Have you ever broken the needle?

I use a medical hemostat to connect the cartridge clips. HIGHLY recommended...

Regarding the current status of your cartridge, you can probably send it to the manufacturer to be rebuilt. In this case, there's nothing to do but suck it up and spend the money.

If it makes you feeal any better, my dealer told me that he once broke his Koetsu Onyx Platinum in a freak accident. If I recall correctly, his dealer cost for repair was more than $2k. Ouch!

I just sent my Wilson Benesch Analog cartridge back to WB to be retipped/rebuilt for $300. I haven't gotten it back yet so I can't be sure of the results. But the price is very reasonable.

$300????? Now THAT's a bargain! Is that their standard re-tip charge, or only because they've done it themselves in their audiophile lifetimes (don't be embarrassed, we ALL have) and know the feeling? I thought only Benz was reasonable for re-tips.

VanDenHul will retip(stylus only) if cantilever is OK for $300 in US.

I got that price from the US distributor. I sent the cartridge to him and he forwarded it to Wilson Benesch. The way I understand it, they also rebuild by replacing the suspension. According to the distributor, putting a new tip on an old catridge is only half the job.