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70's-ish? Grado FTE+ Replacement Stylus

vandeven80

vandeven80

New Member
Hey everyone, I'm trying to help my dad get his turntable working again. He has a Grado FTE+ cartridge from probably sometime in the 70's he thinks. My question is whether a new stylus will fit this old model. I've searched through the threads and it seems like the new ones fit the FTE cartridges, but most of the threads I found were about ten years old. I'm curious if the new ones fit and if so, would you recommend getting a replacement stylus or just replacing the entire cartridge? I'm not sure that it's just the stylus that needs replaced. That's kind of the starting point as he doesn't have one on there now. I hate to buy a stylus and then have to replace the cartridge too when it looks like I can just buy the cartridge and stylus together.

I attached a few photos of the cartridge in case that helps. I'm not too familiar with any of this as I just recently got into collecting and listening over the past few years. Any help and advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
 

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Brings back memories since I also had a Grado (I think FCE+) back in the '70s with a AR turntable.
Assuming you have tested the current setup and it plays, it seems like cartridges are mostly the stylus and the body doesn't wear out, so I would keep it original and just get a new stylus from a site like turntableneedles or lpgear.
 
Jalousie said:
Brings back memories since I also had a Grado (I think FCE+) back in the '70s with a AR turntable.
Assuming you have tested the current setup and it plays, it seems like cartridges are mostly the stylus and the body doesn't wear out, so I would keep it original and just get a new stylus from a site like turntableneedles or lpgear.
Click to expand...
We haven't been able to test it as there is no stylus
CrSens said:
The new ones will fit. Also any NOS offers on ebay.
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Thank you both! I'll double check with him that everything else is in working order and then order a stylus. He just sent me some pictures of another cartridge he found, a F-3+, so I'm going to research that too and see if one is better than the other. I appreciate your help.
 
vandeven80 said:
We haven't been able to test it as there is no stylus

Thank you both! I'll double check with him that everything else is in working order and then order a stylus. He just sent me some pictures of another cartridge he found, a F-3+, so I'm going to research that too and see if one is better than the other. I appreciate your help.
Click to expand...
F-3+ is significantly better cartridge, especially if it has its original nude elliptical stylus.
 
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