Miyajima MADAKE experience

Hi, I have a "retipped" 60 hours Shilabe, a Kansui with 600 hours and two Madakes, one of which cannot be officially "retipped" (it was purchased outside the US) with is c. 500 hours and a new one with 20 hours which can be "retipped".
The Shilabe is actually my third, the first I bought from Miyajima-san in Japan in the pre-importer days, then a retip (swap) from the importer, and then the latest retip which was a real retip performed in the US.
The swap retipping is 40% of the retail price or about $2360 for the Madake according to Robin Wyatt who imports them.
The cartridges all can be retipped for c. $650 by Andy Kim at the Needle Clinic, who redid the Shilabe with a comparable aluminum cantilever and diamond. The cartridge measured the same after his work as it did before, and seemed to sound the same- taking into consideration the play time. Andy is extremely knowledgeable and helpful- and a fast worker.

The Madake retip from him wouldn’t have the, well, madake, and probably would really be a Kansui, so the Madake will always cost a fair bit to replace.

By the way, has anyone measured the frequency response of these cartridges? I’m having issues with my second Madake being too bright, and the response is anything but flat in the top end (>+7dB at 18kHz!). I’ve measured all of them using my system, and none of them are, well, exemplars of an ideal response, but the second Madake is a bit much.

After the accident (with rare Technics cartridges) described by one of our member few years ago, i would never deal with Needle Clinic and wouldn't advice it to anybody else. 

There are many retippers with good reputation such as Expert Stylus and NorthWest Analogue is UK, SoundSmith in USA ... etc 

Well, I'm not alone in having had good experiences with Needle doctor, and I used him because of recommendations that I received from other satisfied customers who had him re-tip high end MCs.
Sometimes things happen, no matter who it is. 

@wynpalmer4 I know, but that case was more about Andy's personality, so for me he's no longer in the list of retippers. 

Anyway, i think it's not a good idea to service Madake at anyone else, but the Miyajima Lab. And it's sad that Miyajima's service is less affordable now.  

As for the lower model i'm sure that changing one aluminum cantilever to another is not exactly the same. Alumimum cantilevers are different too. The best about Miyajima was the cheap factory retipping/refurbishing service, it was possible only several years go, but not today. 

Oddly enough, my interactions with Andy, which have not been extensive, have been very pleasant and professional. Perhaps he's worked on his "bed side manner". Yes, they're not exactly the same stock, but darn close and yes, its not a shibata but a linear contact stylus but my listening/measurements are very similar to a stock Miyajima with the cantilever resonance/amplitude being in the same place, more or less, and with the same amplitude, and the alignment of the device is spot on so he managed to put it together without disturbing the damping elements or the coils, which is not an easy thing to do. The Shilabe has  a pronounced cantilever resonance peak in the high sonic/low ultrasonic range, the Kansui is much less pronounced, and the Madake is between the two- although my second device measures/sounds peakier than the first. These choices were made by Miyajima-san and help "tailor" the sound of his cartridges.
So, if you don't want to cough up the big bucks for at least the Shilabe, and I would expect the Kansui too, Andy does a fine job.