Fidelity Research FR-1 MK3F

I gather that Garrott Bros aren't interested in retipping unlike the orginal brothers. I was thinking of getting my Garrott Bros decca retipped, but the UK distributor for New Garrott said that the new company weren't interested any more in rebuilds - not as much profit as selling a new cart!

Great cartridge. I loved mine so much that I had it redone by Mr. Van Den Hul who works through Stanalog to rebuild cartridges. Go to www.stanalog.com and they can keep that FR singing.

Regards, Steelhead

Thank's to all for your responses. I see direction and solutions now.

To Metralla, your opening sentence confirmed what I had only previously suspected since I had merely put two reasonably distant facts together in my mind about a decade ago and come to the awful conclusion that it was them and their wives who had suicided.

I've sometimes recalled (in conversation) my brief but lasting memory of dealing with the Garrott brothers in about 1985 when, at about that time, bad customer relations in Australian retailing were peaking.

After a brief phone conversation with one of the brothers, I confidently posted my cartridge to them for repair.

A few weeks later, it arrived back in a neatly packed box with quite a lengthy, hand written letter explaining the new tracking weight and what they had done including an assurance that it was now superior to the original tip.

Such a surprise, receiving 'honest, old world' service, left me thinking this was a remarkable thing which needed acknowledgement, so I phoned and thanked them for exactly that. They were of course very humble about this homely style of theirs and the attention they gave to all customers.

My sad realization was that personal service would most likely wither (or become homogenized) with the scorching pace of commerce in the future and that this experience had been a rare, nostalgic flashback to my father's time.

AvdB