VTF gauge

Just so you guys know, VTF is a range. Within this range VTF is set by ear. VTF is not set by grams. VTF is set by listening. Setting by tracking force somewhere within the range is Step One. Step Two is listening to find if more or less is better. Step Three is checking to make sure your listening didn't put you outside the range. So there is no point in being super precise, no advantage in having lab quality or whatever. You could use the $20 Shure and be just fine. 

I have both. A couple times now after setting with my digital gauge I pulled out the Shure just for fun. Both times got the same reading. There is nothing inherently more or less accurate in a digital gauge. Seeing decimal places is only the illusion of accuracy. You can get the same with the Shure, it only requires you be more patient and interpolate markings. Also it turns out if you go long enough between uses the battery will die and require replacement. Gravity never has had that problem.

I suppose some smartass will correct me... "yet". 

I really do not know what it is about people here always trying to catch the other guy out even at the expense of making a fool of themselves in the process. You should know better than that by now. This site really could be so much more. You don't have to turn it over to the GK's and dajoneses. 

The Shure stylus force gauge is a plastic and metal teeter-totter.... that the carefully used is about as accurate as any digital gauge, only it costs a lot less and relies on gravity which I'm told is more reliable long term than batteries. 

They all do. What you do, if its too low you shim under to raise it up. If its too high, you put it on a block of wood beside the platter. Either one of these is preferable because otherwise your next question is gonna be which one do I buy for 180g pressings and which for thinner and on and on endlessly on and on. The never ending saga then moves on to, doesn’t anyone make an adjustable height VTF gauge? And the answer is: don’t overthink it.