Wayne Parham Messages: 18791 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
For me, it depends on the connector. I almost never clean gold connectors. Silver connectors are also pretty trouble-free; they definitely oxidize but silver oxide is conductive. It's very hard too, as an aside. But I'd probably clean my silver connectors every so often if I weren't moving the gear around that has silver conductors anyway. That makes the cleaning process somewhat automatic.
The really troublesome stuff is the gear with the old tin contacts. I don't have any hifi gear with tin contacts, except for one thing, the tube sockets. And I have a ton of vintage gear with tin contacts. I tend to "reseat" tubes pretty frequently - at least every few months - which is a sort of an abrasive form of cleaning.
Same thing with potentiometers. I sometimes hit those with tuner cleaner or flux remover but even more often - in between "real cleanings" - I run the wiper back and forth from stop to stop several times to brush the dust out.
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