No right channel in new cartridge

tochsii, It's going to cost money if you initiate any action with SS or VAS, so be sure in advance that the seller will cover those costs.  After all, you are doing him a favor as well; he needs to know what's wrong, so he can make an informed decision about whether to repair it, either for your sake or for his.  I would include him in the decision making all along the way, if you prefer to get the repairs done on your own initiative.  Most of us have been down this road before, if not with a defective cartridge, then with some other piece of used gear purchased on-line.

If your Blackbird has a short in the coil wire, a la the story related by djf, then it's likely to be toast, unless the disjuncture can be visualized and re-soldered.

When this occurred with my Blackbird cartridge my thought when at the dealer was that if it wasn’t covered by the warranty I was going to cut my losses. At the time I was told that if Sumiko wouldn’t cover it that what they’ve seen in the past is that Sumiko would “repair” it (replace it) for 3 or $400. For me that would put that cartridge at $1400-1500 with no guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again in a couple months. I was willing to cut my loss and get a different cartridge from another manufacturer. I don’t know if it is a quality control problem, though I think it it is, or a design problem with the naked or nude design but the cartridge is at best a $1000 cartridge new. Not worth being $1400+ in the hole for 2 months in. 

A number of you warned me & you were right. Smoothy told me Pete at SS turns around in a couple days for him. Before I trusted his word I called, I just got a vm from SS essentially saying “Who? Don’t know him & we don’t do that... 10-12 wks”. I thought I could trust someone with his great reviews & I had really hoped I’d be able to keep that cartridge. Some things aren’t meant to be & a lot of you were right. You naturally want to trust people & Smoothy must be being honest with some people he’s got ~100 positive reviews but, not this transaction.

thanks everyone

now I go back to my spreadsheet of models, sound characteristics, price etc. any thoughts on the 2 Dynavectors for sale on the site? The DV Karat at $850 would be my kinda stretching it max.

If you got your money back, or if you eventually get it back, I wouldn’t condemn the seller. It is very plausible that the cartridge worked fine in his hands, both channels.

I did say several places that he has a great rep here & that he must be treating plenty of people right. But, the whole... SS knows me & Pete will do it for me was a lie. Now, he’s not responding on Audiogon & emails saying... just send it-I’ll call him & he’ll do it.  Once I found out about that being a lie... I knew-in this particular transaction-he wasn’t acting in good faith.