New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

I have never found the oil trough position to be a problem but I am the opposite of all thumbs. However, Lloyd insists, despite Pierre's and Bob Dilger's insistence to the contrary, that the trough sounds better behind the arm rather than at the cartridge end; thus Lloyd's positioning on his Proscenium.

BTW, super glue is particularly usefull because of it's capillary action insinuating itself into the otherwise inaccessable wee spaces within the arm joints. Strength per se is not the issue. Firming an already strong but possibly resonant joint is.

Dampening the arm is not necessarilly a good idea. Over dampening and killing dynamics and liveliness is a clear and present danger.

Agree with the comment about overdampening. I found that out as I struggled to find the right viscosity oil for the trough. Too low viscosity was like no dampening but when i went to a more viscous oil the highs disappeared. I off set by adding more vta but when I moved, i tried a lighter viscosity and found a good balance. I like the design of the walker for two reasons, I tend to slosh the oil onto the record (specially when I have one too many johnny blues!) and the tapered end along with the adjustable oil level would make fine tuning dampening easier. Not sure of the impact of the end of the arm versus the cartridge end however. So far, I just have a few ideas to try.

I have found that one can change the sound using the oil trough by slightly lowering the oil fill line and replacing the oil paddle with a pointed screw . The pointed screw glides thru the oil bath with less effort; the highs seem to improve. I replaced the oil-bath with Amsoil synthetic 5w-30 in the trough.

Note: A pointed fine threaded bolt (minus the head) works equally as well. A short piece of tubing slid over/down the top of the bolt can replace the locking nut. The sum total weights less than the factory locking nut/paddle that may or may not be an advantage regarding compliance factors with certian cartridges.

2nd Note: A quick-fix to finding a pointed fine threaded bolt : Go to Home Depot , find a metal toggle bolt package , many contain pointed fine threaded bolts as part of the toggle bolt assembly. Buy a toggle bolt package ,remove the pointed fine threaded bolt that holds the toggle bolt assembly together , cut and burnish the pointed bolt to size as a replacement for the 'Noll paddle.