low mass tone arm suggestion sub $1k used

thanks chakster i’ll have a look for that, another one he did was a two part on you tube were he assembles a cart all filmed through his microscope very interesting.

I've checked my notes, saved link to his old interview does not work. Anyway Technics EPA-100 and EPA-500/250 tonearms definitely VdH favorites. I paid for my EPA-100 about $1200 including shipping, it was 5 years ago, probably. Upgraded to the EPA-100 mkII last year (dreams comes true). 

I’m surprised the Mayware arm hasn’t been mentioned. Isn’t it the lowest-mass low-mass arm of all? I have one but never used it, so can’t comment further.
Also, as the Technics hi-end arms have been mentioned — I did use the EPA-500 for awhile, with the lightest armwand. I adored the design, less so the sound. Had some ’golden ear’ friends over — I had it set up alongside an SME 3009/II, playing identical cartridges, and all preferred the SME.

Low mass toneram? Denon DA 401 or Sme 3009 series III these are the first names that come to mind.

+ Analogluvr. Excellent : )

Good old SME series III  w/ a continuous run eliminating all those joints.
Mine has silver path from cart pins to RCAs done by a professional in early 2000´s and haven´t looked back ever since.  

This my ex Luxman TA-1 lighweight tonearm for high compliance cartridges. The armwand is removable like one big headshell. This tonearm made by Micro Seiki and it’s way better than Infinity Black Widow for example. I’ve been using Luxman TA-1 with Stanton SC-100 WOS cartridges exclussively with great result. The arm is very rare, especially with its superheavy tonearm stabilizer.

I must say the Denon DA-401 is also a great quality lightweight tonearm, the only limitation is its headshell which can not be replaced with any conventional headshell. It would be nice to have at least a few shells for DA-401 to swap the cartridges, but i have only one. Luckily the tonearm is NOS in the box.