Hardy cartridge

The disaster actually has nothing to do with cuing...it occurs with stylus cleaning, using all of the generally approved methods such as blutac, gel, camelhair or carbon fibre stylus brushbrush (back to front), ultasonic stylus cleaner...tried them all, sooner or later ->tears.

Add a cuing device to your TT. DJ carts were designed for abuse...and sound like it too.

Option 2. Place the cart on the record and then start the TT afterward.

@fstein, You have a very light tonearm. The specs just give you an idea if you are reasonably close. You have to use a test record with vertical and horizontal resonance tracks. These are usually very easy to use. First you get lateral resonance right by adding weight until you get the resonance down to 8-10 Hz. If it is already there you do not have to add anything. If it is lower you have a problem because removing weight is much harder. Usually, I go to lighter screws, either shorter or aluminum. Once you have the horizontal sorted you look at the vertical. Vertical resonance is affected by tracking force, add more and the suspension gets stiffer and the resonance frequency goes up. Add less and stiffness drops to a point and resonance goes down. I usually start at the highest recommended tracking force and work my way down. I just set up a Soundsmith Voice. Once the horizontal resonance was down to 8 Hz the vertical was up at 12-14 Hz, too darn high. Dropping the VTF by 0.2 grams brought it down to 10-12 hz which is where I left it. VTF is a pleasing 1.5 grams. It only took me 20 minutes.

IMHO this is more important than VTA. This will determine how well your tonearm follows warps, how well the cartridge tracks and how detailed your bass is. 

@fstein - For the past 10+ years, I have been using a magic eraser to clean my stylus after every side.  Back to front although many say just up and down, gently for a Benz Ruby3.  Otherwise, I would recommend non-moving coil cartridges for you.   (I broke off a Dynavector XX1 cartridge back in the days because I literally had difficulty viewing the stylus/cantilver-it was hidden in the middle of the cartridge body).  

@wolfie62 - Why do you have sooo many cartridges and change them so oo frequently?  Is it to match each record?   Or are you obsessive-compulsive (no judgment made, just is a character trait).