CARTRIDGE SERVICING & RETIPPING

Garrott Brothers story…

In the late 70s and 80s the two Garrott Brothers built up a reputation for their phono cartridge retipping service and a cartridge called the P77.  They supplied a high quality “parabolic” diamond stylus and were able to fit it to practically any phono cartridge, including moving coil types.  Len Gregory (The Cartridge Man) was their agent in the U.K.

The brothers both died in 1992 and the business was purchased by Audio Dynamics in Melbourne. They still offer a retipping service but with a range of stylus profiles (round, elliptical, microtracer, microscanner, Fritz Geiger Signature). They also now have an extended range of moving magnet cartridges which have been highly reviewed.

SONIC ART is an agent for the Garrott Lab service.  You will need to post your cartridge to Sonic Art, PO Box 114 Hallam, VIC 3803, AUSTRALIA.  Please use registered post or make sure the cartridge is insured.

Adcom, Air Tight, Audio Technica, Audioquest, B&O, Benz Micro, Clearaudio, Coral, Decca, Denon, Dynavector, Fidelity Research, Goldring, Grace, Grado, Koetsu, Linn, London, Mission, Ortofon, Shelter, Shure, Sumiko, Supex, Van den Hul, Yamaha, Zyx. There doesn't seem to be any brand of cartridge that the Garrott Lab technician can't repair.

Garrott charges an inspection fee of A$100 (incl return post) which can be ordered through our website. Once inspected we will contact you via email to confirm the total price for the retipping and any other service which may be required.

COMMENTS FROM THE GARROTT LAB TECHNICIAN

Many cartridges coming in to our laboratory for repair and upgrade services are in a very poor state of health.  It is false economy to spend valuable listening time using a poorly performing cartridge that may be chewing up your irreplaceable record collection.  Diamond wear, suspension fatigue, hardening or softening of vital compliance control components, can all significantly affect the performance of your cartridge. It is not always easy to identify problems that you have learned to live with, but the causes are obvious to our expert eyes and ears, and can usually be quickly remedied. We will replace a worn diamond or perform a full upgrade with an appropriate selection from our range of advanced stylus profiles; the choice is yours.

There comes a time when total replacement is the obvious answer and we invite music lovers to review the Garrott range of new cartridges as a replacement and upgrade for your present system.                                  

It is also possible to replace the cantilever on some cartridges with either:

Alloy $100.00 | FGS Alloy $120.00 | Solid Boron $250.00 | Solid Sapphire $280.00 | Solid Ruby $300.00

Surcharge for retipping cartridges with: Ruby, Diamond, Sapphire, Beryllium or Boron cantilevers $110.00

Surcharges for certain cartridge brands: Koetsu, Kiseki, Garrott MC, Decca  $300.00

Some cartridges, although not moving coil, have non-removable stylus assemblies (eg Grado Statement series) and are therefore charged the same as moving coil.

Garrott is no longer repairing Benz Micro moving coil cartridges. Garrott are unable to buy parts for Dynavector cartridges but can retip them if they are undamaged.

Often a cartridge is unable to be upgraded, in this instance an $80.00 inspection fee is the only charge unless you want the cartridge returned to you.

Turnaround time for the service is approximately 3 - 6 weeks.