Cueing issue

[Tea24]

I have a minor cueing issue with my Nottingham Analogue Interspace tonearm.

When lowered it tends to drift towards the edge of the disc, making accurate cueing very difficult and needing careful attention at the beginning so as to not have a disaster.

It was worse before I tweaked the verticality of the counterweight, but I was wondering if there was anything else I could do?

Would altering the antiskate help? This is notoriously difficult to get right with these arms.

All help gratefully received

[YNWaN]

Clean the curved rubber cuing support arm with some Isopropyl alcohol and a cotton bud - over time dust makes them a bit slippery. If this doesn't do the job then your tracking force and/or bias (anti-skate) need adjusting.

[Rare Bird]

I'd go with the Anti-Skate, increase Bias, your arm has a tendency to move towards the outside edge, dropping Bias will have the opposide effect moving towards the label

in your case maybe your Bias is too low!

[YNWaN]

He says that it drifts towards the outside edge of the disk when lowering - so, if anything, the bias is already set too high. Any way, I wouldn't use the arms behaviour during cuing to decide on the amount of bias to apply.

[hifi_dave]

First, the counterweight should be pretty well vertical so that the arm is upright with the cartridge in the groove.

Then, push the weight/s on the bias closer to the arm tube to lessen the bias. Then adjust for the correct tracking weight and adjust bias in the run in groove.

Should take all of five minutes and not difficult at all.

[YNWaN]

Don't you set the tracking weight with the bias disconnected - I always do?

[Tea24]

Thanks for the replies. YNWaN, there is no rubber on the cueing support arm, though there is a rubber button on the underneath of the arm, so will clean that, also on these arms you cannot accurately set the bias to zero really as there are no markings to show where that is.

Hifi Dave being the guru on all things Notts Analogue I shall also try his plan too, but am not sure how to adjust bias in run in groove?

[DSJR]

I check mine in the run-out groove. If the arm runs inwards, there's usually too little in my experience. Many arms like Regas have far too much bias correction in the run-out section of a disc and it's here where the most need is for careful geometry and bias IME.

[Beechwoods]

The ungrooved / empty part of the runout area? If you don't have an ungrooved disc it's what I'd use.

[YNWaN]

I wouldn't use either method. Running the stylus on a blank disk (or the runout at the end of a normal record) does not give an accurate representation of the forces acting on the stylus/cartridge suspension when tracing an actual groove.

[hifi_dave]

Hifi Dave being the guru on all things Notts Analogue I shall also try his plan too, but am not sure how to adjust bias in run in groove?

The closer to the end of the bias 'rod' the weights are, the greater the bias. If you push the weight right down to the bend, there should be negligible bias and you should be able to adjust tracking force. Any problems with this, I would suggest you remove the little weight entirely whilst you set tracking force and overhang etc.

[Tea24]

Thanks for all you help chaps.

[hifi_dave]

Have you cracked it then ?

[Tea24]

Not yet because I am ill in bed, but will no doubt as soon as I rise

[Tea24]

I make no apologies for re-opening this thread. The problem persists. The only thing that worked (for a bit) was YNWaN's idea of cleaning with Isopropyl.

ANY FURTHER IDEAS CHAPS?

It does not really matter I suppose but , HELL: IT'S BORING.

[hifi_dave]

Have you checked everything on post no.5 ?

[Tea24]

Yes Dave I have but it doesn't seem to make a difference much. It still drifts outwards on cueing; enough to have to be careful at the beginning of a disc in order to make sure it lands on the disc itself. My Jelco on the other TT goes straight up & down.

Any ideas?

[YNWaN]

Unfortunately what I'm about to write largely reiterates stuff Dave has already written.

The mechanism at work here is relatively simple and therefore there are a limited number of variables:

1/ if the tracking weight is too low this will exaggerate the bias effect. Make sure you are using an external balance scales to set tracking weight.

2/ Use google images to look at other pictures of your arm - does the setup look similar - is the bias set and attached in the same way?

3/ if the arm cuing device is set up in such a way that the front of the arm is lifted quite high from the surface of the record - this can exaggerate cuing drift. Adjust the position/height of the cuing device so that it lifts the stylus 10 or 15mm from the record when activated.

4/ if the cuing rest is not horizontal it will cause this.

5/ if the platter is not level it may well cause this.

[hifi_dave]

That about covers it all but also play with the counterweigt, making sure that it is vertical. Just a small deviation from the correct orientation will make a difference.

[Tea24]

Thank you for that chaps! I will have to go back to first principles anyway as I have just b*******d the cantilever on my Dynavector whilst dusting :(

I'll get it right in the end.

[Qwin]

I have a ProJect 9C arm that does exactly the same thing.

It will drift out 5 to 10 mm when being lowered.

Everything is level and all adjustments have been checked many times, I have given up and just put up with it.

[Qwin]

I don't belive it. Cured my problem.

After all the fiddling I have done in the past, simply cleaning the rubber on the cueing arm has solved it for me.

Thanks to YNWaN for that. :thumbsup:

[Tea24]

IME The cleaning of the rubber works first time but doesn't last very long.