Stylus/cantilever stiff and noisy--WARNING!

Actually, Hollowman, I for one am very much into vintage gear including vintage cartridges, and there is hardly anything in either of my two separate audio systems that I have not either built or modified from OEM (excluding cartridges, of course). You would be surprised at the levels of experience and expertise to be found among those of us who participate here.

As stated on prior occasions: Cart’s are fragile. which exposes them to deterioration from both exposure to an environment and from typical usage.

Either types of deterioration are unavoidable, where the only measures to minimise the loss of optimisation, would be to use the Cart’ frugally and Vacuum Chamber store with no UV exposure. 

The Heyday of Vinyl has Co habited with endless research from qualified research entities, to make known what damages a Vinyl LP and accelerates Cart’/Styli wear. 

Pretty much correct geometries, force and clean source material is plenty enough to keep all in fine fettle. 

Recently I have shared a report which strongly suggests Ortofon have Damper materials in use that are showing they have properties that are with longevity in maintaining fit for purpose.

Another report from myself, where the source is a very experienced individual in Cart’ refurb, flags up a issue with a  Brands currently available Cart’s that are claimed to have a Damper material that deteriorates very speedily, to the point the Cantilever interface is far from how the factory interface was produced.

New Cart’s with a large price tag, deteriorating at a speedy rate, would be sensible to avoid. 

Olden Cart’s even if NOS Olden are exposed to deterioration! 

The user of such a Cart’ has options on how they are to proceed with using it. I am an advocate of Cart’ refurbishment, and strongly suggest that a more than satisfactory outcome is able to be the end result. 

Is the OP leaning towards Damper replacement is something to be prioritised, when having a particular Cart’ type in use?

@hollowman 

anyone have to adjust their VTF because they are above 7,000 ft seal levels?

We have some pretty noticeable wildlife down-under, including extensive seal colonies.  One big seal even lives on the Sydney Opera House harbour steps.  But 7,000 ft is huge ...

In the very early days of 78s, the stylus assembly was the only transducer, and fed directly into a horn arrangement to amplify the sound.

Notewothy was a patent by Percy Wilson, the technical editor of the Gramophone Magazine, for a tangential tonearm carrying a 6' horn, floating on two baths of liquid mercury.

@hollowman 

anyone have to adjust their VTF because they are above 7,000 ft seal levels?

Just in case you were asking about sea levels, the radius of the earth is about 20 million feet.  Gravity drops off as the inverse square of distance so will be about 0.007% lower at 7,000 feet compared with where the seals live.  Gravity is what determines the Stylus Rake Angle which is unlikely to be noticeably affected by such a minute change in Vertical Tracking Force. 

If you are worried about Vertical Tracking Angle, get a tangential tonearm because Horizontal Tracking Error is just as important as Vertical Tracking Error (on stereo records).