Cartridges and old man

No that is not normal.I doubt very much that the children will always want to take over.

I cannot imagine that many kids today would like to hand wind cartridge coils as a living.

Stradivarius unfortunately did not have continuation of his family business.

Stradivarius's greatest contribution to us, was not his instruments. I suspect there are none of his instruments that haven't been worked on by present day luthiers. What he did was to codify the measurements of stringed instruments, so that today's violins, violas, cellos, that conform to those measurements are called Stradivarius. His name stamped into poor quality instruments that people find in their attic are prevalent. I am a pro violinist and can tell you the Strads that the Master built are not different from fine instruments from the hands of other top luthiers.

Mordante, with all due respect I doubt that you are the arbiter of what is normal. Of those cartridge makers that you have mentioned, only one has passed and his family continues the business. My math is not good, but I believe that represents 100% of the dead cartridge makers that you mentioned having their businesses carried on by their families. But I do agree with you that this will not always be the case.

Looking at the matter in greater depth, many of the artisinal cartridge makers either worked for other companies, Sugano being a good example when he worked at Supex (interestingly I believe that Sugano worked the majority of his career for Toyota), or were watch makers, Andre at Blue Mantis, Ernst Benz and Joe Grado come immediately to mind, but there are more.

I imagine that there is going to be less of a call for watch makers in the future as watches become less prevalent in our society. That probably does not bode well for the future of artisinal cartridge making, though the maker of the Thales pantograph tonearms is a watchmaker and is, relatively speaking, younger.

Then again those making very fine high end cartridges in a corporate environment, such as Ortofon and Clearaudio, seem to be prospering and expanding their business.

Singreen, I appreciate valuable info on Strads, however my intention was different. Some will pass the skill to the next generation some will bury them with their bodies when pass away.