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Question about how to use Feickert Protractor

Greetings from Oregon,

I'd been following the discussion about the Feickert Protractor and finally decided to order one.  I'd been using the GeoDisc for setup, and I wanted something a little more precise.  I have been working with the protractor this evening, and the directions on the second step are not entirely clear.  The first step is easy enough - set up the protractor with the gauge pin over the pivot point (easy to find on a unipivot) and adjust the cartridge to the bulls eye in the geometry you want (I'm using Baerwald).  Moving to step two things become unclear

My first question:
Step 2 says "..we don't need to aim over the pivot point anymore. Please rotate the Protractor so that the stylus tip touches the cross hairs at step 2."  The picture shows the stylus sitting right on the target.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not physically possible.  The cross hairs at step 2 are a fixed distance away from the cross hairs at step 1.  There's no way to rotate the protractor to make this happen.  You have to move the tonearm over to step 2, right?

My second question:
Assuming that I'm moving the tonearm over to the lines for step 2 on the protractor, should the stylus fall right on the bullseye as it did at step 1?  Mine doesn't, but I assume there's nothing I can do about it without having the whole tonearm assembly remounted.  It's a VPI Prime, which doesn't appear to have any adjustments for pivot-to-spindle distance.  

I hope the questions make sense, as it's not easy to explain without having the protractor in front of you.  Hopefully, someone with experience using the Fleickert can help.  

Thanks for any advice!
Scott
  
smrex13
smrex13 OP
423 posts
 
Thanks for the wealth of information!

@lewm I don't seen any way to easily adjust the distance, although I will post question on the VPI forum to see what they recommend.

I can easily find the pivot point as it's a unipivot design.  With the protractor in place I can easily get the stylus to hit the cross hairs for the overhang.  However, if I use the protractor fixed in place, it overshoots one null point and undershoots the other.  I assume this is caused by the disparity between the specs and the actual measurements?  

Thanks, Scott
lewm
6,770 posts
 
smrex, I probably should not respond to your last question, because I am not sure I visualize what you are doing.  Your tonearm is also a VPI, correct?  It must be interchangeable with other tonearms of your choice. At this price point, it is hard to imagine that would not be so. Therefore, there must be a way to correct the P2S distance.  By the way, also, "P2S" refers to "pivot to spindle" distance, nothing to do with stylus overhang.  Perhaps my use of that abbreviation was confusing.  With the Feickert, you don't have to think twice about stylus overhang per se, once you set P2S correctly and then adjust the cartridge in the headshell such that the stylus tip sits within the crosshairs and the cartridge body lies parallel to the lines parallel to its sides. I hope that helps.
deniall
3 posts
 
Sorry for bring this thread back but I've just bought one of these and I'm very confused about how to use it correctly. My turntable is a PLX-1000. My understanding is that I place the gauge on the spindle, line up the spike with the pivot point, lock everything in place, tape the gauge down so it can't move and then adjust the cart so the stylus rests in the crosshairs of step 1 which is overhang. After that you adjust the angle of the cart to align it square with the grid on step 2 while also making sure the stylus rests in the crosshairs of step 2. Then make sure the cart also aligns with the grid and stylus rests in the crosshairs on step 3 and you're done. The problem I'm having here is no matter what I do, when overhang is set correctly to the gauge I can't get the stylus to rest in the crosshairs of step 2 and 3. It's usually slightly behind on step 2 and slightly in front in step 3. SO how do I rectify this? I have tried and tried and can't get it work. Isn't rotating the gauge "cheating" as you're aligning the gauge with the stylus and not the other way around?
lewm
6,770 posts
 
No. It is not wrong to rotate the protractor. There are 3 steps, and you have to rotate the device or the whole platter between 1 and 2 and again between 2 and 3.
deniall
3 posts
 
So 1 and 2 need to be in the crosshairs and square to the grid and then 2 and 3 as well?
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