Learning how to clean record stylus is probably the most important thing you can do if you’re a big time fan of playing vinyl discs. I’m a huge, old school vinyl fan and even I didn’t think about cleaning my stylus. Thinking back on it, I’ll bet I’ve spent a bundle of money on just replacing this part than thinking about cleaning it. That’s very stupid and quite costly. I can say that I spent a lot of time cleaning my records. I would wipe them down regularly and spent a lot of time learning how to do that correctly.
What I didn’t do is worry about the stylus unless it was obvious there was a problem. You’ll know you’ve got a problem when you are listening to a record and you are hearing a lot of pops and skips. Sometimes it is a problem with the actual record. I have had more than a few records that looked fine on casual inspection, but quickly revealed serious damage on closer inspection. You aren’t going to get a good sound out of a damaged record no matter how good your stylus is. Still, I never thought much about cleaning the stylus.
It was a guy at the record store that clued me on how important it is to keep up on the stylus. He actually had a sign at the counter that said clean your stylus! He actually suggested I go to a website that tells you everything you need to know about keeping it clean. I couldn’t believe that you can use a magic eraser by Mr. Clean to keep it in top shape, but I tried it and couldn’t believe how much better my records sound. Before you replace the stylus, make sure it is clean! You’ll save a bundle of money.
