Blackbird on an SME 3009 II

The main question would concern whether the arm was rigid enough but since you already have it why not try it?

Stan,

I have the cart but won't have the table and arm for awhile yet.

Please explain this concern over rigidity. How does rigidity of the arm effect a cart? I know the bearings on these vintage arms are not as rigid as modern bearings. What carts or types of carts are a good fit for them then? Thanks.

MC cartridges generate considerably more vibration when tracking a record due to the coil moving rather than the magnet. More mass is involved and is the reason that the compliance of MCs are generally lower than MMs. That is very generalized and there are exceptions. Think of it this way, the purpose of the arm is to keep the cartridge in the grove, vibrations generated by tracking the grove are transferred to the arm, setting up vibrations in it which are then transferred back to the cartridge and degrade its ability to track the grove. The solution is to either make the arm massive or to make it rigid; either of these will make it less susceptible to the vibrations. If the arm is not rigid it will have serious resonance modes which will be excited by the vibrations of the cartridge. No arm is perfectly rigid but the better ones will be less excited. High mass means that the vibrations will not affect the arm as much as they have more mass to move. This is an extremely complicated subject and this is very simplified but I hope this is some help.