Ever Damage A Stylus Using Cleaning Brush?

Ah yes, I remember the audiophile nervosa from my first few years of high-end MC cartridge’ing :) 15 years now, some 2 dozen MC cartridges, lots of cleaning, and never any damage caused by cleaning. The real risk is too little cleaning.

It’s almost impossible to hurt a cartridge with proper bushing. If the bristles seemingly hurt the stylus or cantilever, it was on its way out anyways - how will it survive the vinyl grooves?! And yes, a damaged or missing stylus will be VERY obvious. Not slightly apparent.

I hate those little circular pad brushes with very short bristles. It means you’re getting hard plastic bits very close to the stylus / cantilever, which requires more caution (use your 2nd hand for bracing the 1st hand as necessary). Longer bristles (~ 1cm or so) also allow you to clean up & down the cantilever, keep "beards" off the front yoke piece (especially that crucial hole for the cantilever), and you can more thoroughly clean the stylus from different angles.

I don’t like carbon fiber bristles. Too soft to really knock gunk off. I like some rigidity. Cheap & cheerful nylon is fine. Artist brushes are fine (but careful if the metal ferrule is magnetic! Benz uses some very strong magnets).

I also have a Benz Ebony L (among many others) and brush it often. Great cart!

I think that you've either smoked too much or too little and need to adjust it first.

Your stylus at this moment is fine. You could not damage it with brush

From: Andy@ Needle Clinic <[email protected]>

He has saved many of us who's stylus is not removeable.  Good pricing, great communications and the fastest turnaround anywhere.

Thanks folks.

I'm not an expert on the turntable stuff so still learning.

My concern arose from thinking about just how minute an adjustment it can take to alter the sound with a stylus.  For instance I use the arduous mint protractor when I have to set up my cartridge...requires insane precision, and I've noticed even differences practically not noticeable by eye with a loop or USB microscope can mean slightly different sound.

So I wasn't wondering if I'd ruined my stylus, but rather if perhaps I slightly put it off adjustment somehow, just enough to alter the sound.  

But I infer from the replies this is unlikely.  Is that because to move the stylus off center at all it would actually require a movement of the whole head shell, like when one is adjusting tracking?  (I'm quite sure I didn't budge the position of the head shell).   And that a bit harder brush pressure would be unlikely to bend the cantilever itself off adjustment?

But I infer from the replies this is unlikely.  Is that because to move the stylus off center at all it would actually require a movement of the whole head shell, like when one is adjusting tracking?

It's because any forces the stylus / cantilever / suspension assembly is subjected to during proper cleaning are equal to or LESS than the forces it will be subjected to during normal playback. You ever cue the needle onto the lead-in of a 45 RPM 12" and watch it SLAM into the 1st music groove? Or accidentally drop it a bit onto the vinyl without aid of the cueing lever? I've even had an end groove fail and watched / heard my expensive stylus eat paper label a couple times. It should be fine. 

On the other hand a cleaning lady with a feather duster can exert snagging forces 100X - 1,000X greater than the above forces. That'll kill your cartridge dead, every time! These things are robust within "expected forces" of a certain range. Keep within that range, and try to relax!