I have just about every alignment tool known to man - from a printed Hoffman arc protractor to an old Dennesen to a Feickert to a SMARTractor to many others. I use the SMARTractor now mostly because it's the most flexible and most finely constructed, but my random observation is that I've seen Harry Weisfeld use the VPI jig countless times to mount and align cartridges. It's fast and easy. They always come out sounding great. I'm not suggesting the VPI jig is the best tool for VPI tables, but I guess I'm saying there are a whole lot of tools out there that do the job perfectly well. If I had it to do over again maybe I could have saved a bunch of cash if I had stuck with my VPI jigs (258 and 300 mm).
Question about how to use Feickert Protractor
Greetings from Oregon,
I'd been following the discussion about the Feickert Protractor and finally decided to order one. I'd been using the GeoDisc for setup, and I wanted something a little more precise. I have been working with the protractor this evening, and the directions on the second step are not entirely clear. The first step is easy enough - set up the protractor with the gauge pin over the pivot point (easy to find on a unipivot) and adjust the cartridge to the bulls eye in the geometry you want (I'm using Baerwald). Moving to step two things become unclear
My first question:
Step 2 says "..we don't need to aim over the pivot point anymore. Please rotate the Protractor so that the stylus tip touches the cross hairs at step 2." The picture shows the stylus sitting right on the target. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not physically possible. The cross hairs at step 2 are a fixed distance away from the cross hairs at step 1. There's no way to rotate the protractor to make this happen. You have to move the tonearm over to step 2, right?
My second question:
Assuming that I'm moving the tonearm over to the lines for step 2 on the protractor, should the stylus fall right on the bullseye as it did at step 1? Mine doesn't, but I assume there's nothing I can do about it without having the whole tonearm assembly remounted. It's a VPI Prime, which doesn't appear to have any adjustments for pivot-to-spindle distance.
I hope the questions make sense, as it's not easy to explain without having the protractor in front of you. Hopefully, someone with experience using the Fleickert can help.
Thanks for any advice!
Scott
I'd been following the discussion about the Feickert Protractor and finally decided to order one. I'd been using the GeoDisc for setup, and I wanted something a little more precise. I have been working with the protractor this evening, and the directions on the second step are not entirely clear. The first step is easy enough - set up the protractor with the gauge pin over the pivot point (easy to find on a unipivot) and adjust the cartridge to the bulls eye in the geometry you want (I'm using Baerwald). Moving to step two things become unclear
My first question:
Step 2 says "..we don't need to aim over the pivot point anymore. Please rotate the Protractor so that the stylus tip touches the cross hairs at step 2." The picture shows the stylus sitting right on the target. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not physically possible. The cross hairs at step 2 are a fixed distance away from the cross hairs at step 1. There's no way to rotate the protractor to make this happen. You have to move the tonearm over to step 2, right?
My second question:
Assuming that I'm moving the tonearm over to the lines for step 2 on the protractor, should the stylus fall right on the bullseye as it did at step 1? Mine doesn't, but I assume there's nothing I can do about it without having the whole tonearm assembly remounted. It's a VPI Prime, which doesn't appear to have any adjustments for pivot-to-spindle distance.
I hope the questions make sense, as it's not easy to explain without having the protractor in front of you. Hopefully, someone with experience using the Fleickert can help.
Thanks for any advice!
Scott