More on noisy or bad mixer faders (see TTOTD 6/9/98). We had a few readers offer that Caig’s CaiLube MCL can clean faders and replaces the lubricants that are lost as a result of using most cleaning substances. I went back to our mixer and live sound guru, Mark Goff, and he responded with more detailed information for cleaning faders:
Detailed fader cleaning procedure.
- Vacuum and/or blow out faders with compressed air. Vacuuming gets the “dust bunnies” and larger chunks. Try to run the fader up and down while you do this.
- Treat faders. I prefer CAIG DeoxIT/D5 to the CaiLube/MC. The MCL is a thicker lubricant, which stays greasy and seems to trap dirt, where the D5 evaporates “almost/” totally, leaving a conductive coating on the contacts.
- After spraying with D5, blow out the faders once more to remove excess liquid and hopefully the remaining dirt. (Use goggles or take precautions… D5 burns in the eyes and tastes only slightly better than WD-40.
- I have been fairly successful using this method. Sometimes though, faders “just flat wear out” and no amount of cleaning will revive them. These worn faders will be among the first to go “scratchy” following a cleaning.
- One extra item… I have observed several instances where the knob was pushed onto the fader so hard that it scraped along the front panel and rare occasions where such downward force was applied to the knob that the fader itself was damaged. Take care replacing the knobs.