Sorry you'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge as I'm a newbie in the world of vinyl (and loving it). But from what I have read is that if the bias is too much / too little it causes the arm to skip (or skate) with some some sections on a record being repeated as the arm is being pulled outwards to the edge of the record. Am I miss-understanding here?
Yeah, it's quite understandable with it being called "anti skate" but as I said, it's a very tiny sideways force to counteract the arms natural tendency to be pulled to the centre of the record. Even if you didn't use it on an arm that is adjustable, you would never get skipping unless something else was wrong. Slight mistracking maybe at certain points, which sounds like high frequency distortion on one channel, but actual groove jumping is extreme and 99 times out of 100 caused by something else. I've set up hundreds of decks back in the heyday of vinyl, and this has always been the case for me.
Andy
Edit: To give you an example, I have a setup with a Shure ME97HE cartridge that tracks best at just under 1.5 grams. If I adjust the anti skate to zero, or at the setting for two grams, it won't jump. It may wear the stylus unevenly and cause some distortion on louder passages, but skating across the record is indicative of something else being wrong.
Edit 2: It doesn't help that almost every article on the internet says that anti skating is to prevent the arm sliding across the record! If the arm does slide across the record I would always check these things first:
1. Check the stylus tip, is it slightly damaged, chipped, is it even there!
2. Is the tracking force set correctly?
3. Is the record damaged?
4. Is the turntable level?
5. Is the deck on a stable surface, free from bouncing floorboards vibrations etc.
6. Are you sure the stylus is okay?!!