Tool no. 1 should be a steady hand! Fitting a cartridge can be quite a fiddly job, especially for those of us who don't do it that often, and of course the mental pressure to not damage anything increases exponentially with the price of the cartridge.... 😁
Other tips -
- DO NOT WEAR A JUMPER OR OTHER LONG-SLEEVED CLOTHING when fitting or aligning a cartridge!
- Be sober and not hung-over when you attempt it (seriously, accuracy is all when doing this stuff)
- If you are fitting an MM cartridge then it can help reduce the risk of damage if you remove the stylus from the cartridge body to begin with and store it somewhere safe, at least until the body is physically fitted and connected. Obviously you'll need it put back in place before alignment
- Tools I'd suggest to add to the collection are:
- a pair of good tweezers for plugging or unplugging the cartridge tags. Tiny pliers can work but it's easy to apply too much pressure and squash the tags so pliers are probably a safer bet
- small Allen keys (often supplied with the cartridge along with a spanner)
- a set of tiny (jewellers or hobby) screwdrivers
- a good quality magnifying glass or jeweller's loupe and a small LED torch or lamp that you can position and angle to get a good spread of light around & under the cartridge
- a cartridge alignment gauge of your choice (everyone seems to have a favourite, from a printed card disc you put on the platter, to one of the Dr. Feickert / Pro-Ject Align-It / Brinkmann / Clearaudio type tools
- A VTA / azimuth alignment block (usually a lump of acrylic with etched parallel lines you can use to align the tonearm or cart / headshell)
- a test disc (like the Hi Fi News one) can be useful for checking the results but don't get too hung up on things like the tracking ability tests - as I've found out personally. Easy to think your cartridge is a terrible tracker, then find out that in the real world of actual music LPs it's fine. The channel orientation and phase tests are useful though, as are the vertical and horizontal resonant frequency tests
- a decent VTF (downforce) gauge. Simple ones like the Ortofon balance scales avoid potential issues with electronic ones but I find it a bit fiddly to use and not so easy to get a very accurate downforce. Electronic scales work well but be cautious about purchase, some members have found that what looks like an identical model actually has a ferrous plate to rest the stylus on and interaction with the cartridge magnet can affect the results
- a knackered old LP is useful to plonk on the platter to help with VTA alignment so you can approximate playing height
Keep the work area immediately around the end of the arm clear so you minimise the risk of accidentally knocking a tool into the cartridge. Keep tools to hand but not right next to the cart.
As a number of people including
@Lurch have mentioned in other threads, avoid the assumption that the cartridge body and the cantilever are in perfect alignment with each other. Not always the case, and hence alignment should be referenced to the cantilever and not the body to minimise tracking errors
When fitting the cartridge to the headshell initially, just hand-tighten the bolts so that the body doesn't move around on its own, but just loose enough that it can be repositioned by hand. Once you have eventually confirmed alignment you can "nip" them up to ensure the cartridge is fixed (being careful that the cartridge doesn't move as you tighten the bolts - do it alternately and just a little bit at a time, back and forth between them). Don't over-tighten the bolts
I find this guide from the Origin Live website to be really useful for setting out the steps involved and showing some useful photos:
https://www.originlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Cartridge-Set-up-instructions-general.pdf
