Baby, I Like Your Stylus

December 30, 2008 10:18 PM

Help! Where do I find a replacement needle for my record player?

Actually, to be precise, it's my parents' record player, and I just busted the needle while listening to a stack of old records. Admittedly, I don't listen to records often, and I know nothing about record players.

The record player: a Telefunken TS-860. I'm not sure how old it is...perhaps from the 80s?

Any idea how much these things cost? Any stores you can recommend? Should I just try my luck on Ebay? I'm from Canada; if there are any good places I can order from, by all means let me know.

posted by Lemon of Byzantium to technology (8 comments total)

The best selection I have found is Needle Doctor.

You might also see if can find a local home audio store that has needles/cartridges.

As for price, there's an extremely wide range. From a few bucks to thousands.
posted by nickthetourist at 10:26 PM on December 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

The model of record player doesn't matter as much as the model of the cartridge. See if you can find any identifying marks on the thing that the needle is attached to (separate from the headshell). The mount looks pretty standard bayonet mount, so you have a wide variety of options.
posted by rhizome at 10:35 PM on December 30, 2008

First, check what mount your cartridge uses. After that it's up to you where you order from. In Canada, it's simpler to order from a Canadian distributor such as this.
posted by Neiltupper at 11:04 PM on December 30, 2008

Seattle still has at least a couple of shops specializing in phonograph audio. I'd expect any middling-to-large city would.
posted by hattifattener at 1:47 AM on December 31, 2008

Guitar Center sells needles. I'm not sure if you have one in your town, but they do.
posted by Bageena at 5:52 AM on December 31, 2008

Yeah, nickthetourist has it: Needle Doctor. I called around to a bunch of local audio places last year with this question and got pointed to that site. One of them even said that a lot of local stores say they carry needles, find out what you need and then just order from Needle Doctor themselves.
posted by mediareport at 6:06 AM on December 31, 2008

Also bear in mind its sometimes cheaper to buy a whole new cartridge than a new stylus for an old model, both Amazon and needle doctor have budget cartridges for around $40 that should be a nice upgrade compared to whatever you had before.
posted by Lanark at 12:18 PM on December 31, 2008

RadioShack can order you a stylus if you're so inclined.
posted by CwgrlUp at 4:47 PM on December 31, 2008