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April 19, 2007 - 4:19am
#1
i need help because my needle keeps skipping and im an idiot
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I would look at tracking force and anti-skate. If the tracking force is too light, the needle will bounce around. This is usually adjusted by moving the counter weight (that big, round thing on the back of the arm) in toward the cartridge for more force.
The anti-skate adjustment is the little, red button under the arm and near the back. Start around the middle position and move her forward or backward.
You'll have to play around with them a bit if you don't have a tracking force gauge to get one of them right.
What may have happened is that when you installed the new cartridge the cantilever geometry may have been off, but didn't begin to give you obvious problems until it settled in. That's why it's recommended to use a protractor, tracking force gauge and those sorts of things when installing new cartridges. Each will have a unique requirement.
It just dawned on me that Yiangos had a friend with a similar problem that was easily corrected by ensuring the tonearm lift mechanism wasn't sticking between its lift range and lowering range. In his case, the album would play fine until it reached about half way into the album. As the arm moved closer to the center it would rub the lift mechanism slightly which would toss the arm out of whack.