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Turntable adjustment

I've recently acquired a Technics SL-QD33 turntable with a p-mount cartridge. Anti-skate is factory set and non adjustable. Also, its fully automatic. Everything worked fine with the stock cartridge, but I wanted to upgrade so I purchased the Grado Prestige Green cartridge, which has improved the sound.  However, now when I start to play an album, the tone arm no longer places the stylus in the groove, thus, it slides off the record. What can be done to address this issue? 
hawk28
cleeds
6,593 posts
 
hawk28
The arm does not provide for any sort of balancing of weight.
Are you sure?
It does however, have an adjustment for VTF, which I checked.
Did you check it with a separate VTF scale, or are you relying on the scale that's part of the arm?
hawk28 OP
121 posts
 
I'm using what's on the arm.
cleeds
6,593 posts
 
VTF scales on many pickup arms are not even remotely reliable. I suggest you use a dedicated gauge to confirm your VTF. It needn’t be expensive - even the little Shure gauge is quite good.

What you describe could very well be a VTF issue.
hawk28 OP
121 posts
 
Cleeds, thanks for the advice. Based on your questions, I went back and adjusted it from the fixed 1.25 to 1.5, and bingo, the stylus landed correctly and smoothly on the record.

But I will look into that VTF scale for the future. Thanks to all who helped me out.
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
6,194 posts
 
If you go to the VINYL ENGINE you can look up the owners manual. The tracking force is set at 1.25 grams with a 6 gram cartridge. It can only be adjusted plus or minus by .25 gram!

https://www.vinylengine.com/
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