They laughed until the DIY retips started to play

[1200y3]

I only elaborated because someone asked.

Except for reversal of the pickup coils in the tape head, they are superior.

Like the title states "They laughed..."

3 pennies? Copper and nickel is often all it takes.

When I was 13 I was doing the same thing you were and discovered how to make my turntable sound good.

PS: I have spent more on cartridges than anyone, and I paid, untill I learned. We aren't discussing hack work here, it is about protecting what we invested alot into.

I regret bringing it up now, but the piezos and heads evolved from using them for tonearm resonance measurement tools. I can't help it if they work good for phono pickup.

[bakelite2]

I have my fingers crossed for you when it comes to dropping that stylus for the first time. I eagerly await your results.

[1200y3]

Carefully dropping the needle may be a good idea. I haven't had any failures with any that I have repaired, but I use mostly generics.

I haven't been without a cartridge, and I am getting great sound on my V15s, better than originals. (I'd throw all my records away if I didn't.)

[1200y3]

The brightness could be from the cantilever size, and could be due to their stiffer compliance needing a better match. I usually splice my tip to the cantilever at 1/4 way from the tip, therefore to a whole cantilever. In this case you had no choice. BUT GIVE IT SOME BREAK IN AND WATCH THE VTA AT THE TIP before any conclusions are made about brightness. Grados without the multipieced cantilever are bright anyhow. That is why they split their cantilevers into 3-5 pieces. I do it with thorns on generics, but to each his own risks. Don't forget that Grado also puts a small amount of damping putty in the stylus to cartridge cavity. I still line (felting) my cartridges and headshell with hemp burlap because I always think they are too bright even when they're original.

Nice to have an extra useable stylus too! It is probably a nice original old nudie too!

[rorenoren]

Hi,

wonderful thread here!

Beautiful constuctions!

I am not that good in working precisely.

I have only tried to be able to use the parts I have/had lying around.

In the german "HiFi- Forum" I have a thread (had, as there´s nothing happening at the moment) whre I showed some of my "skills".

If you are interested, see this:

http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-26-7620-1.html

It starts with simply sticking styli into other cartridges and ends up with...see yourself, it´s a bit crazy, but I had a lot of fun.

Some of the "saved" cartridges sound really nice.
(for example the N75 with Ortofon X3MC needle, or the AT95 with Ortofon ? needle)

At least it is very interestig for me to see, wat can be achieved with simple work.


Greets, Jens

[rorenoren]

Hi Dave,

the Shure came in a plastic envelope only fitting into a Braun PDS550 headshell.
(special clip- mount)

So I had to make something to fix it in the SME shell.

It was not made to improve/change the sonic quality.
(and didn´t)

Unfortunately I did not watch for the width of the Shure (more than 1/2") , so the screws are not straight.
(and too short)

It works fine, but looks not that nice, when you come close.

I´ll have to make another, better one, one day.
(I´m too lazy and I use other TTs at the moment, but as well with Shure V15III and the Jico SAS stylus)

Greets, Jens

[rito25]

Well I tried to redo my MA 2002e since my job was horrible on it and i ended up pulling out the suppsention and I can't get it back in. It was fun while it lasted.

[bakelite2]

Well it looks like my Excel cartridge needs to be looked at by a professional reparer as the armature needs to be re-centred so I will not be atempting the thorn graft at this stage. I will now move on to an AT cart which has the cantilever snapped off and I have the perfect replacement

[robaroni]

I have an ADCOM XC/LT from the mid 80's that my, then young nephew broke the cantilever off of. It was a highly rated cartridge back then so I contacted Soundsmith to have it repaired.
I'm not sure I'll go that route but I want to see if there's an alternative path. ($250.00 is a big chunk of money). I'm a watchmaker so I'm used to working with minute stuff.
Does anyone know if SS replaces the whole works or just 'pins' an new cantilever to your existing stub?
I might try it myself but the big question is what cantilever can I use and where can I get one?

Rob

[flavio81]

http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-26-7620-1.html

Sehr gut! Very nice thread!! Gave me many ideas. Thanks rorenoren!!

I have modified an AT11 (low compliance cartridge with a 0.7mil conical). The stock conical has a tubey cantilever with a needle that has a BIG blob of glue on top (bad thing -- increases moving mass)

I removed the cantilever and sticked in a new cantilever, from a p-mount Audio Technica, a narrower cantilever that has a very tiny 0.6mil conical stylus, that definitely looks like a lower mass assembly. I glued the cantilever to the cartridge using a drop of cyanoacrilate glue. THE potential PROBLEM is that the glue tends to slide down to the cartridge suspension, hardening the rubber. So you have to be careful.

The end result? Good sound and excellent tracking!!

[AK]

The modified Dual 1009 tonearm looks insane

[xsb7244]

Hi Paladin. Wow and more wow. I am impressed with your DIY retips. This
is the first time I am reading this thread. Since 7 NOV 2009 have you learned more about your DIY retips? This is so interesting. Please
tell us in the last two years what has been going on with your DIY retips?
Can you retip a Shure M97xE to sound better than the original? I like to
know more about your retips.

[Paladin]

An old thread still has life. I hope it got your creative juices going. All 2 year old cactus-ized cartridges continue to play. Sumo II is strutting next to me now.

Learning more? Always, but not with cactus grafts. But having more fun? Yes!

I did cactus-ize a Shure M97HE cartridge. It is not exactly the M97xE but close. The tip-holder with fancy carbon-fiber brush was lonely without a tip so an Audio Technica AT140LC tip was grafted. Combined, it takes the characteristics of both. It is not CD sound. It is very sterile but not like a hospital. It has more of a moving-coil cartridge midrange which I like because it is something we hear every day. It is multilayered or has depth. And in my opinion I get a bit more separation but that might just be me. It is not screechy in treble, and the well-known old style Shure bass comes through. No slop in sound; I think it has exceptional “piano” quality.

I would not recommend the micro-surgery for everyone but if you have the determination, and a cactus, then what have you to lose? This is not knitting needle sized but I have done a couple so it cannot be too hard. Cacti are hardy plants and their needles equally tough. They do not mind if you take some of their, yes, leaves. The leaves are flexible and durable; the properties make them ideal for tip internal grafts. And they are common and cheaply found. I still prefer to secure the bond with white glue with an acrylic sealer overcoat because if I foul up then the surgery can easily be taken apart with an easy to get solution of ammonia and water. Our gain would be to own something unique. It is not a one-way street; we can recycle cartridges inexpensively. This method can keep a lot of cartridges going for a very long time.

Your neighbors would either be envious or think you are crazy. It is surely more convenient to slap in a CD and hit play but what is the fun in that?

Recently, DavyW has graciously spread the concept to others.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showth ... p?t=404018

[1200y3]

I'm using cactus needles to improve ceramic cartridges as well, by being able to use a fine stylus and dcecent compliance. But I have not been able to figure out how to improve a GE VR 1.

It is nice to never have to worry about styli replacements again, and overcoming the paranoia of using a homemade styli is the biggest obstacle. It almost makes breaking a V15VMR worth looking forward to, in fact a swear a cactus cantilever sounds better the berrylium anyhow. (It was the search for a V15 MR sound that made me go this route.) After all Grado is still more transparent Shure and Grado never went to the extremes Shure did on their same cost cartridge. But an interesting development is that I now have no use for fine lines.

I used to laugh when I was told to fix my needles with cacti, but 25 years ago who had to worry about styli cost?

Keep our vinyl world breathing, because with new digital audio IPODS, I don't know of any youngsters interested in CD (soon to be obsolete?).