Best protractor for aligning to cantilever

Hi Hyper:

First of all, I would recommend using the cantilever rather than the cartridge body with ANY alignment tool. If the cantilever cannot be viewed or is not referenced on a tool, I would discard that tool. This assumes the stylus is correctly positioned on the cantilever but that is better than making assumptions relative to the cartridge body.

I have not tried any of the Wally tools but understand they come highly recommended. Over the years I have used various two-point alignment devices but now have a Dennesen Soundtracktor with a single stylus reference point calculated from the Baerwald formula. It is marked for cantilever alignment. Both metal and plastic versions were produced. The only limitation with the Dennesen for me is that it requires precise location of the pivot point for the arm. Otherwise, it can be used with any pivoted arm (length).

I recently tried buying a Wally tool. Sent him a check in November for a protractor that was in stock. He asks you to call him and remind him to ship a week later. I found that odd but did. After many weeks of calls and emails he finally called to appologize and said he would ship it right out. Three weeks later I still had not received and cancelled my order with 3 months wasted. If you choose to order be prepared for a prolonged hassle.

Harry W told me that the DB protractor is a very good one as well.

If you're using a Grado with a plastic body, I suspect (but I could be wrong) that you'd rather not drop the coin required for a WallyTractor.

Basic cartridge alignment isn't rocket science...it's actually 7th or 8th grade geometry. If you have a spare hour and an installation of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Visio, it's *very* easy to create and print your own protactor custom made for your tonearm. You'll need John Elison's Excel spreadsheet for the correct measurements.

If you have MS Excel / Visio and are using a Rega (or Rega-based) arm, PM me and I'll send you something ready to print and use. I could even send it to you in .pdf format if you'd like.

If you understand the basics of cartridge setup and alignment, you'll stop worrying about which protractor to use and if your setup is "correct". Until I went through this exercise, I wanted to try every damn protractor out there to verify my setup. Now I understand what is important (hint - it's the process for the setup, not the tool).

As for the question about the VPI setup, John Elison just posted an interesting article about that very subject over at the Vinyl Engine.

The protractor from www.turntablebasics.com is the poor man's version of a Wallytractor. Just $20 and usually instant shipping.

It doesn't have the finely scribed lines of a Wally, but it is built on a mirror, which just as important. No non-mirrored protractor is as accurate as a mirrored one. A mirror lets you use parallax to ensure you're sighting exactly down the intended line. Not possible on a non-mirrored device.