Wet Cleaning the Stylus

Elizabeth,
Prior to initiating your preservative recommendation for every record side do you start out with a new stylus, or by cleaning the stylus once to get started?

Well as nearly everything analog 'it depends'. In the first place it depends from the question if the stylus needs cleaning. One need to look at the stylus with a
magnifying glass to discovere the truth. In the second place the fear against wet cleaning should apply for the styli which are glued in the cantilever. The fear is based on the assumption that fluid may disolve the glue. But many cantilevers are made from aluminum (alloy) in which the stylus can be pressure fitted. That is to say without any glue. This is, alas, not the case by the so called 'exotic cantievers' (boron, sapphireberyllium,etc). But we have no idea what kind of glue (or cement) is used in our exotic cantilevers. Such info from the producers would be much more useful than the usual specs. In many cases there is no substitute for wet cleaning. Look at your stylus with a magnifying glass to see for yourself.

FWIW Soundsmith strongly discourage use of fluids except in emergencies. Edited from their document-
"The DRY soft brush is good, but far better is to use some "fun tak"... just before or after every play [and they go into the blu-tak method]...

"Using this method [with] every record should eliminate the need to wet clean ever. "Only wet clean when the dry clean doesn't work."

What was the name of the chemical that was used to clean styli about twenty five years ago? Whatever it was the stylus was made very clean and clear.

You mean Discwasher stylus brush and that little bottle of fluid? I still have mine. I haven't used it since the early 80s.