Hi Alan,
A couple months ago I picked up a Rowe RI-1G. First thing I did was purchase a service manual, and between that and advice I've read here (like cleaning the open relays) I got it working great. Transfer arm was completely out of synch, couple of bad micro-switches, etc.
Anyway, it worked flawlessly for a few weeks then it developed this strange intermittent problem. As a record is playing and you put in your next selection, everything works fine but when the buttons unlatch, at the same moment I lose sound in the left speaker. Or possibly left channel, hard to tell with the center being summed to mono and it being so intermittent. As in no hiss or anything out of that speaker. The only way I've been able to "fix" it is to pick up the tonearm and rub the stylus with my thumb. After a few times, it makes a loud enough "pop" that all of a sudden the speaker comes back to life. It may work fine through a bunch of selections, then it will do it again. Every time it is when the buttons unlatch.
It's very bizarre and admittedly I've had no time lately to really start looking into it, but wondered if you've ever heard of something like this before, or maybe where I should start looking. After all the repairs I've done on this, this one is really a stumper. Crossover? Cartridge or stylus? I'd appreciate any advice you could give.
Thanks,
Eric