thank you guys.
The tonearms are solid cherry wood, and brass.
I bought them from a link, above - tonearmaudio.com. They are the 12" models from that site. The 12" length allows for a more straight angle at the grooves, better tracking angle. You do not need anti-skating with this length of arm, as there is less inward centrifugal pull.
I got the information for them from the lencoheaven forum, yes. They came recommended by a guy that does cartridge overhauls from basic store bought carts, and he builds them out to super cartridges (from plastic to aluminum bodies, and ruby stylus and ruby cantalievers). Hes a highly critical listener, and typically only uses air bearing linear arms. So his enthusiastic rec. weighed highly in my decision.
They're nice arms, if you can get a good one. They're nice even if you get one with a stiffer bearing, or a sloppy bearing - still worth it, as they're so affordable, and so easily modified. They're garage-style builds, and not to some computer production tightness - so its a bit hit-or-miss. He needs to do some quality control tighten up. Call and talk to him, and make sure that he gets a quality part out. I can provide more intimate detail to what to look for.
At worst, you get some RC car axle bearings installed into the horizontal yoke, which is an advanced DIY level job (drilled correctly, pressed in). The bearings are cheap, and the labor can be free. The upgrade is supposed to be substantial (but I'm very happy with stock).
I bought two arms, unseen, unheard. Of those two, I had to have the horizontal bearing replaced immediately, in one of them, as it was not to my standard, and it was immediately replaced. Len has represented them very well, IMO.
There is an article over at LencoHeaven, with lots of my input, input by the gent named daiwok, and showing his bearing mods to the arm yoke.
cherry wood tonearms thread:
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=268.0Why two arms?
The rear arm is dedicated to monaural, ranging from 33->78rpm.
Its run through that side box, which is a em/rfi shielded 'faraday box', in which, i can vary the phase of the cartridge output. Most people do with with multiple interchangeable headshells, but these woodies don't allow for that.
The oldest of records followed what we recognize as a wave form; vertically modulated sound impulses, and the stylus read the vertical wave form - the truest analog.
Those were from around 1900 -> 1920 (a generalization, and broad)
After that time, from 1920-> 1960's monaural, the wave form became horizontal, and the stylus read information that swept from side to side.
So, early was vertically modulated; and later was horizontally modulated.
In either era, the opposite of each modulation was noise, and that noise can be filtered via phase inversion/cancellation, called series wiring, which is produced by different wiring configurations; and I can do that within that box, or, I can just run straight parallel mono wiring.
That box allows me to change the wiring of the tonearm prior to the preamp, per each era. It all sums to a single channel that is resplit before the preamp, for two channel mono playback (until I can get some vintage hifi gear).
I'm also presently build a tonearm out of spare parts and junk from the garage. It will be a really nice little wooden, red oak tonearm, a unipivot design. I hae a guy that designs and builds custom tonearms that is coaching me from behind the scenes, to produce a sleeper
The total cost, less the wire loom (which was a whopping $16) will be for two cart screws - one of which was a blown purchase, requiring a second pair of screws, for a total of .50ยข investment for a tonearm.
The knowledge passed around lencoheaven is quite amazing for a turntablist.
I got the template for the plinth there for free, all the advice i could ever need about a lenco, and even solid advice for a marriage of two different companies products, a platter and motor, that I'm planning for another custom table build down the road.
This is the history of the build for my table, from above:
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=1196.0