Mint Protractor for the Classic Toneram 10.5i-SE

Brf (and Captain_winters),
Thanks for your responses. A couple of things. VPI is notorious for being all over the place with their specs. Why do you assume that the info Mike gave you is correct? Get a ruler and measure the S2P distance on your Classic and see what you get. As I said, if the distance is from the sharp pivot point to the center of the spindle, as it should be, it is dead on 262 mm on my Classic.

Further, I find it funny that "VPI has confirmed that the info on Vinyl Engine is wrong." The info in the article was based on what VPI posted on their website, which they later took down, and on the measurements of their jig done by owners. So VPI has confirmed that their own info is wrong? This actually does make sense as when it came to the null points, the math simply did not work, but it just shows the lack of consistent data from VPI.

My Mint appears to have an overhang of 15 mm, but your math only works if S2P is 258 mm, which it is not, at least on my Classic. Plus, with an alignment done with the Mint, I get an effective length of 277, which again confirms that the S2P distance is 262, not 258 mm. I can't argue with the ruler. Since aligning with the VPI jig requires moving the stylus about a millimeter further out, the specs would be even more removed from what VPI is saying.

I suggest that you simply measure both S2P and the distance between the pivot and the tip of the stylus to determine what you get. Either Mike is incorrect, different Classics (as in 1,2,3,4) have different tonearm specs, or VPI is sloppy with their mounting. But we still don't know what specs Yip is using for the Classic protractor...

EDIT: I just saw the other posts. Something is definitely not right here, as the numbers do not work for me. I'm certainly not 3-4 mm off.

Actusreus,
I suggest the absolute best way to be sure is to measure yours, that is what I did. Ensure that you account for height, you want the pivot and spindle to be at the same height as much as possible. I measured from the center of the spindle to the point of the pivot, with the tonearm off of the pivot. Mine was 258mm. But like I said in my post, it is possible to get a 1mm difference based on pressure applied during the tonearm base install to the plinth. Since I have taken my tonearm base off a number of times, I ensure that when I re-install, I use a ruler to ensure I get 258mm, as I am tightening up the 3 tonearm base screws. Yip will make the protractor based on your specs, the only measurement he needs is the Spindle to pivot distance, the rest is derived.
He uses the Baerwald (identical to Löfgren A) - minimizes and equalizes distortion at the three weighted tracking error peaks resulting in moderate distortion between the inner and outer grooves.
If you type in your Spindle to pivot distance on this website and look at Baerwald this is what you will get from Yip.
http://www.vinylengine.com/tonearm_alignment_calculator_pro.php

BTW, I have the MINTLP from Yip configured at 258mm, Baerwald, and think it is well worth the investment.

If your measurement is yielding 262mm then I would go with that for the protractor, since it is quite possible the holes in your plinth were drilled differently than mine resulting in the bigger difference from spindle to pivot. The most important is your measurement, accounting for height, not what a database says, since your plinth holes might be drilled a little differently than mine.

Actusreus, I don't own a VPI Classic table. I asked VPI about the S2P distance in order to mount a VPI JMW Classic 3 arm on another table.

A friend of mine just purchased a Classic 3 and his S2P is 258mm.

Captain_winters,

Thanks for the link to the alignment calculator; it's a great tool!

Perhaps it wasn't very clear, but I already have a Mint protractor for the Classic tonearm. I got it a few years ago, but don't have the emails I exchanged with Yip. It wasn't made specifically for my tonearm in a sense that I did not provide him with S2P; he already had stock protractors for the Classic as they were very popular. I believe they were a bit cheaper or the wait was shorter, or something like that. I wanted to confirm with others who use the protractor what S2P Yip used to make theirs since it should be the same specification. Doing research, I saw the 259 mm figure and after I measured mine, I began to question whether I should even be using the Mint, if it is indeed based on a different S2P than mine.

I will try to measure it again, just to make sure. Btw, how different do you find the alignment with the Mint vs. the VPI jig in terms of the stylus position on the grid? For me, the offset angle is identical, but the stylus is about 1 mm further out with the VPI jig.

I used Feickert Protractor to measure S2P distance on my VPI Classic 3 and I got 258 as well. I tried both VPI protractor and MintLP and slightly prefer Mint's result as well.
I looked back at my email with Yip and he did not mention what he used for my JMW 10.5i arm (I ordered his mintLP while I still have Classic I, I use the same protractor for my Classic 3 now, assuming that it would be the same).