Best Tonearm and Cartridge for 4K or under for restored Garrard 301

I second @fsonicsmith comment about refurbishment. A full strip down and rebuild is the way to go. check out Matt Taylor of AudioGrail.

On the slate vs wood... while I have 401s not 301s, my experience may be helpful. I found the slate to have a little more glare than the wood plinth. That is, until I put the slate on 3" maple. The slate plinth is amazing at extracting detail and dynamics. The wood plinth a little less so. And because it’s wood, there is a somewhat woody tone compared to the slate. Go with the slate if you want to extract as much info as possible. Ask Jim what he thinks. Note that my slate version has considerable mods as outlined above. Nevertheless, I've been on this ride for a few years now, starting with an old dirty 401 for $700 to  what I have today.  

@noromance I love your setup. Superb! I cannot find the Idler on audiosilente website. Is it pulley? pardon my ignorance. Pls elaborate on SPH and platter. My platter has no markings.
Would you have given it to Jim for cleaning? (I know you used audiograil) They are a bit expensive and shipping.
What are the things below the spikes on the slate plinth. Where did you get the spikes. I like the look.

Thanks to you and everyone who has posted in this thread. Its really fun!

Just curious Kanchi-did you look at my system on my profile page and particularly my Garrard 301? If you prefer noromance’s, my feelings will not be hurt but....
The idler wheel is rubber on steel. http://www.audiosilente.com/garrard-401-idler-wheel-garrard-401.html
"They are a bit expensive and shipping"? Perhaps you mean with shipping. This is no time to be looking to save on things. If you want it done right, you have to pay for shipping. I bought a lot of things from the UK, Ray Clark’s PSU for the Garrard, my plinth from Russ, shipping is not that terribly expensive.
Hell, I got in the car twice and drove six hours each way to pick up my decks from Greg in Nashville. Worth every minute of my time.

The "beauty" of a medium mass tonearm is that you can easily add mass, if you decide to go with a very low compliance MC cartridge.  Whereas, medium mass tonearms, as is, mate well with most medium and medium high compliance cartridges.  On the other hand, you cannot easily reduce tonearm effective mass, if you should want to try a very high compliance MM or MI cartridge from days of yore on a very high mass tonearm.  So, I would stick with medium effective mass and think about Triplanar and Reed, primarily, if I were you.  I've never heard the Kuzma, so cannot exlude or include that one. fsonicsmith says his Cocobolo-armed Reed is "medium" mass at 18-19g.  I'd want to stay in the 11 to 16g range for max flexibility.  I use a Reed 2A with a Red Cedar arm wand.  Red cedar is a little less dense than cocobolo.  But rules like this can be gently broken, because if you look at the equation for resonant frequency, you can see that there is quite a bit of flexibility in values for effective mass and/or cartridge compliance allowed, while still staying in the desired resonant frequency range of 8-12Hx. 

As to slate as a plinth material, it's been excellent for me.  I own two turntables with solid slate plinths: Lenco L75 and Denon DP80.  They're both quite neutral sounding.  Slate is in and of itself "constrained layer damped", because that is the nature of slate per se; viewed from the side there are overlapping irregular layers of material, which is what makes it very difficult to cut with a water jet. (I know this first hand.)  On my Technics SP10 Mk3, I used a more massive piece of slate coupled to a cherrywood base, mounted to the slate from below.  I listened to the Mk3 before vs after I attached the wood base, and I heard maybe a 5% uptick in solidity and neutrality with the wood.

@fsonicsmith OMG! that's a beauty. 
I have to admit, I did not know how to look at system. @noromance in his first post had a link to his system and I just clicked. Now I know how to look at someones system!!
Did Greg in Nashville rebuild  rebuild your system?
He is only 5hrs away and I can easily drive.
I actually drove to Washington DC to listen to Greg Beron's system and his tape decks.
I like your suggestion about going all in. 
I will order the Idler wheel.
If I may ask, where do you live?
Thanks!