Tone-Arm Height?

[Otacon]

Hello, i've recently switched to a S4 DVS setup for my room to practice scratching, and i had everything going great. I was watching some DJ Angelo videos and he was talking about how he puts his tone-arm on 0 with the weight all the way down. I decided id set my tables up like that and man, bad idea. Now i keep having BPM dips and sometimes the BPM will even just be a couple off. (not bad but noticeable) But i was wondering do you guys have any tips for tone-arm height? Help appreciated

[Cook]

I have my tonearm set to 0, and my anti skate to 3, never had any problems that i know of (i beatmach by ear )

[mostapha]

The tonearm should be level when it's playing a record.

[durtyjerzy609]

tone arm height and cart weighting are directly relative to your style, heavy handed and glitchy scratchers will benefit from a higher than level tone arm and more weight, where as sumone that smooth like buttah wont need it.. always check your cart specs for weight ... me personally on my pdx (which dont have a numbered height adjuster... i use a sharpie marker as a go-no go gauge..so about 3 mm higher than level... and with the weight reversed...5 grams... no record burn no skips no hops and the cart still hovers a few mm above the control vinyl... monkey around with your set up till you get perfect sound n tracking based on your platter style

[Otacon]

Well im using a second hand pair of 1210 MKII's with Shure M-447's and when i had the height to 0, anti-skate on 0 and the weight as heavy on the needle as possible is when things get freaky. Ill be playing a song around 128 bpm and every 5-10 secs it will dip to 123-ish then come up. Its mostly on one side now, i got one of them back to semi normal (only dips around 1-2 bpm) And when i play vinyl thats not TC it will play then kinda get stuck and play the same 15 second loop. Super weird Im still an infant when it comes to vinyl but im working on it blast me with your wisdom

[durtyjerzy609]

check your headshell alighnment and that you decks are level.... then try raising the tone arm to 2 and back the weight off... see if this sorts it for... and if you decks are second hand, you might wanna check the gimble screws (they hold the tone arm in the gimble) to do this just see if the tone arm move in the gimble by holding it static and the GENTLY try to wiggle the arm left n right in and out... tighten if need be... if your bpms are dipping.... play a track at perfect 0 pitch on 33 and watch the timing lights (that what the red light on the on/off is for) if the dots slow down n speed up... you may have a faulty pitch control.. or they may need calibrating.

[Otacon]

thanks a ton guys, im gonna try these fixes out when i get home and letcha know.

[djlotus]

For the weight on my tonearms, using M44-7s, I go with balanced +1.5 grams.

[Otacon]

When i got home yesterday I put the height to 2 and put the weight almost all the way down and everything was working fine, thanks for all the advice

[Cybertrash]

That sounds like a great way to ruin your records...