Does it make sense to retip vdH Grasshopper cartridge


I bought vdH Grasshopper cartridge in 1985.  With integrated head shell.
I have retipped twice in the Netherlands.  First time, they sent back the regular version that mounts in a head shell.
Now we are at 3rd time.  The tip fell off, after I used a stylus cleaning liquid. BTW - no warning that cleaning liquids dissolve the glue between cantilever and tip.  Now I am back again for fixing it.
Should I send it in for retip and suspension, close to $ 1,000 or is it time to get something new.

I would really like to stay below $ 1,000.   Turntable Oracle Delphi, tone arm ET-2 linear tracking.
dcaudio

  As for Stylast, my VDH manual actually says to use it every side. Stylast is a lubricant not cleaner.

I also agree with chakster, if you send your VDH cart to lets say sound smith you will not get the VDH stylus cut but something different also probably not the same cantilever material. So it wont be a true VDH anymore as the VDH stylus cut is very special indeed and part of the VDH sound. 

All that said it leads to an interesting discussion since Van Den Hul retips and repairs cartridges from other manufacturers.

Do you think VDH does a disservice to those customers?

How many cantilevers and stylus configurations are really proprietary, in that nobody else has access to those parts?

How many cartridge manufacturers make their own in house styli and cantilevers, as opposed to purchasing from a specialist manufacturing those parts?


dcaudio Contact me and email me a few pictures of your cartridge. I have worked with Van Den Hul cartridges before. I have a VDH Frog that I retipped with boron line contact. 
@jperry cartridge re-tipping is a good business, but most people don’t really understand what’s going on, so they trust to the retipper. The retipper does not have to explain everything in technical details (it’s too complicated), except some simple things. If a cartridge is back to the owner in good working condition the owner is happy. But the devil is in details.

None of the retipper is forcing a customer to proceed, the customers comes by their own, but a few people really understand the trade-off between original parts (sometimes unique parts made expecially for the cartridge designer) and different parts coming from the retippers (not bad, but different). J.Carr explained everything as a cartridge designer. There is a calculation of many parameters for a cartridge designer to use certain type of cantilever, stylus, suspension, coil material etc. The retipper has no idea about it.

In my opinion if you can’t service your MC cartridge with the original manufacturer then do not buy it or simply be aware of the expiration date of that original product.

I believe that the average cheap cartridges can be upgraded by retipper with better parts such as stylus/cantilever, but very special cartridges can not be upgraded by retipper if the retipper is not the original manufacturer of the cartridge.

The MM/MI cartridges are much better because the stylus can be replaced with a brand new original by user himself. Even very rare MM cartridges that cost over thousand dollars can be updated with new original styli. We can be sure that we’re listening to the original sound of the certain cartridge.
I generally agree with you on the statement below. However I think the line gets drawn at about $2,000, and in some cases higher for manufacturers that use OEM parIs readily available.

“I believe that the average cheap cartridges can be upgraded by retipper with better parts such as stylus/cantilever, but very special cartridges can not be upgraded by retipper if the retipper is not the original manufacturer of the cartridge. “