MICROPHONE DISINFECTING

[djBe]

I know plenty of KJs who, for a fact, do virtually nothing to clean or maintain their microphones until they break and are replaced with more cheap and dirty microphones.

My process - not optimal by any means - is to spray them with disinfectant lightly before each show and service the balls (yuk,yuk) every couple of months as follows. I remove the ball, then the sponge screen from inside the ball. Food particles, shmegma, Gross.

I wash the screens with disinfectant soapy water, soaking and shaking them altogether in a jar, squeeze them and let them dry in the sun.

I take the balls, scrub them good with a brush and hot soapy disinfectant water, rinse them good, make sure there's no particles in the weave. Then I blow dry them, inspecting them one last time for Klingons.

Then I set them up on something and spraypaint them lightly with gloss black paint. While everything is drying (I'm typing this while everything outside drying) I inspect my cords (for the corded mics). I keep my mics taped up to their cords to save time, and keep the connections well wrapped with extra electrical tape, including the on/off switch which is taped over to keep singers from turning off the mic.

Fresh electrical tape blends in with the mic and cord perfectly, i use good good tape the dollar store kind just unravels. I use colored electrical tape to identify the mics, a ring at the cord and a ring at the ball since singers can't cover both with their hand at the same time.

When I put my clean sponge screeens back inside the ball, and screw on the freshly painted, disinfected and deshmegma-fied balls, my mics look great for another few months... };=D

What do you all do to maintain, disinfect, your mics? What is th eminimum amount of maintenance acceptable...and what do you observe to be the norm in your neck of the woods?

[DanG2006]

Some good advice that even I can use. Well about the disinfecting anyway. My mikes are wireless so the cord thing does not apply. But you should disinfect every now and then to keep the mikes clean. It will help keep your singers and yourself healthy as well.

[wiseguy]

I wipe my mics down with disposable anti-bacterial wipes at the end of every show. The foam inserts get washed every couple of weeks with anti-bacterial dish washing liquid.

I once washed the foam inserts with Lysol. Even after a thorough rinsing and drying the Lysol smell was so strong you could not stand to have them near your face. I had to replace them.