Setting Anti-Skate on VPI Fatboy Tonearm

You're doing it correctly. You're right. It is an utter joke. Not that it matters....  

My Origin Live Conqueror uses a similar fishing line with weight. First I would not be terribly concerned about the test record. Its telling you there's not enough anti-skate but if you listen to Peter Ledermann explain about those test records you will understand why this needn't be such a great concern. 

The way to improve the fishing line setup is with a wheel. OL did this on their later arms, the line goes over a wheel which turns more freely and results in a more consistent force. 

But again, if you listen to Ledermann its clear that anti-skate is a static compromise fix of a dynamic problem.  As with so many other things about turntable setup. The correct amount of anti-skate varies constantly depending on the amount of groove modulation. But nobody makes dynamic anti-skate. Instead we use something reasonably close and get on with our lives.

Well, that's what I do anyway....

Hey MillerCarbon,

Thank you for your response!  I have watched Ledermann's videos on anti-skate and they make a ton of sense.  It is interesting to consider that if you adjust your anti-skate force to compensate for very high decibel levels on test records like the HiFI News, then you are almost certainly overcompensating for the majority of your music.  

With that being said, I would like to understand the "proper" way to use the VPI anti-skate mechanism, with full understanding and appreciation that it is all about compromise.  It would be great to see a video showing proper and improper ways of using this mechanism.  From my perspective, the VPI mechanism is incredibly annoying.  I don't consider myself to be an old fart yet, but my eyesight is not what it used to be, and tying a loop in that fishing string that won't slip is almost impossible for me.

Cheers,
TMQ

I agree with millercarbon here. Use the Peter Lederman method. Find a record that has a long wide leadout which as you know is at the innermost part of the record near the label. Drop the stylus in between two widely spaced lead out grooves. You want the stylus to slowly make it's way to the outer groove-the groove closer to the label. Don't expect this too take very long-the outer groove is by nature going to catch the stylus within one rotation. 
I believe that degree of overhang and antiskate are two overemphasized adjustments, particularly overhang. Get everything else right-SRA, VTA, VTF, and azimuth and get the loading right for your MC and you will be fine. It is fairly alarming to think about all the folks who sweated over so many other details and did not experiment with proper loading. Too much loading will make a MC sound dull and too little loading will make a MC sound loose and bloated. How can anyone deal with a phono stage that requires disassembly and/or DIP switches/resistors to set loading? 
I had someone reach out to me yesterday about his SME 3009 and perceived distortion with a Hana cartridge. There is just no way to remotely judge what the source might be. 

I don't have that arm, and can't find good enough pictures to figure it out exactly. What I can see the line comes off the back end of the arm and goes over a pulley, probably to a weight. The only way of adjusting something like this will be to change the weight, or the attachment point on the arm. Which looks to be fixed. So its the weight. Do they have different weights?