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Anyone have a wood headshell?

M

mykenytemare

Active Member
Saw a wood headshell on that auction site and wanted to know if anyone had one or had opinions on them.

Need to get a new headshell and cartridge, and need to decide if I should get one of those cheap $10 headshells of of ebay or something better.
 
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i don't know of anybody who on this site who has one, but i have seen an entire tonearm (home)made out of wood! It looked very nice. IMO, wood seems to be a poor choice in tonearm/headshell production because it can swell and shrink with a change in weather, more so than metal.
 
I use a yamamoto cherry wood headshell on my SME3012. I received it as a present from my SO. I've had it on for a while and haven't thought a great deal about it recently. I don't think that it made a huge difference but the small things add up and I think that the change albeit small was welcome...subtly better tonality/better detail.

How a $10 wooden headshell would compare...I don't know.

I've thought about trying an orsonic and if I see one at a decent price before someone else snatches it up, I'll probably give that a whirl.

I've heard the Grace 714 (wooden tonearm) and it's a very nice tonearm. I'd like to have one. I haven't heard the Scheu Tacco but some people really rave about it. And then there are the Schroeder tonearms - wooden wands - and you better be prepared to wait a couple of years in line to get one of those. Teres Audio recommends these tonearms as tops. One just sold on audiogon for $2K and it went pretty quickly. So wood can do a wonderful job as a tonearm.
 
I'm sure we are all talking about the yamamoto wooden shells. I contacted the seller a while back to see if he had any in teak or rosewood stain that wood (LOL) match my JVC plinth. At the time he did not. I did not get a weight, but the seller - Juki - was very courteous and wanted info about what we use for vintage TT's. He mentioned that they were popular in Japan. There are some serious LP guys over there, so I'd think they are a good piece. I was just not going to spring his price w/o a close match. He has three or four woods available including ebony (which I know will not be lite?). He/Yamamoto also use brass for fittings as it's non-magnetic, but it's not that lite?
 
Just looked it up as I didn't remember but the yamamoto ebony and cherry headshells are both about the same weight - a little more than 10 grams. There's also one listed made from English Boxwood that's pretty yellowish wood...about 8 gms.

I've done business with Juki before. He seems to be a good dealer with some nice products.
 
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