Cartridge

[majex45]

I'm building a unipivot tonearm from scratch (scrap!). Very low mass (I hope). It uses a 78 rpm needle as the pivot. As yet it is a bit wobbly but I hope to cure this when I add the counterbalance (probably lead).
Foto of rough effort attached. The brass tube in the photo will be replaced with an aluminium tube when the post arrives. The counterweight end is decoupled and will be on a silver steel rod (or carbide if I can find some).
I need a cartridge for this but don't want to spend a lot on an experiment that may fail and may end up damaging the cartridge.:eek:
If anyone has a high compliance cartridge (from the 70s?) with some hours left on the needle (any life, even a few hours - so long as it won't damage an LP) they would be willing to part with I'd be grateful for any offers.
I was planning to get one from the Audiojumble but this isn't happening anytime soon.
ebay have some but they are expensive and I'm unwilling to buy one only to find it is pre-broken. (I've had a couple of bad experiences lately - who hasn't?).
I am thinking of cartridges such as Shure M75ED, M75EJ etc. V15 III :D, Goldring G800, etc etc).
If only I hadn't given them away when I gave up vinyl (the first time). Please help out an old timer.

29371

PS. Any hints or help gratefully appreciated. If I am going very wrong, please let me know before I go too far. I hope to tidy it up later (otherwise SWMBO won't let it in the house).

[majex45]

No one?

[Mr Neds]

Hi Peter. I’ve got a Pickering V15 AME 1 which I bought on the Wam. It’s got a used conical stylus on it and a NOS of the same, which I got on eBay. I paid £23 for the cart and £8 for the new stylus, so I’d want that back if poss. Interested?
Cheers
Neds

[majex45]

Hi Neds,
Thanks for the reply and the offer. At the risk of looking at equestrian dentures...
I've looked at the cartridge and according to what I've read the AME version should be an eliptical stulus. Has the stylus been changed? The AME1 should track at about 1.5 g but a lot of the Stanton stylii are designed for heavy arms and track at up to 4 to 5g.
Which is yours? What colour are the body and the stylii? Do they have the Pickering logo on the front? (A photo or two would be nice).
Once again thanks for thinking of me and I am interested but only if it is a high compliance stylus as my pickup arm is designed to be soooooper low mass.

[Mr Neds]

Hi. Bit of clarity needed,I guess! The body is an AME1, but when I bought it from Lurch, who also posts on here, it came with three styli, only one of which was original. One was grey, which I believe is a conical and one was worn to a stub! I bought the NOS grey one as it was cheap and I figured that they weren’t going to be very common. I bought it as, like you, I thought I needed a high compliance cart for my SME 3009 s2, which was a big limitation, but I discovered that it was a far more tolerant arm, so got an ATVM95 ML,which works brilliantly. I was going to keep the Pickering for playing old clunkers from boot sales. It tracked fine for me at 1.5 g
Someone suggested getting the other (original)stylus retipped, but I’m not into spending that kind of money 😉

[majex45]

Thanks for the info about the cartridge. I think the grey stylii are the AT type, a medium compliance spherical desgned for tracking at 2 to 5 grams.
Let me think about it for a couple of days - I was really hoping to get a high compliance cartridge of 25 - 35 x 10-6 cm/Dy.
Once again, thanks for the offer.

[majex45]

Hi Mr Neds,
Thank you for your help and offer on the cartridge. I have decided to try for a high compliance cartridge. So I'm still looking.
Thanks again for all your help, sorry to have been a nuisance.
Best regards
Majex45

[09mike69]

I have a shure cart you can have, think its a m75, no stylus though.
Cheers
Mike.

Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk

[majex45]

Hi Mike,
An M75 would be terrific.
You have PM.

[majex45]

Hi Mike,
The cartridge arrived today in fine fettle. Construction restarted.
Thank you once again.

[09mike69]

Hi Mike,
The cartridge arrived today in fine fettle. Construction restarted.
Thank you once again.

Your welcome. Glad to hear it arrived safely.
All the best.
Mike.