Tone Arm Balancing


First of all, I don’t know if this would go under "vintage", but it seemed the only logical choice. I read the posts from 7+ years ago, and I am now more confused. I’m bringing my Technics SL1300 MK2 out of mothballs from the early 80s. I’m trying to remember the procedure for balancing the tonearm. I pushed the counterweight onto the tonearm, felt it seat properly, and it balanced pretty easily. I then turn the counterweight until it read 1.5 grams. I think that’s what the old Pickering cartridge wanted back so many years ago. I then matched the anti-skate with the same 1.5 setting. Did I do it right?

pghpete

When  you balanced your tonearm to floating level, did you hold weight and turn the dial until the zero on the scale lines up with the mark?   Kind of a key item before your rotate entire assembly to line up to the 1.5 grams.   I use a digital scale nowadays.   Easier, more accurate.

You correctly did the original setup, but a few ideas to consider today. You can acquire a digital scale for very low price and get a better outcome as the balance and trust the counterweight “dial in” has been shown to have a lot of variation. Also the recommendation today on antiskate is to do much less than tracking force on the older arms. I would start at 1/3 the tracking force and adjust by ear if needed. The original settings were usually much more than actually required. Best of luck.

Rick