Whether you’re an audiophile, DJ or a beginner keeping your turntable clean is a must. Otherwise you’ll end up facing issues instead of enjoying the music. Honestly, your record player works hard to make you happy so you should spare some time for it too.
Although it seems to be often overlooked, cleaning your turntable is quite important. Vinyl records produce static electricity, which tends to attract a lot of dust. The dust may or may not be visible, but you would surely realize something is wrong when your turntable starts producing a little distorted sound.
If you don’t take care of the problem in time, the dust and debris may lead to scratches on the playing surface and even end up damaging it. When that happens, it would probably be a bit too late to fix it on your own.
What You Will Need for Cleaning Turntable?
Well, now that you know how important it is to clean your turntable, and why you need not be worried about doing it yourself, let’s take a look at the things you will need to get the job done.
- Quality stylus cleaning brush
- Rubbing alcohol
- Soft paintbrush
- A lint-free cloth
- A dusting cloth
Steps To Clean Your Turntable
After getting all the required things at your disposal, you can get started with cleaning your turntable. Cleaning the turntable will require a little effort and few minutes only. Do you know how to keep your turntable in best condition? To maintain your turntable and ensure that it lasts for a long time, you need to take several steps.
1. Placement Of Turntable
Placement and suspension matter the most to keep your turntable safe from vibrations. One has to choose the platform correctly to keep the vibrations away. It would be best if you kept the turntable safe from vibrations unless it’s good enough to absorb them and let them reach the record or needle.
2. Clean The Stylus
When the stylus is covered with dust, it could create distortions. That’s why you should get a good stylus brush to make it safe and in good condition. You need to use the stylus cleaning brush to clean your turntable’s needle. The reason for using this specific brush and not any other one is because it offers the required level of precision that allows cleaning the needle properly without causing any damage.
However, you still need to ensure that you’re using this thing the right way to avoid ending up causing damage to your turntable’s needle. You need to clean the needle from back to front using the brush, which is the only way to do it safely. If you move the brush from front to back or even side to side, it may result in bending the needle.
However, if you feel the stylus hasn’t been cleaned properly, you can use the rubbing alcohol in a very small quantity by simply dampening the brush in it and moving over the stylus again.It’s recommended to clean the stylus every time the turntable is used.
3. Cleaning the surface
You can simply use an anti-static cloth to wipe off any dust or debris from the surface of your turntable. However, just like while cleaning the needle, if you feel that it needs more thorough cleaning, you can apply a little rubbing alcohol on a lint-free cloth and cleaning the surface again.
Usually, if the surface part has fingerprints and other more difficult-to-remove agents, it will require to be cleaned with rubbing alcohol. However, while using rubbing alcohol, make sure you start cleaning the surface from the center and then move outwards in a circle.
Finally, you can use a completely dry lint-free cloth again to get rid of any other debris or dust that may have remained on the surface of your turntable.
Extra Tips To Keep Your Turntable Clean
- Clean the turntable daily with a microfiber cloth. Make sure to keep the lid close when you’re playing the turntable so that the dust will not enter it. However, no matter how protective you’re towards your turntable, it’ll need some cleaning over time because naturally, some dust enters into it that could cause trouble for you later.
- If you let the records stay dirty for a longer duration, you might face some issues, including damage to the stylus, skipping the notes, or stopping playing suddenly. These issues that occur by the dust accumulation in turntables can put in a lot of hassle.
- You can use the carbon fiber brush to clean the dust quickly. Wash the records with a solution that you can create by mixing washing liquid, water, and vinegar. Make sure to dry it thoroughly before using it again.
Where to store your record collection?
If you’re new in the world of turntables, then you might not know how to store the record collection. Let me help you with that. Placing the records horizontally is the best way to listen to vinyl, but things are different when storing them. Instead of storing them horizontally, make sure to place the records vertically. Cover them with plastic for additional protection.
Which is the right time to change the needle?
If the turntable’s stylus isn’t good, don’t expect a good sound quality. Needle works in the grooves securely, lightly, and squarely to collect all the record’s vibrations. Better the signals go to the amplifier, and the good quality sound will be produced and vice versa.
The needle might wear down with time, so you need to check on it to make the replacement on time. Do you know when to replace the needle? Right after you start experiencing a volume drop or any crashes sound. Moreover, if the stylus doesn’t stay in a record player during vinyl playing, then this is a sign of replacing it as soon as possible.
Instructions To Follow
- Make sure not to leave the sleeves under the sun; otherwise, it’ll end up having fading issues.
- Do change the inner sleeves timely and replace them with fresh ones.
- Never let anyone borrow the records who’ve no idea how to play them or how to keep them safe.
- Clean them often so that you can enjoy your favorite album without any hitch.
Steps For Maintaining Turntable:
To maintain your turntable and ensure that it lasts for a long time, you need to take several steps. Firstly, please read our guide on how to calibrate your turntable so that you can get the best sound out of it.
Secondly, depending on if you have a great USB turntable or not, you will need to prepare how to utilize it correctly. Lastly, you will need to clean your turntable and your vinyl records once in a while. This is to keep them both clean and fresh and preserve them for the years to come.
All this will come with experience, and you will make mistakes, but being an audiophile takes practice and just grinding it out with different products before you are truly comfortable with using your great turntable product adequately.
This is the same for everything in life, so don’t be worried if you are starting and all this information is overwhelming. It happens to all of us. Feel free to contact us if you need any help.
It’s Not Difficult To Clean and Maintain Turntable
Now though some may think that cleaning a turntable is a little technical task, it’s actually far from being one. In fact, once you get used to it, it’s not even as difficult as a simple DIY task.
Similarly, it’s also not very time-consuming or expensive to clean and maintain a turntable, so there doesn’t really seem to be a reason to shy away from the job.
