Feickert analogue protractor....Owners impressions

Dear Thom, We did use something straight and rigid (no joke intended) to extend the linear guide on the Turntable Basics protractor toward the true pivot of the WT tonearm, and I did use masking tape to immobilize the platter AND to try to keep it from flopping over. Eventually I think we did shim it. The confounding thing, along with the tiny cantilever of the 17D3, was the unavoidable tendency of the WT tonearm to twist when one tried to tighten down on the screw that holds it in place. At home with my Triplanar, I find the Turntable Basics very easy to use, but I agree with you on the difficulty of sighting down those lines toward the pivot, and on the drastic effect of a small error in sighting the pivot.

Thom, my SME V situation with the Feickert is a moot point as i will be receiving a Phantom shortly i hope (after a 6 months wait or so). I will be selling my Feickert and will likely order a MintLp. For discussion purposes here, if you had to mount and adjust an SME V to the highest level of accuracy, what type of "jig" would you use?
P.S. Cart is Dynavector XV1`s
All the best....

This discussion has turned out to be a very productive one.

Again ,thank you everyone.
Thom, welcome, your views are always of interest.

For those familiar with the Phantom B-44

Graham's alignment spindle adapter method and cartridge alignment jig both adjustments can be made secured in detentes in the tonearm headshell.

Puttering around with it, with my new Dynavector cartridge in it I found with a bit of dexterity and coordination that I could align the cantilever and stylus with the Baerwald position, dead nuts as Swampwalker puts it...I have not heard that line in years.

However,the engraved target lines on the cartridge alignment jig run parallel with the cantilever with a period mark to the right indicating where the stylus should end.
Thinking about it , if there were a tiny dimple where the stylus tip it self could rest into, another detente except on a minisquel level, I think this would be an improvement on an already well designed jig.

What I,m getting at, unless you know somehow , the jig and cartridge is square to your line of sight while viewing through a magnifying glass, there is room for error...Do Zeiss make magnifying glasses?

All I want to try to do is get the best performance out of my new table arm and cartridge.

I have ordered a Best Tractor from MintLp and should have it by the end of the week.

So , I have the Feikert, Graham's factory jigs and the Mint Lp tractor.
I'll let you know...

This is an excellent thread.
It is a good chance to exchange advice, experiences and views.

I have been using the Feickert, and I find it easily accurate to 1/10th of a millimeter, and able to do things that none of the others can...to explain..

I needed the Feickert on a table\arm combo that called for 210mm pivot to spindle distance. The problem was that this particular cartridge had a short stylus to mounting hole distance.. so you could not slide it far enough out in the slots for the proper overhang. (Pivot to spindle distance can be changed of course, but you have to compensate everywhere else.)

I went to 106.5mm to get a nice fit on this combo.
If I had tried to use an arc protractor made for 210mm pivot to spindle distance, I would have been out of luck - no good at all. Instead I set up the Feickert for exactly 106.5 mm.

Until I used this protractor, I did not realize just how accurate the Feickert is. Read this paragraph completely and then CLICK HERE to see a composite picture showing the Feickert accuracy. You will see that you can get a perfect setup for any combination of arm and table, with this one being setup for 222.8 mm. (make sure to view the pic full size to see it clearly)

In picture 1 you will see that it is extremely easy to center the rod over your pivot. (& get a measurement that is exact..not just close, but perfect.)
Rulers will not get near this kind of acuracy.

In picture 2 you can see that the measurement markings are crystal clear and easy to read the exact distance..(this one is 222.8mm - if it were 223 you would see half of the next black line)

In picture 3 you can see exactly where the stylus needs to meet the line on the platter for the perfect overhang.

Do you think anyone would order an arc protractor for 222.8? No way... but you just did a perfect setup with the Feickert.

Once you have the Pivot to Spindle distance "nailed" like this perfectly and the platter taped, the Feickert can do wonders.. and you are basically using a platter template that has ALL the arcs on it, not just one..

(I guess you can tell I like this tool.)

Thanks to all our Audiogon members contributing to this thread.

Joe

Hi Smoffatt,

For an SME or a Schroeder (Reference and DPS), I'd use either a conventional, two-point protractor and sweat through the details, or alternatively I'd figure out the effective length for my favorite cartridge and order an arc-style protractor for that combination.

I'd obviously hope to live with that cartridge for quite some time if I committed to this solution.

Frank Schroeder has observed a statistical norm for stylus position centering around the stylus landing 9.25 mm in front of the cartridge mounting bolts (from his tonearm manuals). SME might presume a number slightly different than this to arrive at their specified effective length.

Your XV-1s cartridge comes in at 8 mm (from the engineering drawings on the Dynavector website). From SME's website, the Model V has an effective length (pivot to stylus) of 233.15 mm. We'll hang onto this number as a reality check.

I'd get my ruler out and draw a line connecting the two cartridge mounting bolts and then measure 8 mm forward of this line to see where the XV-1s stylus lands. I'd then measure the straight-line distance from the center of the bearing pivot to this stylus position I drew. This is your effective length. Perform a reality check against the 233.15 mm specification. You shouldn't be too far off from this, and likely a mm or two shorter than 233.15 mm.

Now, here's where it takes commitment (as in dollars). You're faced with ordering a protractor for this effective length. Assuming you got it right, you now have a protractor for one tonearm and one model in Dynavector's cartridge line (double ouch).

There's one other challenge with the SME V. Not only can't you change the effective length (it has mounting holes, not slots), but you can't vary the offset angle by much - only by whatever play there is in the headshell holes. Some people (another thread) have reported that they've opened up the holes in their headshell slightly - to permit some offset angle adjustment.

If it were me, I'd probably keep with the two-point affair and sweat through the process - assuming I didn't have access to a drawing tool which allowed me to try a variety of effective lengths for the cost of a few pieces of card-stock paper.

The thought of being wrong in my measurements (described above) would likely freeze me in my tracks - ordering without feeling comfortable that I measured the effective length with enough precision.

Thanks for the comments, Stiltskin. I find these conversations to be productive for all concerned. Every time I try to describe something, I think about it slightly differently and learn something. If I only had more time for this.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier