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Fitting a replacement stylus (needle) Shure Cartridges
It seems as if Shure made hundreds of different cartridges and when the consumer attempts to purchase a replacement stylus, more often than not they are told that it is no longer available. Let's say that five folks go out one Saturday in 1976 to buy a new cartridge. One goes to Radio Shack and gets a Shure RS8T, another goes to Macys and buys a Shure M101ED. The next guy happens to be at Sears and picks up a Shure 9758ED on a blister card while right down the street at Olson's they are selling our customer a Shure AM92ED. Our final shopper is in the independent stereo shop on the corner where he selects the Shure M75-ED Type II. They all go home with exactly the same thing. Yes, the numbers are different; so are the packages and, perhaps, even the colors but the base cartridges and, more importantly, the styli are identical. This was a common practice designed to compel the consumer to buy replacement styli from the same retailer they purchased the cartridge from. So, we jump ahead to current times and our five folks want to play records again. Well, certainly a new stylus is in order. Olson's and the shop on the corner are long out of business. Sears and Macys haven't handled any phono items for ten years or more. Radio Shack actually has the stylus (sort of) but the 20 year old kid, hip-hopping around the store selling cell phones wasn't even born when the Shack sold RS8T's and has no idea, nor does he care, that their catalog number 42-2870 is what you need. A call to Shure with any number other than M75-ED will just evoke a long silence on the other end of the phone. A knowledgable seller will know how to cross reference your mystery cartridge to a stock Shure type. Don't give up if you can't get an answer from the first person you ask. The vintage Shure cartridges are some of the best ever made and deserving of a little effort to preserve. ...read the full guide with pics here