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Great tip from another forum

I just wanted to share a tip on cartridge alignment that was suggested on another forum.

If the cartridge has sides that run parallel to the cantilever (as many do) then hold a straight piece of wire, or long sewing needle along the cartridge body to make it much easier to check alignment with the grid on your protractor.

I used blu-tak to hold the needle along the edge of my cartridge and was able to confirm that the tracking angle was slightly off. Since I corrected it inner groove distortion has disappeared (this on a Goldring 1042 with a line contact stylus).
seandtaylor99
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Correct overhang setting has nothing to do with any of the cartridge surfaces; only the cantilever.
4yanx
1,576 posts
 
Thanks Sean, it will be obvious to 99 44/100ths of us that you were talking about alignment of the cantilever in the headshell with respect to the protractor grid and not overhang (position of the stylus). That is a good trick to use. On some cartridges, being off kilter even a tiny bit can make a big, big difference. Keep in mind, however, that this trick depends on the correct assumption that the cantilever is perfectly parallel with the cartridge sides (which is not the case if the cantilever is skewed or bent even slightly one way or the other). Bottom line - always align the cantilever and not necessarily the cartidges sides, even if they are supposed to be "square".
nrchy's avatar
nrchy
2,111 posts
 
Sean that is a good piece of advise. I use a small machinists square with my GeoDisk, but not everyone has those two devices.

I'm not sure what the 'overhang' reference has to do with this thread though...
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