Sean, I understand the difficulty and, of course, like Nrchy, understand overhang. I generally use a mirrored protractor, which makes it easier to see the cantilever, but you can pretty much replicate whatever angle the cantilever might find itself by using the blue tack to make the needle of which you speak run parallel to the cantilever as you look at the bottom of the cartridge (though you might have to affix the needle before mounting the cartridge in some instances). Of course the weight of the whole "trick" will throw off the VTF, which affects all the other parameters, of course, since changes in any of the cartridge alignment factors affect each other. Having a straight sided cartridge with a parallel cantilever sure makes things easier!
