How do you clean your phono stylus?

[wmcpherson99]

After playing a number of 78's my phono stylus is normally covered in gunk. I clean my records before playing them but I still have this problem. Right now I use a Q-tip with a little contact cleaner on it. I sure there's better way to clean the phono stylus.

[Lah Ca]

I have a couple of old Cecil Watts stylus cleaners that I use with great care. I dampen them with Discwasher fluid (I happen to have a couple of bottles kicking around). They are not the safest devices to use because they have a hard plastic core and their plush is quite short, but they are effective at loosening up pilled up balls of gunge from a stylus.

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If I can’t remove a headshell or a cartridge sled or the stylus itself to work in good light, I never use the Watts cleaner—too dangerous especially with modern highly compliant cantilevers. It was OK with my old Stantons which were back-queue capable tough.

I monitor the cleaning with a 30x power jeweller's loupe.

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I do the fine residual work with a dry Project carbon fibre brush. There are innumerable near-identical brushes available from name and no-name companies—so the Project name here is not all that important. This brush is quite safe as the bristles are fairly long and quite fine if a bit stiff.

I also use the Project brush for periodic light cleaning with the cartridge/stylus in place in the tone arm.

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(BTW, don't wet clean or be ultra careful wet cleaning the styli on moving coil cartrides--the cantilevers can wick fluid up into the coils and the fluid can cause shorts. I learned this the hard way -- RIP Supex 901E Super-- )

[Lah Ca]

One more thing, if you are keeping your records in old original foxing and slowly-self-disintegrating sleeves, your records will always be contaminated with paper dust.

Also if you are using lubricants on your records (oils, waxes, which are often helpful with acoustic machines), these will cause problems on light tracking electrical machines. Eventually the gunge will form a ball around your stylus. Then sound will get very fuzzy and the arm won’t be able to track the record properly. It might skip or wander around on the record.

On acoustic machines, lubricants are not a problem because the tracking forces are so much higher (the needle is sort of self cleaning) and because generally you don’t (or shouldn’t) use a steel needle multiple times.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Honestly I keep it very simple by using those tiny mini brushes that are often given together with the cartridges, wetted with a drop of ethanol, which will dissolve the dirt around the diamond tip nearly instantly.

[Lah Ca]

Honestly I keep it very simple by using those tiny mini brushes that are often given together with the cartridges, wetted with a drop of ethilene, which will dissolve the dirt around the diamond tip nearly instantly.

Interesting. I do not remember my chemistry all that well but I sort of dimly remember that ethlene is a hydrocarbon gas and not a liquid, but then there are the three states, solid, liquid, and gas.

I have generally avoided the nail-polish-sized brush-and-bottles of stylus cleaning solutions (solvents of some sort or other I would assume) mostly because they are small and expensive but also because what I am using works for me.

And the jeweller's loupe allows me to monitor the condition of the stylus.

[Marco Gilardetti]

No it's ethanol, sorry.

[CarlosV]

No it's ethanol, sorry.

That's what I use as well since decades. I apply with a little nylon brush that used to come with the cartridges. Years ago I inspected a couple of them with a microscope after cleaning, and confirmed that it is a very simple and effective method. Once I bought a little box with a white foamy material that claimed to clean when you dip the stylus in it - it did not work well and I went back to the alcohol and brush.

[AudioFeline]

I use the Discwasher stylus brush, I don't think they make them any more. It's like a larger version of the ProJect carbon-fibre brush shown above (it's similar to brushes made by other companies, they all should be OK).

To use, gently lower the stylus on the brush (bristles pointing upwards) and move the brush away from the tonearm pivot (this is the direction the record revolves, never move the brush back/forward or sideways). Discwasher sold fluid with the brush (a drop or two was used) but I think a drop of distilled water is all you need.

There are lots of other brushes and gels for cleaning styli. I've never had any reason to use anything other than the one I've described.