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Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:56 pm
by dubstepper
any1 know if putting a penny on top of ya needle really fuck the grooves on vinyl? Coz i got another new pair and for some reason i have to put a penny on top
to stop few tunes skipping. They play fine with the old needle tho, so i'm a little confused??
Tunes in question are mala return to space and unexpected. It only skips a touch every bout 10secs. I know the vinyl are fine coz my old battered needle plays both fine.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:33 pm
by Hibbie
Putting any sort of extra weight on the headshell is going to wear away the grooves of the vinyl even more and reduce the performance life of the stylus. Which cartridge and stylus are you using? Cheaper cartridge and stylus do tend to skip more, it could by a variety of reasons though.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:38 pm
by dubstepper
Hibbie wrote:Putting any sort of extra weight on the headshell is going to wear away the grooves of the vinyl even more and reduce the performance life of the stylus. Which cartridge and stylus are you using? Cheaper cartridge and stylus do tend to skip more, it could by a variety of reasons though.
I'm using stanton D500 AL MK 11 Stylus and the standard stanton 500 - 11 Cart. So far seems like only the mala bits are jumping
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:40 pm
by wooda916
dubstepper wrote:Hibbie wrote:Putting any sort of extra weight on the headshell is going to wear away the grooves of the vinyl even more and reduce the performance life of the stylus. Which cartridge and stylus are you using? Cheaper cartridge and stylus do tend to skip more, it could by a variety of reasons though.
I'm using stanton D500 AL MK 11 Stylus and the standard stanton 500 - 11 Cart. So far seems like only the mala bits are jumping
try reducing the weight so that its really light rather than increasing so its super heavy, see if it works.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:42 pm
by Amazing A
a coin on the headshell is just an old trick to add extra weight, in order to be able to "hot swap" between different pickups without having to reset the weight adjustment again. you should still follow the recommended tracking weight for it, lots of pickups even tend to skip more when set to heavy.
edit:
also, check so that the angle of your cartridge is set correct, if it's a bit off you tend to get more skipping.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:44 pm
by dubstepper
wooda916 wrote:dubstepper wrote:Hibbie wrote:Putting any sort of extra weight on the headshell is going to wear away the grooves of the vinyl even more and reduce the performance life of the stylus. Which cartridge and stylus are you using? Cheaper cartridge and stylus do tend to skip more, it could by a variety of reasons though.
I'm using stanton D500 AL MK 11 Stylus and the standard stanton 500 - 11 Cart. So far seems like only the mala bits are jumping
try reducing the weight so that its really light rather than increasing so its super heavy, see if it works.
done that allready mate, it just jumps like crazy and hardly touches the vinyl. I just wish i knew why it was on those 2 tunes.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:47 pm
by EBR
Go ahead and do it if you need to. Over the years sometimes you need the coin on there and sometimes you don't.
It won't hurt the vinyl unless you put half a kilo on there or something.

Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:54 pm
by wooda916
EBR wrote:Go ahead and do it if you need to. Over the years sometimes you need the coin on there and sometimes you don't.
It won't hurt the vinyl unless you put half a kilo on there or something.

it will wear away the vinyl over time though, even setting the normal weight on high will add extra wear to the records. I guess it depends how much you play them and how bothered you are about keeping them mint.
Such a bastard when you get this problem so i feel for you man. You've got the anti skate set to 0 yea? Only other things are the angle of the stylus and the tonearm height.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:55 pm
by Hibbie
As it has been suggested it would be a good idea to try adjusting your anti skate.
Is it skipping on both turn tables? if it the skipping is only from one turn table then the arm could be slightly bent.
Top be honest the best advice is to save up some money and purchase these:
Sure M44g
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... Track=M44G
or
Sure M447
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... ack=HWM447
I've been using the M44g's for a while now and I have never had any record skip, and I have very little weight.
I do think that the tone arm is quite important too, if you have fairly cheap turntables then the tone arm is not going to be of great quality.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:56 pm
by clifford_-
the radio station i play on has 5ps glued to the needles! weve just gone digital in a shameless bit of promo....
http://www.pressure967fm.moonfruit.com
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:06 pm
by dubstepper
Hibbie wrote:As it has been suggested it would be a good idea to try adjusting your anti skate.
Is it skipping on both turn tables? if it the skipping is only from one turn table then the arm could be slightly bent.
Top be honest the best advice is to save up some money and purchase these:
Sure M44g
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... Track=M44G
or
Sure M447
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... ack=HWM447
I've been using the M44g's for a while now and I have never had any record skip, and I have very little weight.
I do think that the tone arm is quite important too, if you have fairly cheap turntables then the tone arm is not going to be of great quality.
It's skipping on both and now it's only unexpected that jumps like a bastard unless i put a coin on top.
I know this is probly a silly question but will the sound quality coming ffrom the vinyl degrade that much from placing a coin on top of the stylus?
I have the anti skate at 0. yeh deff gonna sort myself out a betteer pair off needles soon.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:16 pm
by jolly wailer
well if its a record that has a skip
and couldn't be played otherwise
does it really matter if a coin even did "degrade" the grooves (the slightest bit that little extra weight would even degrade it would be negligible) ???
or wouldn't you rather hear the tune play?
idk my take is that they are meant to be battered, take good care of them, but rinse the fuck out of them as well
a coin won't do shit to good heavy vinyl
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:27 pm
by bidwell
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:35 pm
by Hibbie
dubstepper wrote:Hibbie wrote:As it has been suggested it would be a good idea to try adjusting your anti skate.
Is it skipping on both turn tables? if it the skipping is only from one turn table then the arm could be slightly bent.
Top be honest the best advice is to save up some money and purchase these:
Sure M44g
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... Track=M44G
or
Sure M447
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/se ... ack=HWM447
I've been using the M44g's for a while now and I have never had any record skip, and I have very little weight.
I do think that the tone arm is quite important too, if you have fairly cheap turntables then the tone arm is not going to be of great quality.
It's skipping on both and now it's only unexpected that jumps like a bastard unless i put a coin on top.
I know this is probly a silly question but will the sound quality coming ffrom the vinyl degrade that much from placing a coin on top of the stylus?
I have the anti skate at 0. yeh deff gonna sort myself out a betteer pair off needles soon.
It's not going to wear away after a few plays when using the extra weight, but if you had extra weight on your headshells and kept it this way for a long period of time then it will eventually reduce the sound quality. vinyl does last a long time it's not as soft as you think, but the extra weight will still degrade the sound quality of the vinyl but I'm talking about a lot of plays and use
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:41 pm
by Stigmatism
I starting buyying vinyl anout 6 months ago now. I didn't have the funds to lush out on any technics or something of similar quality so I went and bought this guy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soundlab-Profes ... roduct_top
Despite being a tad flimsy to be fait to it, it has never skipped! The only thing is it didn't say anywhere what weight I should have on the tone arm, anyway I looked up what I could and sort of went for 3 grams, I can't specifically remember what I read that convinced me this was the right weight. I know having it too light incurs damage but is this weight particuly high? Will it cause damage to my records? And would it be a good idea to buy something better (probably more expensive i'm guessing)?
Also that coin sounds dodgey to me I would be shit scared of dropping that coin and leaving an unsightly scratch! Not that I know anything about this matter...
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:58 pm
by noam
Stigmatism wrote:I starting buyying vinyl anout 6 months ago now. I didn't have the funds to lush out on any technics or something of similar quality so I went and bought this guy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soundlab-Profes ... roduct_top
Despite being a tad flimsy to be fait to it, it has never skipped! The only thing is it didn't say anywhere what weight I should have on the tone arm, anyway I looked up what I could and sort of went for 3 grams, I can't specifically remember what I read that convinced me this was the right weight. I know having it too light incurs damage but is this weight particuly high? Will it cause damage to my records? And would it be a good idea to buy something better (probably more expensive i'm guessing)?
Also that coin sounds dodgey to me I would be shit scared of dropping that coin and leaving an unsightly scratch! Not that I know anything about this matter...
wow belt drives, i kinda feel good about my stanton str8 60's now!! if u can mix on them you can mix on anything
im gona rebuild my stantons, so that as and when i get technics i can just upgrade all the parts anyway
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:02 pm
by daddy mchectic
If you're on 1200s/1210s, take the weight off and put it back on all the wrong way around.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:12 pm
by borrowed
Wouldn't have this problem with digital, you old fogies.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:34 pm
by Skriptah
Hey guys, I know this is a little off topic but, does anyone know the difference between Output voltage at 1000 Hz, 5cm/sec., like 5 mV vs 6mV. Because im trying to see if it would be just as good to get ortofon pro s or dj s.
Re: Is it ok to put a coin on top of needle?
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:37 pm
by wolf89
borrowed wrote:Wouldn't have this problem with digital, you old fogies.
Because I like spending money on things that don't physically exist. Feels so worth it.