12-1/2" arm. NewArtVinyl Black Bird. Yea or Nay?

Hard to find a good Black Widow nowadays but here you go.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.at%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F223832906126

Here is Luxman TA-1 as an alternative to Black Widow (designed for super high compliance cartridges), as far as i know the problem with BW is fragile thin armtube. The Luxman is made of metal, comes with superheavy stabilizer, you can compare it on this image to UA-7082 on my TT.

Luxman tonearm was made by Micro Seiki
I also remember inexpensive Micro Seiki MA-707

Chak
You are correct on the Widow arm tube, handle with care, in fact you need to handle the complete assembly with care ( as we should always do as a matter of course anyway but you get the point).
If memory serves me correctly the Widow came with three different arm tubes depending on vintage, a 2 piece aluminium , a 2 piece carbon fiber and last in line a 1 piece tapered carbon fiber tube.
And I am pretty sure it was the original aluminium tubes that were weaker and got a bad rap.
Certainly one has to be careful with the knife edge bearing assembly for sure.

MA-707 looks like a nice alternative for sure.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-MA-707-Turntable-Tonearm-Arm-Micro-Seiki-Used-Excellent-Condition/143...

Can't beat the quality of Micro Seiki anything, it's all beautifully made. They built a lot of the top end models for other Japanese company's as well. (complete turntables)
BillWojo

uberwaltz9

I don't see any anti-skate on the black widow. am I missing something?