Great tip from another forum

Correct overhang setting has nothing to do with any of the cartridge surfaces; only the cantilever.

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".

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...

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

That makes two of us...at least.

Overhang is set separately, and is set before aligning the cartridge. Once the overhang is set correctly (so that the stylus will track the curve on the protractor) then you set the alignment. Overhang is also much easier to set. It's always been alignment that I've struggled with (perhaps I should buy a cartridge with a conical stylus :-)

I was expecting someone to mention that the cantilever is not always parallel to the cartridge body. This is absolutely true, and correct alignment really requires sighting down the cantilever from the front of the cartridge. However I'll admit I find this extremely difficult to do, so the trick of using a sewing needle to align the cartridge body is probably as good an alignment as I'll ever achieve.