Gear that won't go sticky!

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

There is a material / coating that is commonly used in consumer electronics that eventually deteriorates into a sticky mess eventually making the products unusable and unsaleable.

Sadly, the current Elektron range uses it on the Trig buttons fortunately these could easily be replaced, but some products like Ableton Push are completely coated in the crap.

It’s hard to know if a product uses this coating especially when buying gear online so I figured it might be useful to list music gear that doesn’t use this rubberised coating so you can make an informed choice. Feel free to add to this list.

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Pulsar-23
Lyra-8
Dirtywave M8
OP-1 (though early OP-1s have yellowing buttons - doh!)
OP-1f
Pocket Operators (not the cases)
Hapax
Modular gear (knobs are replaceable)
Organelle
Elektron (pre-2015)

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Rubber coating deteriorating
#2

The new KMI QuNexus and BopPad RED don’t have this soft coating anymore, thankfully.

#3

This is insanity haha

If this happens to your devices prematurely you can use alcohol or acetone to remove it very quickly and easily. But if they’re looked after in normal conditions they should last well for years to come - can’t say I’ve ever seen a used Elektron advertised with sticky hardware.

I think trying to maintain a list of all products not using organic compounds might be a bit of a tall order, but I salute your efforts.

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#4

:kissing_heart:

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#5

Do the knobs not count? That’s a rubberised coating :skull:

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#6

Not aware of Korg using it, certainly not on MS20, Monotribe, SQ64, electribes, Arp2600, Volcas, Kaoss pads.

OP-Z
Roland Boutiques all models to date
MPC One
Deluge
Squarp Pyramid
Roland Aira minis all models to date
OTO BiM, BAM, BOUM
Cyclone Analogic TT-303, TT-606, TR-78
Roland MC101/707/TR6s/TR8s
Novation Circuit Tracks/Rhythm (confirmed by Calc only on knobs)

#7

Knobs are easily replaced.

Seems that it might be more durable on knobs too, I have had gear with Rean soft touch knobs for 10+ years and no issues.

#8

Moog Theremini has nice hard plastic knobs.

#9

This thread’s title is gold.

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#10

Yea and that!

Good news with Elektron keycaps is that they don’t have any printing on them - I assume the black is a layer under the rubberised coating so if you really hate it then it could be removed in 5 minutes.

#11

Yes i would be interested in less rubberized, more normal hardplastic knobs ( maybe also wth a bit of grip, but not sure about that) like roland tr8, erica, pulsar, basstation etc etc but obviously endless.
Mostly for digitone. to me a4 mk1 feels a bit less rubberized and sticky.
Also once when the a video ( at hör) with a metalized ot2 with metal knobs was shown here i searched a bit for those knobs but wasn‘t sure about size etc.
Tips or recommendations ( or if not recommended) would be nice

#12

So they’re either a 6mm or 9mm D shaft pot - be helpful if someone could confirm.

If they’re 6mm then Thonk have some Bastl style knobs that could work well :ok_hand: BASTL Style Aluminium Knobs – Thonk – DIY Synthesizer Kits & Components

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Replacement aluminium knobs for Elektron
#14

Think they are 6mm D shaft.

Those look nice without the line, hadn’t seen those before :+1:

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#15

Thanks a lot!
Ot: strange and new to me what they write about shipping to non-eu switzerland. (That its less affected by the high shipping taxes, don‘t know)
Or i search similar here