Record needle pinout

[Gregory]

I have a new Record player needle. I realise there are 4 pins they come from 2 coils within the needle 2 of the pins are negative and the other 2 are positive how can I tell which one is which.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Generally, top two positive and bottom two negative, one pair each side.

ps. It's a "Pickup cartridge", not a needle. Needles went out with 78 records.

The part that tracks the record groove is a stylus, which is normally a separate part that detaches from the cartridge so you can replace it when it wears out.

Various styles, for some examples:
Basic piezo cartridges often have a reversible stylus that can be set for LP or 78 tip by flipping the lever. The lever unclips from under the spring to remove / replace the stylus. The one in this photo has the shipping cover on it, hiding the stylus tip.

Higher quality types generally have a "plug in" unit with the stylus that separates from the cartridge body, eg.

edit - typo - String in place of Spring.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Basic piezo cartridges often have a reversible stylus that can be set for LP or 78 tip by flipping the lever. The lever unclips from under the string to remove / replace the stylus. The one in this photo has the shipping cover on it, hiding the stylus tip.

Just to explain further, the original 78 records had much bigger grooves, as did the very early LP's - then the technology improved enough to create 'micro-grooves' which were much smaller, and LP's and 45's then used micro-grooves instead (allowing longer playing times). So you needed a different sized stylus to play 78's and the later micro-groove records.

With the magnetic cartridges, as shown above, to play 78's you were supposed to fit an entirely new stylus, specially sized for 78 grooves.