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Our custom-made Rega Planar 1 turntable!

Platine vinyle REGA Planar 1 customisée

In early June 2017, the Roazhon Park football stadium in Rennes, Brittany (France), hosted a somewhat unusual event: the Rennes Tattoo Convention! And maPlatine.com was there too, promoting our custom-made Rega Planar 1 turntable. Here is a photo diary of our experience at the Rennes Tattoo Convention.  

What is the Rennes Tattoo Convention?

After successfully pulling off the event in both 2014 and 2015, the Rennes Tattoo Convention returned this year, to the delight of tattoo fans around the region! The event was made possible by the Artis Amor organisation, and particularly by Mikael De Poissy and Miss Atomik, two big names in the tattoo artist world.   Affiche Rennes Tattoo Convention 2017 Over just two days, the Rennes Tattoo Convention plays host to several thousands of visitors who flock to see well-known and respected tattoo artists from a wide variety of different artistic traditions. The convention has an international scope, hosting tattoo artists from all around the world. And that’s not all! Visitors can also see concerts put on by the Rennes-based label Beast Records. In short, this tattoo convention is the perfect event for fans of tattoos and music, especially if you find yourself in the Rennes area!  

The custom-made Rega Planar 1 turntable by maPlatine.com

Here at maPlatine.com, we couldn’t miss out on the chance to participate in one of the biggest events in our region’s calendar. To mark the occasion for all the music fans at the convention, we offered up a REGA Planar 1 turntable for the event’s raffle. But this was not just any Rega turntable. It was a fully custom-made Rega Planar 1 – the only one of its kind in the world! Keep reading to find out more about the customisation process.  

1 – Disassembling the Rega Planar 1 turntable

We started by completely taking apart the Rega Planar 1, from its tonearm through to its platter, spindle and feet. Once we had done that, we sanded down the plinth of the record player several times. This was to make it easier to draw on.   Démontage de la platine vinyle REGA Planar 1 customisée We then handed the reins over to Miss Atomik (AKA Virginie), who we had commissioned to design the turntable’s distinctive ‘tattoo’!  

2 – Customising the Rega Planar 1 turntable

Miss Atomik quickly set about working on the Rega Planar 1 turntable plinth. Virginie is a dab hand at ‘old school’ designs like anchors and flowers, and created a beautiful piece of art for us. It is a black-and-white masterpiece of a record player, and we couldn’t be happier with the end result!   Customisation de la platine vinyle REGA Planar 1 This custom-made product took several hours to complete. Virginie started by sketching the individual designs to scale so that she could try out different positionings on the turntable plinth and choose the best ones. She then moved on to the drawing stage, first in pencil then in felt-tip pen to create a tattoo effect on the turntable. Once the design was finished, she coated it in a protective layer of varnish, and voilà! A custom-made turntable! Huge thanks again to Virginie for collaborating with us on this project =)  

3 – Reassembling the Rega Planar 1 turntable

Next, we put the turntable back together in our workshop: spindle, platter, feet, tonearm… And as a final touch, we replaced the record player’s standard platter with a Rega glass platter. After all, we could hardly hide Virginie’s beautiful plinth away under an opaque platter! Not to mention the fact that this upgrade to the Rega Planar 1 also significantly improves its audiophile performances.   Remontage de la platine vinyle REGA Planar 1 customisée And as usual, we finished the process by fully setting up the turntable. And just like that, the Rega Planar 1 was ready to go to the Rennes Tattoo Convention and fall into the hands of one lucky raffle winner!   You can also watch the Rega Planar 1 turntable being customised here: