How to maintain your gear.

[Karol]

What's up?

I've been wondering about the condition of my equipment lately. I have got a qouple of questions I want to ask you.

 

Those who practice everyday or nearly everyday, do you have your needles set up to your tone arms all the time or when you want to practice do you attach the needle to the tone arm and after the session detach it until next training session? I think attaching and removing the needle all to often may fatigue either of these parts.

 

How often do you clean up your turntables?

How often do you replace your old shure M44-7 with a new one?

My cue lever and the arm rest has come loose, they do not hold the tone arm tight any longer.

Is there any solution to this? I tried to screw that thing which the lever lowers and elevates but it didn't help.

[Steve]

I have some cloth turntable covers that completely cover the decks, and I also have one of those plastic mixer covers. It stops my gear getting dusty. The only time I clean my decks is when I occasionally run a duster over them.

 

I don't really see any need to detach the needles or the headshell.

 

I used to replace my N44-7s about every 6 months when I used to practice a lot, although that wasn't because I noticed a deterioration in sound quality or performance. It can be hard to know when to change a needle sometimes I guess.

 

The only other thing I used to do fairly regularly was clean/lube the faders in my mixer.

[DJ Rock Well]

I bought a paintbrush, not for painting, just to occasionally caress the dust from my gear.

 

Does it make me more or less dull if I point out that I got this idea from DJ Shadow?

[Guest Symatic]

general rule: keep the dust off your kit and it won't affect your records so much!

 

i practice every day and only take my cartridges off when i have to - eg changing the stylus or taking them out for a gig.

a stylus lasts me 6-12 months or more.

 

whad decks have you got? there should be spares available anyway to replace the arm rest and the lever, but the lever can be tricky.

[Karol]

I bought a paintbrush, not for painting, just to occasionally caress the dust from my gear.

 

Does it make me more or less dull if I point out that I got this idea from DJ Shadow?

Wherever you got your ideas from it does not matter as long as they work.

[djdiggla]

I bought a paintbrush, not for painting, just to occasionally caress the dust from my gear.

 

Does it make me more or less dull if I point out that I got this idea from DJ Shadow?

BITER! YOU ALL MY SONS

 

The only other thing I used to do fairly regularly was clean/lube the faders in my mixer.

Do you take off the faceplate and everything or just shoot some Deoxit or something up in there?

 

Those who practice everyday or nearly everyday, do you have your needles set up to your tone arms all the time or when you want to practice do you attach the needle to the tone arm and after the session detach it until next training session? I think attaching and removing the needle all to often may fatigue either of these parts.

I wouldn't detach them unless you are going to a gig. Seems like it is unnecessary wear and don't know what the benefit would be. I keep all my gear covered when not in use.

 

i practice every day and only take my cartridges off when i have to - eg changing the stylus or taking them out for a gig.

a stylus lasts me 6-12 months or more.

How do you know when to change? Sound degrading? I usually guess and swap stylus every year or two but I don't practice every day... few times a week probably. Mostly mixing tho and maybe 20-30 mins of scratching. I've never noticed a sound difference and don't get record burn so just straight up guessing when it's time.

[Guest petesasqwax]

My 1210 has had the same Stanton 500 cart on forever and I've only changed the stylus once or twice in the whole time I've had it.

I'm possibly not the poster boy for this thread

[Phology]

I have some cloth turntable covers that completely cover the decks, and I also have one of those plastic mixer covers. It stops my gear getting dusty. The only time I clean my decks is when I occasionally run a duster over them.

 

i cut up some old tshirts for mixer dust covers, works fine and looks alright if you have some good logos.

 

for the decks i still use the standard plastic dust cases.

 

i'm looking at getting a pouch to put my headphones in as well.

[DJ Rock Well]

My 1210 has had the same Stanton 500 cart on forever and I've only changed the stylus once or twice in the whole time I've had it.

 

I'm possibly not the poster boy for this thread

Warning points incoming!

[djdiggla]

 

I have some cloth turntable covers that completely cover the decks, and I also have one of those plastic mixer covers. It stops my gear getting dusty. The only time I clean my decks is when I occasionally run a duster over them.

 

i cut up some old tshirts for mixer dust covers, works fine and looks alright if you have some good logos.

 

for the decks i still use the standard plastic dust cases.

 

i'm looking at getting a pouch to put my headphones in as well.

 

I do that too! Looks pretty tight and a fun re-purpose for old favorite t-shirts.

Whatabout a Crown bag for the headphones? Maybe a 750mL bottle. I store tons of things in Crown bags. It's basically the only reason to buy Canadian whisky.

[Guest Psychedelic Schizophrenic]

 

My 1210 has had the same Stanton 500 cart on forever and I've only changed the stylus once or twice in the whole time I've had it.

 

I'm possibly not the poster boy for this thread

Warning points incoming!

 

 

Best add me to the list Rock Well, think I last changed my Shure M44-7 stylus in 09

 

I use a couple of these to cover my gear

 

 

A pretty cheap way of protecting your gear and they only cost me a couple of quid from good old poundland

 

The only maintenance I do is an annual deep spring clean on my gear and cleaning/lubing the faders apart from that everything is left attached.

[Guest Symatic]

 

i practice every day and only take my cartridges off when i have to - eg changing the stylus or taking them out for a gig.

a stylus lasts me 6-12 months or more.

How do you know when to change? Sound degrading? I usually guess and swap stylus every year or two but I don't practice every day... few times a week probably. Mostly mixing tho and maybe 20-30 mins of scratching. I've never noticed a sound difference and don't get record burn so just straight up guessing when it's time.

 

 

 

yeah if i notice it sounds a bit muffled and shit i'll know its on the way out, but you can see it.

 

if you hold up the needle to a white background and look at it straight on, like the stylus is facing towards you (normally helps to hold it upside down tho) but look at it face-on.

you can see a new stylus is nice and pointy and even, a old stylus will be worn, ground down and possibly uneven. I've used some stylus' that have just worn down to the point of non existence. I also foolishly superglued the finger-lever thing back on to one and the glue's fumes separated the stylus from the metal cantelever......

[Karol]

 

" I also foolishly superglued the finger-lever thing back on to one and the glue's fumes separated the stylus from the metal cantelever......"

 

Gosh.... I used to clean ma mixer thoroughly once a year all eq's along with faders. Once my cross and line faders' caps start to fall off so I glued them. I havn't done my cleaning for a year or so beacuse I cannot take the faceplate off. To do this i need to take off all the glued caps.

 

[Steve]

Do you take off the faceplate and everything or just shoot some Deoxit or something up in there?

I used to take the faders out to clean/lube them back when I had an Ecler Hak.

 

i cut up some old tshirts for mixer dust covers, works fine and looks alright if you have some good logos.

These are the ones I have: -

 

http://i.imgur.com/RhD1R6J.jpg

 

You can still buy them actually: -

 

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/stanton-ctc1-cloth-turntable-cover-black/308768-01/

 

I paid £20 for a pair when I got mine. Obviously using a towel, sheet, t-shirt or whatever is fine too, but I liked these cos they fit the decks perfectly.

[JHouse]

I generally leave the needle on the record, with the turntable on, so I practice more consistently. If leave everything off, with turntable covers on and what not, I'm less likely to play. I'd rather abuse them then not use them. Fuck it.

[DJ Rock Well]

I cover my decks at home with this (it's really hard to get a photo of it that really shows quite how metallic looking and shiny it is)

 

 

 

I use it because it was free and anybody looking through the window would never suspect there's anything valuable under that!

[Guest Symatic]

please make that into a tracksuit

[Guest petesasqwax]

please make that into a tracksuit

for RUCKAZOIDBERG

[DJ Rock Well]

Sadly I'm not sure there's quite enough fabric for the full tracksuit, although a skintight one might just be possible (and pretty immense).

 

There would totally be enough for a limited edition jacket though, hmmm...

[joeClockwork]

Somebody please start a 'Post a pic of your setup when you're not using it' thread.

[RUCKAZOIDBERG]

 

please make that into a tracksuit

for RUCKAZOIDBERG

 

 

OH WHAT A FINE GARMENT THAT WOULD BE