I bought one on EBay and otherwise in good condition, except the rear extension shaft. The tonearm looks good from the axial bearing assy fwd to the headshell, but the center axis of the rear extension for the counterbalance looks askew. From the top it looks slightly bent to the left. I have tried to bend it back gently to no avail. Is this normal or critical? I have ordered all the instruments to align and adjust this tonearm and new cartridge etc, and plan to do it myself. Any help is appreciated. Peace, joy, beer! Tom
I'm just taking a wild guess here, but I would say anything that relies on perfect balance in both the horizontal and lateral planes in order to operate properly is probably going to be affected by the back half of the balance beam being "askew". Of course, some manufacturers want you to twist the tonearm lead out cable just so to affect the proper anti-skating force; so, what do I know? They're your records.