billb@teklabs.UUCP (Bill Beran) (10/30/84)
I have owned one of the Signet electronic stylus cleaners for
about a year and am very pleased with it. It is a about the size of
a penlight flashlight and has a removable plastic cover over the business
end. You place it on the turntable and put a drop of their cleaner fluid
on the pad which is about one quarter inch in diameter. The pad is made
of very tightly packed vertical nylon fibers (very small fibers) and vib-
rates vertically at about 500Hz. As you lower the stylus onto the vibrat-i the side of the stylus cone. So far I have managed to remember to keep
the amplifier off when I've done this! (-: I haven"t done a microscopic
examination to determine effectiveness, but it sure looks like it is
working very well. It sells for about $30.
On another subject, I recall a brief discussion a few weeks ago about
record clamps/weights for helping cure warp problems and reducing reson-
ances. I purchased a gadget recently which seems to have solved the prob-
lem for me. It is called a Spider Clamp or something like that, and only
adds about 5 grams to the spindle. It is a three legged device with rubber
feet and a collet which you slide down to lock it onto the spindle. It
is very easy to slip on and off and visibly pulls the center label area
down against the platter on most records. I bought it from a mail order
place called Herrington's which is sort of another Sharper Image clone.
Bill Beran
Imaging Research Lab
Tektronix
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