13 Comments

Alas, poor stylus! I remember, along with the anti-static cloth my dad gave me to wipe clean the record ('60s to early-'70s), he gave me a little, teeny brush with which to gently sweep away the dust ball that would inevitably gather on the stylus upon the completion of its inevitable rendezvous with the label!

So tempting would it be to USE MY FINGER to rub the ball off the needle! Sometimes I'd be so lazy, I'd use my thumb and fingertip to grab a tiny piece of the dustball to then dislodge it from the stylus! Honestly, Professor Celati, how DID I ever graduate with honors from Vinyl U.?🤷‍♂️😉

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LOL. I hear you. Yes, touching is a no-go, but another no-go is blowing some air and, let’s be honest, we’ve all done that at some point, so who can cast the first stone?

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Touching is a no-go?!! Oh boy.

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It’s not the most exciting thing to touch, so I’m sure you’ll survive.

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It’s not my survival I worry about. I “clean” my stylus by brushing it off with my fingers, poor thing. I appreciate your advice and will now be more careful!

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Gotcha. Sorry, I thought you were being sarcastic! 😅 You can damage your stylus that way (not the mere fact of touching it, in fact, it shouldn’t really touch anything except records and really soft cleaning materials). I’m glad you found it helpful! Any questions you know I’m here 😊

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Thanks for the knowledge share Andres! I look forward to future tips.

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I forgot about blowing the dingy dustball off....oh, I did that, too! I rationalize, now, from decades hence, that I was so anxious to play the next record, I forgot all my vinyl manners!😱Thankfully, I have a forgiving and understanding prof!😁👍

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Love the idea of stylus as translator.

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Thanks! Can’t say I’m not biased :) but yes, it’s a cool analogy

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This! I’ve never even paid attention to the stylus and feel like I should really do something about it! It’s really something on my to-do list. I even struggle to keep it ‘clean’, so very eager to know more! Looking forward to the next post 😊

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Glad to hear! Yes, next up is cleaning and maintenance, so stay tuned!

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