R
rpglogic
Guest
An old friend from my school days lives in Japan and works as a translator, and was able to get in touch with somebody over there, and that was the info he was given. I tried contacting one of their Japanese vendors, but their English was horrible, and my Japanese is, well, none, so trying to find out what was going on was confusing, to say the least.
MP200's used to go for $500-$600 IF you were lucky enough to find one on eBay. Now you can buy them for $200 or less. Trust me, the cases and extra head unit don't make a $300-$400 difference. They're plastic.
My guess is that your vendor either doesn't know, or doesn't want you to know, that there is new production. From the sounds of it they may have someone new doing the manufacturing. The older needles I have would probably break before they'd bend. (Also, AndreZA, quit bumping stuff. Lol.) They are ridiculously hard, and definitely work best after they're polished
The only Olympos needle I've bent was on my HP100-B, and it was because I dropped it. I replaced the nozzle and needle with Iwata HP-B parts, but it wasn't quite the same. Eventually, on a tip, I tried Grex parts, and it's pretty damn close. The Grex parts are softer, but apparently quite a few details for their XN were borrowed from the HP100-B.
where did you buy the older neddle from?