Carbon Fibre brush's for Vinyl

Hi Guys,
Whats a good Carbon Fibre Brush for cleaning records and where can you get one online?
Also whats the best method for cleaning the stylus?
I also have some old Vinyl given to me recently that needs a damn good clean.
Is there anyway you can do this at home in a bowl of water etc?

Cheers

Curt

 

Decca 2+2 £13

 

The best is an Audio-Technica battery-powered cleaner that vibrates a pad on to which the stylus is lowered. I don't think it's made any more but it appears every so often on eBay - and no, you can't have mine.

P.S. Like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3283&item=5754758325&rd=1

 

Put a drop! of ipa into the lid of film pot or something and stand the stylus in that. You only want to cover the tip not the whole thing.

 

by ipa do you mean india pale ale? Won't that make it rather sticky?

 

Greene King IPA - yum

 

just gently brush the stylus tip with a few bristles from your carbon fibre brush. works ok for me.

 

Ditto what A/k said. Works well.

 

I'd get one of these http://www.hifix.co.uk/sitemap/goldring/goldring-super-exstatic-brush.html works very well for £12

 

Which ever you go got its got to be better than those awful ones maplin charge £10 for.

 

I don't know Anex.

There's an awful lot of expense wasted in hifi IMO.

I have an expensive deck but all I use to clean my records with is a cheap brush that someone gave me once.

I dont think audiophile carbon fibre bristles sound any different to cheap ones!

 

No they don't but the flimsy maplin ones have to be forced into the groove were as the big heavy ones actually clean themselves and are well worth the £2 extra I reckon. Lol the amount of money people spend on stuff there doesn't seem much point saving £2 on a record brush.

 

must admit I used to have a 'Hunt brush' which had a velvet pad in the middle with carbon bristles either side.

I think that the one RDD put up is a copy/licensed version of the same thing, although I cant see the bottom to be sure.

The velvet pad was good when your record was mingingly dirty..

 

I use an Onzow Zerodust for cleaning the stylus. Seems expensive but you can clean it and it clearly shows the gunk removed from the stylus.

 

Cheers Guys,
I already have a carbon fibre brush with a velvet pad in the middle but it is getting rather old.
I am not to sure wether to get a similar brush or one without the felt pad as i get the feeling the pad may also compress some of the dust etc into the grooves.
I have no stylus cleaner at present and have been looking at the LAST range of products.
I was thinking of getting the Knosti record cleaner for my dirty old records but i have read a few users comments that it leaves gunk on the records and in turn on the stylus.
What cheap alternatives are there for wet cleaning mucky old records

Tks
Curt

 

I use the the Last stylus cleaner and have to say i think it is brilliant, i use it very sparingly about 3 or 4 times a year, it does a great job of keeping my stylus clean. I also regularly use an AT637 vibrating stylus cleaner.

I think that the cheapo Carbon Fibre only type brushes are really good. I use one made by a company called AM and called 'Static Off' . i bought it in a local Sony centre, however i have seen the same brush for sale in HMV records for about a fiver. A lso have a Goldring Exstatic brush, which is exactly the same as the Hunt EDA Mk6 already mentioned. I now use the goldring brush to scrub my records with when wet/vac cleaning them. You will be aware that wet/Vac cleaning records is the only really effective way to clean them, after doing so a quick swish with a cheap brush is all thats required. Here are some pictures for you:

http://imageevent.com/sidandcoke/upcloseandpersonal

HTH.

 

Hey Sid,

I just love the pics. Not often you see the business end of the whole chain quite so up close and personal. Great stuff

Btw on topic, I just use a cheap carbon fibre brush for day to day. another one for wet cleaning (using the Uncle Ants Pants method) but am hoping to get a vac machine. Only ever used a quick brush with the carbon fibre on the stylus, but reckon from the shininess of your styli shots I ought consider something a little more effective.

 

Do you use the Carbon fibre 'damper brush' on your Shure cart up or down ?
I track mine at 1.5grams and use the brush down. I've also not yet got bored with watching it 'spring' into action when i lower or lift the needle, pretty sad , eh

Great sounding cart, Bass is deep and awesome !

 

I use it locked up and track at 1.25g and will probably keep it that way. It is a lovely cart. Though I've just moved and in the new house my bass seems to have disappeared (well not entirely, but the character of the whole system seems to have changed with the change of room). Only had it in place in the new house since last night, so no time to experiment and find out where the bass went yet.

 

I tried the brush both up and down in the RB250, 1.0g/1.5g and preffered it up, i used it up when fitting to the tabriz, but due to sids comments (we discussed this a wek or so ago)and a couple of warped discs this weekend, tried it down on the tabriz also, this time couldn't tell any difference so now run with it down.