Cleaning tube pins

A friend brought his Bel Canto SET amp over one time. Before playing we removed the tubes and I coated the tube pins with [redacted]. We applied [redacted] before listening to it here. So he had not heard it in my system and had no idea what if any difference it made.

Next day he called me up. When he hooked the amp back up in his system he couldn't believe how much better it sounded. Why? Then he remembered [redacted].

This was just the tube pins. Didn't do terminals, IEC, fuse holder. 

Whatever process Andy of VTS uses - those are the cleanest non-gold-plated NOS tube pins I've ever seen. The dull gold plated pin tubes (e.g. premium 6922) seem to stay a lot cleaner over time. 

I've heard of folks using CLR (carefully), but haven't tried it myself. 

I use cotton ear buds - the things that are plastic sticks with some tightly woven cotton fibre on the ends. Never to be used in ones ears, incidentally.

The IP alcohol I use is more like around 60%.

Cleaning each pin gently and methodically is tedious of course - perhaps at least a few minutes per tube.

This makes no difference to sound of course..  It is just prudent to remove any possible oxidization and any other possible contaminants like dust from an electrical contact that is just held into place (and reduces wear on the socket).

I don’t use any other cleaning solution. You shouldn’t mix your drinks.