Hi dhcod. The three important variables here are effective tonearm length, overhang and offset angle. The sliding head shell is a great addition. There is no industry standard for stylus position in space relative to the mounting holes. If you use a fixed head shell every cartridge will give you a different effective length! With a slotted shell you usually can adjust this perfectly. You can make yourself a gauge, pivot to stylus. The little pyramid on top of that gorgeous tonearm indicates the pivot center and the spec for effective length should be in the manual obviously somewhere around 12 inches. After this all you need to do is set the overhang by sliding the arm back and forth in the base the spec for which should also be in the manual. All you need to do is make another jig spindle to overhang. The SME base is an absolute classic. Every arm should have one. I adapt Kuzma's version for every arm I use.
This sets up the arm to Lofgren A (Baerwald). If you want to get fancy and use other alignments a jig that allows you to do this will be needed.
I have not used the Feickert so I am not sure what it will do. I use DB systems another classic. It gives you a cross between Lofgren A and Uni Din and is very accurate because it magnifies the error. I would like to try Lofgren B which is Mike Fremer's favorite. I think I can modify the DB system jig to do this but just have not got around to it. I would love to know if the Feickert gives you the ability to easily swap alignments. If it does I would get one in a heart beat. Any one out there know of a gauge that does??
