Would you use an Ortofon A90 on a Jelco tonearm?

Hi Pani, As ''involved party'' I am reluctant to react at your post.

However I am well informed about ''retips'' because Axel Schurholz

is my good friend such that I know what their problem is. First of

all all cart producers get their cantilever/styli combo's from their

supplier. Except Van den Hul who also owns an retip service nobody

else does retip work. Anyway not the ''stylus only'' retip. This work

can only be done by specialist with long experience. So there are

only few which are willing to do this work. Retipping the whole

cantilever/stylus combo is much easier to do because the new

combo is ''simply'' glued on the se called ''joint pipe'' on which the

coils and suspension are (also) fastened. The problem by retip

services is the availability of ''parts''. In particular boron cantilevers

and micro ridge styli. So in your case you need to search for a

retip service which offers both. Axel was not able to get other

than Shibata styli , had more work than he could manage, so I

investigated for him in Japan by two big jewel companies there.

Neither ever answered my questions while J. Carr whom I

asked for help warned me that those comapny are not, say,

very helpful with styli.

Because Axel retired I searched for one other retip service and

found ''Expert stylus'' in UK. They do ''stylus alone'' retip with

their own stylus called '' Paratrace'' which is similar to micro ridge.

This work is done by their engineer with 40 years experience.

Fantastic work for only 180 GBP. My Nakamichi MC 1000 with

beryllium cantilever got a new stylus by them. I bought this cart

despite the broken stylus and posted to Expert stylus as

an trial . Elsewhere I mentiond my carts and their ''ranking'' in the

 context of Inna's new thread about MM carts.

I hope that nobody among us owns a Ferrari. The poor person

need to post his Ferrari to Italy for the new tires. According to

our Mexican oracle that is. He also thinks that Van den Hul and

Ortofon own their own jewel company where those remarcable

styli are produced. Alas. Even van den Hul get those styli from

Gyger for whom he designed 3 styli: Gyger I, II and ''S''.

He obvously stipulated by Gyger the right to use his own name

by for those which he sells. Similar contract he made with the ''old

Benz'' for the carts parts. Benz is a real cartridge manufacturer

and produce all parts except cantilevers and styli. Speaking

about ''ignorance level''.

sturgus, Your statement is not clear to me. Do you mean that

replacing the stylus only in the existing cantilever is more expensive

then the whole cantilever/ stylus combo? This would be strange

because boron cantilever+ stylus cost about 500 euro in Europe

while stylus ''solo'' cost about 200 euro.

stringreen, Yes , retipping the stylus is much more dificult to do

then cantilever/stylus combo. Finding the right stylus which will

fit in the hole of the existing cantilever is very time consuming .

Then the stylus need to be oriented with the hard side towards

the groove and then glued at the right angle. But the cantilever/

stylus combo is much more expensive then stylus anlone. BTW

I am talking about boron cantilever with whatever ''exotic stylus''.

Aluminum cantilever with  elliptical stylus is about 100 euro .

Axel Schurholz who is a good friend of my explained this to me

as the reason why he refuse to do this jobe.

Bimasta, you overlooked that the statements you ascribe to me

are made by Axel Schurholz with more then 40 years experience

as retipper. Not to complicate the story I deed not mention the

problem with glue. All those ''lost styli'' are lost because the glue

is solved by stylus cleaners. Gluing the stylus at the under side

of the stylus (aka without hole in the cantilever) should be even

more difficult but for your remark to apply this kind of retip should

be the rule not exception. The most cantilevers have a hole in

which the stylus is glued (''exotic styli'') or ''pressure fitted'' as by

(some) aluminum cantilevers. As J. Carr mentioned in the

''cantilevers thread'' this is the advantage of aluminum cantilevers.

Your way of reasoning is called ''induction''. From the fact that my

girl is a hooker one can't deduce that all girls are hooker.

Addition. I forget to comment on Bimasta's sarcastic remark

about my contributions. The solution is very easy but you obviously

overlooked this possibility also. You only need to skip my

contributions.

Bimasta, Your first two sentences are contradictory in the sense

that praise and critical remarks don't mix well. In my reading

you wrote: ''I enjoy your post but what you write make no sense''.

You ''argument'' was : ''my Koetsu has no hole in its cantilever

so searching for styli which will fit in the cantilevers holes make

no sense''. I called your reasoning ''induction'' and illustrated this

kind of reasoning by: ''my girl is a hooker so all girls are hooker''.

This is exactly the same ''argument'' as your Koetsu whithout hole.

You other , ''simplicity argument'' , is that gluing the stylus  at the

under side of the canilever (aka ''without hole'') is easy and should

be cheaper. I assume that you do this kind of retipping by yourself 

so you know what is involved. Well what is involved is first additional

treatment of the styli by cutting them ''shorter'' for the purpose. Then

the glue need to be used on both sides ; the stylus and the

cantilever such that we get an ''elastic connection'' between them.

Alas. As J. Carr mentioned in the same thread about cantilevers

materials the drawback by ''exotic materialls'' is that glue must be

used for them. The glue between the stylus and the cantilever

is not such a good thing because of the needed rigidity between

the involved parts. I am not sure if in this context or connection

a hole with stylus glued IN is worst  then the whole stylus surface

glued at the under side of the cantilever. Speaking about ''simplicity''.

I thought that Einstein meant something totally different (grin).