Hi, has anyone heard of people putting security tags on the canteliver of a stylus?  And is it normal for an SP10 stylus to have blue paint on the canteliver?

 Thanks in advance,

 Pete.

Not heard of security tags, but certainly the old styluses came colour coded - though I did think that this was just the SP1/2. They had a number of different types including one to use with 78s. I have put my reference manual somewhere so I am afraid I can't tell you what blue is though!!

As Peter suggests, the older SP's were indeed color coded, indicating the size of the rounding of the needle ("groove width") but I never saw a color coded SP10 and I've seen a lot of SP10's. My guess is that someone fitted an older stylus, SP2 most likely, in the SP10 cartridge shell which is possible and very easy.

Martin

Thanks for the replys.  I suppose it is possible that an older stylus has been fitted, but the diamond does look to be in very good shape.  Maybe it's not had much use.  Is it likely to affect the sound having paint on the canteliver?  I wouldn't expect it to if thats what they do from the factory.

 

Pete

I would expect no effect at all.

Pete,

I recently bought a cartridge from an ebay seller who claimed to have put a tag on the cartridge (to prevent "fraudulent return claims").

When pressed on the matter, he said that this was on the back face that mates with the tonearm, in the form of a tiny mark, only visible under a microscope.  This may be the sort of thing you have encountered?

Steve.