Getting a Koetsu Onyx cartridge rebuilt - help

Thanks again everyone. Got side-tracked from pursuing this for awhile.

I've written to Axxis Distribution asking for an estimate on what is likely to be a significant rebuild.

Got mine from Sugano-san himself when I lived in Tokyo (1976-80). Quite a gentleman who has sadly passed. If I can handle the cost I'd rather have it done by Koetsu Japan. If not I'll probably mount this classic for display in a place of honor!

Paid around $500 for it back then (exchange rate was over 300 back then), a far cry from he $7500 list for its current equivalent.

Doug

I can highly recommend Expert Stylus in England, their work on various cartridges of mine has been fantastic and of a very high standard.

I just sent them 2 Koetsu Roswood signatures one of which is a long body built by Sugano-San so looking forward to these babies. I have heard good things about Soundsmith in the USA.

Another vote for the Expert Stylus company. They have been in the business for over 20 years. They are very easy to deal with, charge £25 to assess the cartridge to see if it is worth working on. That is included in the price if they do a rebuild. They can replace cantilevers and stylus, clean and rebalance the cartridge. they can not of course replace coils.

i have had a koetsu Rosewood and recently, an Onyx rebuilt. The latter cost £295 total and took about 6 weeks. I was very happy with the results in both cases. You can not do an A/B comparison with a 6 week gap, but they sounded fine to me.

They do'nt advertise or have a website as they have all the work they can handle, without it. I am told many sites advertising rebuilds, send to Expert stylus to do the work and add there own markup

Melvin Ang has arranged the rebuild of several of my late Father's Koetsu Stones. He is personal friends with the family and hand delivers them to the factory. His prices are much lower than Axiss Audio who is the official Koetsu USA rebuild broker.

Also, a less known fact is that you may have your cartridges upgraded to platinum status or spring for the diamond cantilever.

Having 3rd parties retip your Koetsu has a high negative impact on resale value. Just check the AG listings that are selling 3rd party rebuilds of Koetsu's.

Finally, Koetsu will not touch a Koetsu cartridge that has been worked on by 3rd parties no matter how reputable. I found out the hard way.

Birdogthecat: I am sure you are right about Koetsu disavowing work by another supplier. You can also claim a retipped Koetsu by someone else, is no longer a Koetsu. Nevertheless, other providers like Expert Stylus, provide an excellent service and you get a cartridge, nearly as good as new, for a small fraction of the Koetsu price.
I know with Koetsu, you actually get a new cartridge, only the body is used. It is still jolly expensive.
The only thing that would have tempted me, was a rebuild as a Platinum Onyx, but the price was way out of my league, for what is effectively, a rapidly depreciating asset.