Mint LP a no go – now what?

It is impossible to align the cartridge without a mirrored protractor. The reason is that, without being able to align the line with its mirror image you cannot know if you are looking vertically down on the cantilever as opposed to one or other side of it. If you are looking slightly to the side the cartridge could be perfectly aligned but will look out or vice versa.

Holly cow! A thread resurrected after two years! Does the OP even care at this point? If he/she does, I have a Classic and used both the Mint and the VPI jig to set up the cartridge and honestly would not worry too much about not being able to have a Mint for the set-up. The Mint is designed to decrease the distortion between the null points (across the record) while the VPI jig to decease it in the last 1/3 of the record, according to Mike at VPI. I indeed verified it with a few records and currently have the VPI jig set-up and enjoy the sound tremendously. I don't think it's something worth losing sleep over.

I just re-read this and you know the odd thing, is that for each turntable I have owned, I bought a MintLP (or once a Wally Tractor, which came after MONTHS and MONTHS of waiting) and they are great to set up any specific tonearm. But with the Classic, when I got the MintLP tractor, I was shocked, that it was DEAD ON already. I didn't loosen the screws thank God. I wanted check where we were to start, so I put the cartridge on the null points to start and man, how lucky was that?!

It's very interesting, Mac. I had mine set up with the Mint and was happy with it, but when I got one of Diana Krall's albums, I was getting distortion on the last two songs on one side. I then decided to try the VPI jig to see whether it would make any difference. I actually did notice less distortion even though it had obviously more to do with the recording than the cart set-up since it was only on one side. To the point, the zenith (I think it's the right term) was spot on, but the overhang differed by about half a millimeter from the set-up with the Mint.

I've had some time to try out different tools and to my ears, VIP jig for the 10.5i arm sounds quite good. But it is bettered by Dertonarm's Uni-Pro using his template for the 10.5i arm. I did not like Baerwald at all which is what my Mint is based on.