Technical vinyl-related question

[Zionist]

Been listening to reggae for many years and most of my reggae collection consists of CDs... at length, I finally bit the bullet and bought a turntable (pro-ject debut carbon)...

I balanced the tone-arm, anti-skate, etc. as instructed and the turntable works fine - when playing at 33RPM. The needle tracks and doesn't skip. The problem is that most of the time I try to play a 45 (or a 12"), the needle skips all over the place. On the assumption that I balanced the arm a little too light, I have tried to fine-tune the tone arm but can't seem to get the thing to track at 45RPM.

Any advice appreciated (I've already considered "stick to CDs, you moron")... why would balance be fine at one speed but not another?

[Chaz]

It must be something to do with the anti-skating.

This video, together with some of the comments, may help (I'm not sure where you'd find a blank sided record, but if you have a stylus guard you should be able to follow the instructions without actually having a record on the turntable):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQkbZmU2WM

[Lost Shoe]

Seems more like a VTA problem than Anti-Skating, I guess.
When you drop the needle onto the record:
Is the armtube exactly parallel to the record?
Is the needle in the right angle when looking from the front at the dropped stylus?

A 12" playing at 45 has wider grooves than a LP and bigger amplitudes to follow. That's why tracking is more difficult.

[Dub Thomas]

I would say you should check first if the needle/cartridge is properly installed and if its the right angle to the record and then you can try to increase the antiskating