Have a look at KAB’s website here
http://www.kabusa.com/ . He shows which styli will fit which models of the Pickering and Stanton range – go to the Pickering replacement stylus page, and then go to the Cross Reference button at the top right hand corner of the web page. According to the KAB site, all the V15 styli will fit that body, so go for one with an elliptical stylus and a fairly low maximum tracking – 2g or less, if possible. While I don’t know much about the V15 series, I do know that it’s different to the XV-15 series, which were a later series (late-60’s), and the styli aren’t interchangeable. I think the V15 series originally came out in the early-mid 60’s.
According to my Stanfield replacement stylus catalogue, the V15/ACE3 had an elliptical stylus tracking at 3-7g, so it’s probably better to get a stylus that fits one of the other V15 models if it’s for a hi-fi turntable – some of them tracked at 0.75-1.5g, while others tracked at 0.75-3g, so they’d probably be OK at 2g. Here is the list of V15 stylus models in the catalogue, with the stylus model names, followed by the cartridge model names, conical (C) or elliptical (E) stylus shape, and then the tracking forces. I've highlighted the best ones with a *.
DAC2 V15AC2 C 3-7.0g
DAM2 V15AM2 C 0.75-3.0g
DAME2 V15AME2 E 0.75-1.5g *
DAT2 V15AT2 C 2-5.0g
DATE2 V15ARE2 E 2-5.0g
DAC3 V15AC3 C 3-7.0g
DACE3 V15ACE3 E 3-7.0g
DAM3 V15AM3 C 0.75-1.5g
DAME3 V15AME3 E 0.75-1.5g *
DAT3 V15AT3 C 2-5.0g
DATE3 V15ATE3 E 2-5.0g
The brushes aren’t mandatory – they can be taken off, if you don’t wish to use them. When they are in use, an extra 1 gram of tracking weight and anti-skating needs to be added to the weight that is applicable for the needle when the brush isn’t used. So if your needle comes with a brush, and the correct tracking weight without the brush is 1.5g, then 2.5g would be used with the brush – the needle will still have only 1.5g on it, and the other 1g is counter-acting the upward push of the brush.
Many of the Pickering and Stanton range are very similar – Walter Stanton started as an engineer at Pickering, and later ran both companies. They were at the same location, but were still run as separate companies, I believe. That’s why many of their styli can be used on either Pickering or Stanton cartridges, because they shared info, and their cartridge bodies were often the same, but branded either Pickering or Stanton. It looks as though the styli from the Stanton 500 series will fit your cartridge, so the stylus from a Stanton 500EE would probably also be a good choice, or from one of the Pickering models with elliptical styli tracking at low weights (eg V15 AME3)
http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LG&Product_Code=PICKSV15AME3 .
tonearms from the 1960's (which are probably very heavy compared to a typical 70's s-shaped arm, such as that fitted to the Technics SL-1200), whereas Pickering upgraded the cartridge in later years to track at lighter weights, to suit more modern tonearms.