Cleaning around knobs

[Steve44]

Back in the dark ages of synth design, the one cool thing was that it took no time to dust off the keyboard.. it was just a long swipe and a few little things here and there. But for those of us endowed with synths full of knobs and sliders and crevices on the edges of ribbons and wheels, what are we to do to safely clean the dust away?

 

Are Q-tips good, or do they leave little bits of cotton underneath the knob? Does anyone use those compressed air cans? What about those endust electronic cleaners I keep reading about but never seeing in the stores? And for sliders, I think those can be the worst culprits: how do you get dust off the little piece of cloth inside, or do you just leave it there?

 

Thanks in a advance for any tips you might have...

[lightbg]

For basic dust control, I've used a $2.99 plastic duster ( it looks like Don King's hair on a stick ). Works well, but doesn't get heavy stuff. For slider fuzzballs, I get serious with my Stinger shop vac ( sold in Home Depot, but Sears sells the same model - 2 gallon wet-dry model ). For $10.00 additional, you can buy an attachment kit that was designed for a home computer. It has various nozzles and brushes, and it reduces the diameter of the attachments to 1/2", so you can't do much damage if you stick it where it don't belong, but it does pick up the junk. Good luck. JK.

[Guest]

Apart from what's been mentioned, I use what I consider one of the best investments in my studio, price-performance ratio speaking: a 2" soft bristle painting brush. That's right, you can pick one up in Home Depot for about nothing, and it'll fit in between those knobs and sliders. I keep a couple of them around ALWAYS. And you can get them in various widths also! Sure, it won't SUCK, but if you regularly brush, you will find you'll need to suck (the dust) less often. It worked for me. And believe me, I had a Korg T3, and those buttons died rapidly (same as M1 owners, ring any bells?). Knobs are a little tricky, but I fear pressured air will only push the dust INSIDE even further. So little vacuum AND painting brush is the way to go.

 

m.