Revox B790 Tone arm issue

[LRWillard]

Hi all,

I have an issue with my b790 tone arm. When the needle drops down to make contact with the record, the cartridge shifts off to the left as it is dropping. It sometimes will drop too far to the left and will be lifted back up.

I've found that if I prop up one side of the turntable, the needle will drop straight up and down, no swing to the left.

Is there any way to adjust the left-to-right positioning of the vertical drop? Could this just be an adustment issue on the cartridge?

Taking off the metal cover on the tone arm, I did locate the two adjustment screws on the top and back of the cartridge chassis.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks very much!

 

[steerpike2]

I've seen this as a problem associated with the screw that adjusts the stylus height lower-limit.
This is supposed to be set so that with no record present, the stylus cannot touch the rubber mat. The set screw is supposed to push into a V shaped groove in the arm plastic, and centre the arm. But the plastic wears into a U shape, so the arm does not centre properly at set-down.
If this is the cause, a simple cure is set the stylus limit way too low. This has a risk of you putting the stylus on the rubbber mat by accident, so be careful. But it will verify if this problem is what is going wrong.