Rubber Contact Strip Preservation
2015-09-21 by turboswami@gmail.com
Hello All,
I recently opened up my Korg to do some routine cleaning of the key contacts, in preparation for an upcoming studio session. In addition to the regular Q-Tip/rubbing alcohol cleaning, I tried the pencil eraser trick on the metal contacts, as someone recommended on this forum. I also purchased a small vial of the CaiCote 44 contact coating, as was recommended on here a while back.
My concern came as I was delicately removing the rubber contact strips from their placeholders -- those small plunger portions are so fragile and are beginning to crack and chip off in places. I realize all rubber ages in this way, and a degree of dry rot is expected after 35 years, but I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on preserving these rubber strips from further drying/cracking. I'd like for this machine to last another 35 years, if possible... But I can imagine these strips, eventually, being unable to be safely removed at this rate, without those small "mushroom" clip mechanisms simply tearing right off.