Checking Anti-Skate?

Skating force depends on a whole lot of things...where you are on the record...groove modulation...vertical tracking force, and more. You can only set it for best overall results. (That's why linear tracking arms were invented).

Shure put out a test record specifically designed for testing phono pickup performance. Beg, borrow or steal the record, or buy it if it is still made, and use it to optimize all variables of pickup installation.

In my experience the main benefit of antiskating force is to permit the pickup to track at a lower downforce. If you increase the downforce a bit most good pickups will track OK without any antiskating, but that isn't good for the record. When I first got into this hobby good pickups typically used 5 to 6 grams of downforce, and few arms had any provision for antiskating.

5 grams was the recommended downforce for the GE pickup (Monophonic) that was commonly used in the 1950's. Other pickups were similar. 5 grams was easy to set because a US Nickle coin is 5 grams, exactly. You could calibrate your finger with the coin and then put the pickup on the finger.

Buscis2...Back then there were enough real improvements to be made that people didn't need to get worked up over magic speaker wire and cryogenicly processed wall outlets.

In perusing a catalog I happened to note that pickups designed for DJs still track at 5 to 6 grams. Of course DJs do terrible things to their pickups so they need to be built like tanks.