Are some tracks impossible to track?

Setting a tracking arm heavy will not hurt your records - it may wear out your cart slightly faster. I have tried this on mine and a friend's decks:

Set to twice the recommended weight. 5g, man, really? Yes. Really. Now do it. And btw, are you sure you are using the Shure stylus gauge you bought off needledoctor (you did right? You aren't using a postal scale or something?) and reading it right? Queue and wait to see if it mistracks. If it does, is there something visually off at this point? Noticeable wobble, etc? If so, figure out what's up with the wobble. Is the sound clear or harsh or really just funky or a little dull (the most probable outcome if everything is going well). If it still jumps but looks fine try a different difficult track. I like The Kills 45 EP "Rooster", you probably will not. Does it track ok, and the other one not? Sound a little dull but basically ok? You are in luck at this point or: if not, call Harry and Sheila and chew their ear off until they help you. If there's no wobble you may actually have a problem. There is one classic VPI scenario that has to do with the motor being bad and generating too much torque but I have only heard of this happening to two people, which is not many when you consider how popular the Scout is, and for good reason. Of course, you could keep increasing the force, or it may be those two pressings. If you don't have a wobble I recommend calling VPI anyway and saying: Hey, was that really a good idea the no counterweight thing? Not that it is actually ever a real issue - I basically believe the VPI press on this although I do hear the occasional story here on 'gon, but it always gets worked out ok.

This will probably fix it, so start dialing the force down to normal afterwards, in half g increments or rotations or however your setup works. On my spacearm a half turn of the allen wrench is about half a gram as well. You would be surprised, but often a cart works fine after that, on all the bad jumpy tracks in the collection, so it can't be because the record got ruined or "dug out". And most people who have been around a while will tell you a little heavy is better than a little light, because setting it light means it bangs around if it jumps out, but more importantly it bangs around in the grooves making dents in the groove wall and therefore distortion. I actually think the cantilever support and the tonearm just never quite get into alignment and "dance right" if they don't push on each other a little first - this is doubly important in a good unipivot like your VPI.

Your second question: the VPI tonearm is quite good - it is not by dial-a-number system, which I think is good b/c you know, you actually have to listen to what's going on. Is it long enough really to give low distortion? No. Is it pretty well made and relatively stiff? Yes. Does it have a good head system? Reasonably good. Not as good as Graham or SME or something, but as good as the Nottingham Spacearm I own. Nevermind that the British press actually seems to prefer the sound of the Nott arm to SME these days.. Does your arm work well in the setup you have e.g. the Scout? Yes. Exceptionally well, and it's voiced for it. I almost saved the extra money on my Spacedeck and bought a Scout. The sound is sexy, it's well made and well supported. I happened to get the Spacedeck for about the same price with the tonearm, although I almost caved and paid much more for the Space. Most people will not be so lucky or patient - I bought the tonearm for $650 8 months before I found a Spacedeck with the arm mount for $850. I stil haven't bought a good cart, but obviously I won't scrimp. Still, I hear good things about the Blackbird/VPI combo but neither one are particularly good trackers, the Blackbird is legendarily difficult to find a good weight for. Keep experimenting and don't listen to people who tell you to upgrade, or don't have good deck, which you do. It's pointlessly stupid when you haven't really even gotten to listen to music yet.

Does your TT have an anti skating control? If you have high end distortion from just ONE channel then its not dailed in.
Get a three sided record (2nd Winter, Ryco remastered Bowie) and put the blank record on your platter. The arm should stay in one spot when placed down on rotating disc in the middle of the record. More often then not it is the pressing.

Qdrone...Antiskating force is caused by drag of the stylus and the geometry of the arm. The drag varies with groove modulation, and is always more than what occurs with a blank disc. A test record with a heavily modulated pure tone (so that you can hear any mistracking) and an arm that allows you to vary VTF and antiskating force while playing is the best method. Actually, I long ago gave up on pivoting arms because of all the critical adjustments, and use a linear tracker.

Eldartford,

If I read one more post suggesting that antiskate can be adjusted by scaping a blank surface with the point of a stylus I'll..., I'll...

... I'll start believing that Saddam really did have WMD's!

Where do these ideas come from? Why are they propagated despite the clear evidence against them?

There must be a hidden agenda. I think there's a secret cabal of people who own vinyl record pressing equipment but no cutting lathes. They're trying to build up a market for ungrooved LP's and make their fortunes. Of course now that we've outed them, they'll have to kill us!