Have There Ever Been Fake Koetsu?

I had my Urushi retipped by Expert Stylus in the UK, recently.  They installed a new stylus but did not replace the cantilever.  Their work is neat like the original. I could contrast it with a replacement sapphire cantilever plus OCL stylus done by SoundSmith.  The latter has a big gob of glue at the base of the stylus, as seen in some of these photos.  Since SS replaced both cantilever and stylus (on my Grace Ruby), I have to infer that their replacement cantilever/stylus came to them from their supplier with the stylus mounted as described.  Both cartridges sound excellent; the Urushi sounds perhaps better than ever, but that is an unreliable "feeling".

@mulveling- well done. 

@mulveling

Thanks for those beautiful and interesting photos. The diamond cantilever in particular is beautiful.

Thanks @mulveling for the awesome quality pics. Well beyond my pay grade.

I have owned many Koetsu’s over the years and either bought new or used from reputable sellers.  The rebuilds from Koetsu and Anna Mighty sound are the only way to go, I have had several Cartridges from Anna Mighty Sound and they are absolutely top notch in their care for rebuilds.  I saw a Onyx stone body for sale on Audiomart recently and it was definitely messed with as the gold trim on the bottom was sourced from a standard rosewood cartridge, I asked about it and got no response, he sold it to some poor buyer that had no idea what he was getting.  Be careful as some of the other comments earlier as there are a lot of retips out there being pawned off as stock cartridges