntables UK Ltd.

The Garrard 301 and 401 Transcription Turntables

Garrard 401 turntable with SME 3009 tonearm

The Garrard 301 Transcription Turntable was the first

transcription turntable Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, often th ...

that supported all extant commercial playback formats – the 33, 45 and 78 rpm records of the time. The first model was the Garrard 301. Oil and grease bearing versions were made. The later 401 was nearly identical mechanically, but with a redesigned exterior, more powerful motor, slightly different eddy current braking speed control and different turntable thrust bearing. Both models were used by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and in commercial radio stations, mostly in Europe. The 301 and to a lesser extent the 401 were also exported. Production of the 301 started in 1953 and sales were launched in 1954. The 401 was introduced in 1965 and produced until 1976.

References

*Boardman, Haden (1994). "Turning The Tables: Garrard Model 301 and 401 Transcription Motor Units ", Sound Practices. *Kessler, Ken (2005). "Table Talk", Garrard 301/401, Hifi News & Record Review. *Mortimer, E.W. (1967). "Design Of Transcription Turntables", Component Technology, Plessey Group. *Olson, Lynn (2005). "A Tiny History of High Fidelity", The Soul Of Sound.

External links

History of the company

Garrard in Swindon

Garrard History article, Swindon Web.
{{Authority control Audio equipment manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Phonograph manufacturers Plessey DJ equipment

The Garrard 301 and 401 Transcription Turntables

See also

References

External links