hmm could be easy could be complex, but say 1.5-2gr. It's a matter of mass of the arm and compliance of cart, it's been sort of a fashion change over the decades. Used to be like 3gr in the 50s, then went to stupid light carts in the 60s-70s 1gr tops, been medium since the 80s so above should be good. Too light is bad, even if it's tracking ok, causes as much record damage as too light, so the bottom of the range might not be best. You should check the cart's specs online, it'll give the tracking weight and best arm compatibility - low, medium, high mass. But odds are you are med/med.
Styluses don't just wear out but also the cantilever has rubber suspension that rot with time. they don't last for decades even if little used. Some good cheap carts out there actually. I'm partial to the Audio-Technica for mass market (and up actually) and this has some grunt for rockers, does nice Fender bass. If your records are beat up it'll bring out noise unfortunately. The whole A-T line is good, good enough. Output is important - if you have old stuff check the miliivolts you need for your pre-amp or whatever. Most likely you need a Moving Magnet with 2-5mV. But it's important to know this before you buy.
http://www.needledoctor.com/Audio-Techn ... tegory=363
btw if your cart pops on rather than with little screws it's a p-mount.
The anti skate is important, you do by ear, get a well recorded LP with strong balanced stereo image and try and center the vocal. VTA if you have it set to level, then lower the arm and listen for brightness. A micro move will do don't go nuts. Sometimes it's back high but that's rare IME.
bet there's some sort of template you can print out to put over the spindle to help you align the cart in the headshell if it's not a p-mount.
Anybody know about turntables?
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