Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?

Subject: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) get sticky?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 11:50 AM

No, not your sharp verbal commentary, your Snark brand clip on tuner.

My older Snark tuner, a dark brick red in color, well used and on it's 4th battery change, has turned up feeling gummy all over the red plastic parts. It reminds me of the feeling of old waterproofed camping gear gone bad, as if the substance were disintegrating, not something placed on the surface. This tuner has slways been kept in an instrument case, usually autoharp, but in recent years it's lived in my bowed psaltery case in the accessories section that also contains a brick of rosin for the bow. Is it possible that it's the rosin causing a reaction to the plastic? Can it be the plastic deteriorating on its own?

The thing works fine, but handling it is unplesant, and makes you want to wash your fingers afterwards. What on earth is going on? I really don't want to hear a usual response to my technical queries: "oh, my, never seen (whatever it is) do THAT before!"

Hoping to get out of a sticky situation,
Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 01:24 PM

It's the curse of music gear with rubber parts and coatings.
They perish over time.
Same happens with some plastics...

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 01:27 PM

Probably not the advice you’re seeking, but Snarks are cheap as chips - I’d dump it and buy a new one if it were mine. Actually, I’d dump it and get a Peterson StroboClip HD or a TC Electronics PolyClip - far superior to a Snark.

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 11:27 AM

If your Snark dies and you want to do slightly more for the environment than tossing the whole thing in the trash, separate the tuner from the clip, toss the tuner and use the clip for a bag clip.

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 01:06 PM

Has it been in an enclosed space with any expanded polystyrene? It gives off a gas that makes many plastics go sticky. That's why electrical products that have polystyrene packaging have cables in plastic bags and exposed expanded polystyrene is not used for house insulation.

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: leeneia
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 02:35 PM

Two ideas:

Ask Snark customer service if there is a solvent which will remove the surficial sticky layer. Or perhaps they have some other idea. Snarktuners.com

Cover the sticky part with some kind of tape.

Guest, thanks for the info about polystyrene. It may not apply to CupofTea's problem, but it's interesting to know.
==================
CupofTea, I've been reading P.G. Wodehouse golf stories lately. It always tickles me when I see that an errant golf ball has got itself into a cuppy lie. Does anybody ever call you Cuppy?

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 17 Aug 20 - 02:37 AM

-The Snark Is not dead; works just fine. The clip part is Part of the sticky situation.

- The case it has been kept in is a homemade one with a leather outer, heavy cardboard frame, thin upholstery Foam rubber padding, and flannel next to the psaltery.

- In my days on AOL and this was my screen name i mostly got called “Cuppa” Often enough that I was “Host Cuppa” when I was a chat room host.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: leeneia
Date: 17 Aug 20 - 01:02 PM

I like Cuppa, because it requires only one capital letter. My little fingers are short, and when I reach for the shift, I often hit something else instead. That's why my own screen name has no capital letter.

Okay. About the tuner. You probably have an assortment of solvents around the house. Vegetable oil, Goo-gone, cleaners with citrus in them, nail-polish remover, de-natured alcohol, vodka. Try them, one after another, to see if they remove the sticky plastic. (I hope the sticky layer is thin and the plastic is solid underneath.)

Lacquer thinner is powerful, but not everybody has that. You have to be careful with it, because it's so flammable.

But wait a minute - what happens if you scrub it with an SOS pad? Then don't put it in the case with the foam rubber.

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 01:21 PM

Seriously, I'd go for the TC Electronics Polyclip - I had a Snark but didn't work well for me, but the Polyclip does the business on all my stringed instruments, guitar, lute and gurdy.

I asked the bloke in Musicroom where I bought the Snark if he thought it was because it was a boojum. He didn't pick up on the reference.

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 02:52 PM

Exact same thing happened to the rubbery plastic casing of our 15 year old laptop. Most unpleasant to the touch. I tried all manner of detergents working up to solvents, but all to no avail. It eventually died, unrevivable, and I now enjoy a,so far, non-sticky replacement.
Same thing happened too to an elderly snap-shut mobile phone. It must be the nature of the plastics involved in the manufacture.

Subject: RE: Tech: Does your Snark(tm) tuner get sticky?
From: Gurney
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 04:40 PM

I've had that problem with plastics. I blamed it on sunblock or perhaps another ointment. Never thought of another plastic. Mmmm.