How to add weight to your record player needle in the right manner

How to add weight to your record player needle in the right manner

As someone who has a real interest in vinyl, I am always looking around online at various vinyl articles, forums, and what have you. Well, I came across a post on Reddit recently that was very interesting as it was about a guy who was not having much luck with a new turntable and he asked if he could stick something to the arm to make it heavier.

Some people were quite rude to this fellow vinyl fan and I thought it was pretty harsh. To be honest, I think if you were to put a little bit of tac on the arm, it very well could give it that little extra bit of weight to prevent skipping.

For me, the best prevention against skipping is making sure your tonearm is balanced properly in the first place and today we are taking a look at how you can make sure your tonearm is balanced properly.

Why Does The Weight Matter?

You may think this is vinyl enthusiasts being “picky” over the sound quality, but that is not the case at all. If a tonearm does not have enough weight it can actually do more damage than if it has too much weight. If the weight is too light, the arm can skip and the stylus can scratch and damage the record, too much weight will stop this from happening.

Some people will tell you that too much weight will wear down your record, but the truth is, too little weight is far more damaging!

What Is The Right Weight?

Most record players no matter if they are cheap like this retro record player or if they are more expensive like this Fluance RT85 Reference High Fidelity Vinyl Turntable will have an ideal weight that they should be set at. Let’s say that the recommended weight is said to be 1.6g to 2.0g and I would say that you want to be at around 1.8g, however, anywhere in that range should be ok.

Can You Use A Nickel?

One thing that I have read on more than one occasion is people saying that they stuck a nickel or some other kind of lightweight type of thing to their tonearm to give it that little bit extra weight. From what I have read, this has worked more often than not for some people, but I for one would be worried about how this could affect the records and the stylus as well. Some say that it is fine, but I am not sure I would be willing to try it with my own records that is for sure!

Using The Dial

The easiest way to add weight to your record player to make sure that it is connecting with the record properly is with what the record player offers you. Some are set at a particular weight and while they will have a weight to get it to whatever it needs to be, let’s just say 5g for example, they do not offer you a way to tinker with it. Some other record players do actually have a dial or a counterweight you physically move along that will let you adjust the weight. If you have this, it is just a case of playing around with it until you get it just the way you want and the records stop skipping.

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