Should I Brush My Cartridge After Each Use?


I use a Shure M97xE cartridge with the dynamic stabilizer brush down on the front. It seems that the brush picks up at least a little dust after almost every record. When it gets dusty, I use the supplied brush in front- and back-strokes across the stabilizer brush and stylus to get the dust off. Is it ok to do this after each side of a record? Will I do damage to the stylus or the cartridge?
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Jeff Jones,

I thought of that, and it does make sense, except I can't help wondering what effect it has on the stylus itself, as opposed to the gunk that builds up on it. Obvoiusly they think the green sandpaper does minimal damage. I personally would trust processes that involve solvents rather than abrasives. For some reason these Scotsmen seem to enjoy flaunting this cavelier attitude. I have alot of respect for Ivor and Roy and their products. It must be something in the single malt stuff...
I agree with Viridian and Dougdeacon. Clean vinyl and keeping a clean stylus is the best way to go in my opinion. Cleaning the vinyl takes a little time and effort. Cleaning the stylus is quick and easy. I clean my stylus after each side and follow with a dip into a Zerodust. It takes about 15 seconds and keeps the stylus free from any buildup. I probably don't need to do it that often, but it has become habit. I began doing this about 2 years or so ago and am happy with the results.

New inner sleeves after wet cleaning and a dry carbon fiber brush before each play, followed by stylus care above seems to work well and has just become the routine and is done without other thought.

And like Doug mentioned, if you brush your stylus, ALWAYS go back to front and be gentle.
After each record side, I brush with the supplied stylus brush that came with my Dynavector. Always from back to front about 2-3 times. Every 2 days or so, I do the simple Magic Erasure cleaning.
Oh, and I also clean each side of the record just prior to playing with a carbon fibre brush.
RE the appraisives vs. solvents question; don't forget that we are dealing with diamonds here!! I would be much more concerned with solvents attacking the adhesive and the suspension.
Hadn't thought of the adhesive gluing the stylus onto the cantelever. I had thought of migration of solvent up the cantelever to the suspension. Doesn't seem to be a problem for either though.