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Is my stylus damaged ?

Hi folks,

I was recently given for free a Technics SL3300 turntable that comes with a Sgure MG44X cartdrige.
I bought a cheap N35X stylus.

As this is an automatic turntable, something is happening and three times the tonearm as slide to the center of the record, I have not tried to play records till I send the turntable for calibration and adjustments.

At first sight the stylus shows no damage and looks still aligned and not ''twisted''.

Should I buy a new one ?

PS: I'm on a very tight budget.

Thanks !
foxtrot
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,372 posts
 
I suspect MOFI is correct. If it still slides to the center, make sure nothing mechanical is causing it, then new stylus.
czarivey
5,721 posts
 
If you are local to NC I service all kinds of vintage turntables to the original and new functionality.
davide256's avatar
davide256
395 posts
 
cheaper stylii are mounted in a lump of solder and commonly fail by popping loose from the solder... this is one cause of "sliding across a record". A common magnifier will show a crater vs a needle when looking at the stylus. If the needle is there then you have an arm force problem, rebalance the arm and set tracking and anti skate force to 2.5 gms. With stylii always set tracking force at the upper end of the range unless you have an oscope and test record to verify how low you can set pressure before mistracking kicks in causing needle and record damage
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