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Stylus Cleaning Rituals

Did a search on the subject, nothing found.
So, please, briefly describe your Stylist / Needle Cleaning Rituals.
How often (in hours played?)
Procedure used.
Products used.

For me over the years (~45 and counting) I use Disc Doctor Stylus Cleaner on a Disc Doctor 'Pad' and pull it across the diamond outward (only one direction).  As it 'sees' the record when playing. 
I follow up with two 'placements' on a Zerodust Onzow 'gel type convex pad'  I clean it ~6 months with hot water, there is spots of gunk on the clear gel pad!
About once every 5-6 hours of play.

Seems to be doing the trick, but you never know if your are missing something critical or doing untold damage.

Thanks!
quincy
roadtripboy
8 posts
 

I use 3 different approaches:

1. anti-static stylus brush. I use this most frequently and is good to remove a gob of glop that is interfering with playback

After every 7 records or so:

2. Sandpaper: not real sandpaper, but emory paper designed for cleaning stylii;

3. Silly putty. I pull off a small hunk and gently press it up to the stylus 2-3 times. Being careful to just blot the stylus with it; don’t get it on the cantilever. Gets the glop off.

 

I do either the silly putty or the sandpaper every 7 records or so, not both

scm
298 posts
 

I use a thin sliver of Magic Eraser and just barely touch the stylus before each side.

15 years on and no problems.  The stylus is spotless . I also US clean all albums I play and brush each side off  before playing

I sent a cartridge in to one of the rebuilders to have a look at it after a couple years of using it because I had bought it used and had untold hours on it. So figured it was time.

He said the stylus didn`t need replacing at all and that it looked very good.

Really appreciated his honesty.  

gakerty's avatar
gakerty
175 posts
 

In addition to a standard stylus brush, I use a DS Audio ST-50 gel pad after every few sides, then every few days carefully with Lyra Stylus treatment, stylus only. No cantilever painting! I like the ST-50 cause it’s shallow and flat, and can just lower the cue lever and dip the stylus in the ST-50 while it’s on the platter. The cantilever never touches the gel, so all that fuss the Fremer (bogusly) started with his Onzow article doesn’t apply here.

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