Great tip from another forum

Thanks Sean, it will be obvious to 99 44/100ths of us that you were talking about alignment of the cantilever in the headshell with respect to the protractor grid and not overhang (position of the stylus). That is a good trick to use. On some cartridges, being off kilter even a tiny bit can make a big, big difference. Keep in mind, however, that this trick depends on the correct assumption that the cantilever is perfectly parallel with the cartridge sides (which is not the case if the cantilever is skewed or bent even slightly one way or the other). Bottom line - always align the cantilever and not necessarily the cartidges sides, even if they are supposed to be "square".

I'm not sure what the 'overhang' reference has to do with this thread though...

That makes two of us...at least.

Sean, I understand the difficulty and, of course, like Nrchy, understand overhang. I generally use a mirrored protractor, which makes it easier to see the cantilever, but you can pretty much replicate whatever angle the cantilever might find itself by using the blue tack to make the needle of which you speak run parallel to the cantilever as you look at the bottom of the cartridge (though you might have to affix the needle before mounting the cartridge in some instances). Of course the weight of the whole "trick" will throw off the VTF, which affects all the other parameters, of course, since changes in any of the cartridge alignment factors affect each other. Having a straight sided cartridge with a parallel cantilever sure makes things easier!

Gotcha...good listening, my friend.