Pickering V-15/AC
Five grams of cartridge aimed squarely at the record changer - the V-15 variant built for high output and heavier tracking, not for the fussy manual crowd.
Overview
The V-15/AC is the record-changer member of Pickering's V-15 family. That explains almost everything about it. The rest of the V-15 line chased lower tracking forces and higher compliance. The AC was the one Pickering pointed at conventional changers - the machines that demanded "high output and heavier tracking forces," in the company's own words.
The V-15 body checks in at just 5 grams. Pickering marketed the low mass as a deliberate match for low-mass tonearm systems. On a changer the arm is rarely a featherweight precision instrument, so a light cartridge helps. The arm does less work, and more of the tracking job falls to the stylus assembly.
The stylus assembly is where Pickering put its effort. The V-15/AC carries the company's "Floating Stylus" design and the patented replaceable V-Guard stylus assembly. Both were pitched as protection for the record and the diamond alike. The V-Guard is a replaceable, guarded unit, not an exposed cantilever waiting to be snapped off during a clumsy cue. On a changer, where the arm drops rather than glides, that protection counts.
Know where the AC sits in the range before buying one. Pickering fielded four distinct V-15 pickups, each tuned for a specific application. The AC was for changers. The AT was for lighter tracking on automatic turntables. The more compliant AM was for professional-type manual decks. The elliptical-stylus AME was for those chasing the last word in tracking ability. The AC sits at the high-output, heavier-tracking end of that spread. Anyone hunting a V-15 for a manual turntable has the wrong letter suffix.
The V-15 line was advertised heavily through the mid-1960s in the audio press. Pickering's own copy in Audio (June 1965, p.19) laid out the four-way split plainly. It described the V-15AC-1 as the pickup for conventional record changers where high output and heavier tracking forces are required. The company repeated the same division across its campaign that year.
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