tubewade
Super Member
I'd have to say that many of the aftermarket needles, especially budget ones, are not manufactured with the same level of care that the OEM ones were, but not entirely unexpected considering that they were probably going to sell for 1/4th or less the price of an original. Sometimes that lack of care can at least partially be improved upon, for instance cantilever alignment, to allow it to work better than it would otherwise. I don't know how one might lessen an excessive wad of adhesive like some of these have.
I can't remember cleaning any of those with solvent. I don't usually clean with solvent because of concerns about damaging the adhesive. I use a B&O stylus cleaning brush and Magic Eraser. Years ago I used the green paper that Linn recommend. Isopropanol is used on very rare occasions if other methods fail, most recently on a used AT stylus purchase that had a sticky wad of crud that wouldn't respond to the usual cleaning methods.
I can't remember cleaning any of those with solvent. I don't usually clean with solvent because of concerns about damaging the adhesive. I use a B&O stylus cleaning brush and Magic Eraser. Years ago I used the green paper that Linn recommend. Isopropanol is used on very rare occasions if other methods fail, most recently on a used AT stylus purchase that had a sticky wad of crud that wouldn't respond to the usual cleaning methods.