New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

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.

Oilman: I received 2 arm wands from ET. One appears to be a "prototype" silver in color the other a more typical looking arm wand ; they are 6" in length. More to say about them later when I have had some time with friends to explore there potental. Sorry, neither is carbon-fiber.