New cartridge vs. Re-tipped

On a few occasions we have been contacted by Wally Tools and other cartridge inspection services regarding excessively lax stylus alignment tolerances of Lyra cartridges.
The customer had bought a new cartridge, and was displeased with the results.

After having the cartridges returned to Japan, a thorough inspection and teardown revealed that the cartridge wasn't new, but had seen considerable use, and had been retipped by another manufacturer / retipper.

Oof, that was very unfair and understandably frustrating to jcarr and Lyra. Wally shoud have been more familiar with the stock Lyra stylus mount (interface fit?) for that model, as I’m guessing this 3rd party used a different kind which should be immediately apparent under magnification. 

If going with a 3rd party retipper, I think it’s best to find someone able to respect the original manufacturer’s choice of cantilever / stylus / mount technique, as much as possible. The better ones should also be capable of neatly winding new coils and other sophisticated repairs, as a last resort - because sometimes an incident involves deeper damage than just stylus / cantilever. IMO the less desirable 3rd parties  will bolt on one of their "stock" cantilever assemblies to every cartridge model. You see a Koetsu with ruby cantilever? Don’t send your Koetsu there lol. 

I’m still trying to decide what to do with my broken Koetsu Rosewood but sending it to Joseph Long (groovetickler) is at the top of my list. A couple people have said to me elsewhere not to use VAS. When I inquired with VAS he said I had to send it there first just to get an estimate. That’s a non-starter for me, and seems like a questionable tactic to me for getting new business. I’m in no rush to deal with it.

@dwette  When it comes time for me to have a Koetsu done by 3rd party (I’ve had Koetsu Japan rebuilds a few times in the past), Joseph Long is the ONLY state-side guy I’m considering. He shows his work results on his Instagram and it's pretty impressive in quality and quantity. Then there are a couple more guys worldwide I’d trust enough to take a shot on.