Beginner's Guide to Replace Cartridge on Music Hall MMF 2.2
Does anyone know where I can find some good resources to help change the cartridge on this particular turntable with no experience? But yourself a test record, this one comes with protractor. It will help you to understand more about cartridge settings and you can actually test your cartridge. A lot of information printed on the record sleeve. Everything for under $40 (or even cheaper used). |
I agree with both post above go slow take your time is key. I don't know how other people remove tonearm wires but I've had good luck with small thin needle nose plyers or tweezers. I put the plyers gently on tag not much pressure and with other hand holding tonearm gently and slow with my finger push the plyers close to tonearm tags. This way your not pulling the wire off the cartridge. If you like you can use a bread twisty tie to hold tone arm from coming lose from its rest to prevent arm coming lose and damaging your needle. You can down load a protractor on Vinyl Engine that matches your tonearm and email it to a print shop they will inlarge it to required size on large thick slick paper. Good luck, if you get frustrated walk away and come back later, no rush! |
The first thing I did when I got my 2.2 was try to try to install a new cartridge and I broke one of the wires. Fortunately I have a local repair shop that is much more reasonable than the one you spoke with and I think it was about $50-$75 to get the wire repaired and the cartridge mounted. Millercarbon's tips were great.
The wires on that table seem to be particularly flimsy, so be extra careful.
See if there's another dealer or repair shop that will give you a better price on mounting the cartridge, it certainly shouldn't cost as much as the turntable. If you bought the turntable from a local dealer, ask them if they can install the cart for you. |
Yeah sure its free and surprisingly easy to do. There's a bunch of these on line, this one looks pretty good to me https://www.sound-smith.com/sites/default/files/Novak%20Universal%20Overhang%20Gauge.pdf A couple tricks and things to keep in mind: Don't try this in your listening room. Move the whole rig out onto a nice big clean and well lit table. With a comfortable chair. No long sleeves. No distractions. And give yourself plenty of time. This protractor neglects the fact that its paper thin. Alignment should ideally be done at the same height as when playing a record. To do that, simply tape your protractor onto an old record. Once you get the protractor pointed exactly at the tone arm pivot use a little Scotch tape to keep both the platter and the protractor from moving while you're working. This first step is really important as its what determines overhang. So eyeball real good to make sure its pointed exactly at the tone arm pivot axis and then tape it down so it doesn't move. Mounting threaded cartridges is pretty easy. But if yours uses nuts a rubber band comes in handy to hold the cartridge on the head shell while you get it threaded. Have tweezers handy for installing cartridge pin clips. Test first and tighten if they are loose. To tweak tighter without crushing put a round toothpick in the clip and then squeeze with pliers. The toothpick will prevent crushing it flat if you squeeze too hard. You can lay a Q-tip crosswise just right so it supports the cartridge just slightly above the surface, and protects from damage in case you spaz out. Cartridge alignment is only ever perfect at the two null points. So don't obsess over that last tenth of a millimeter. |
