Does smoking give instruments cancer?

October 9, 2008 12:45 AM

We know smoking is bad for people, but is it bad for synthesizers? While looking at classified ads for various bits of musical equipment (speakers, synths, samplers etc) I often see in the descriptions "all gear used in a 100% smoke-free environment". Does this actually matter? And how come nobody ever includes that in descriptions for secondhand electric guitars?
posted by awfurby to sports, hobbies, & recreation (13 comments total)

I would think it's just because smoke makes things stink, long past when they leave the smokey environment.
posted by slightlybewildered at 12:49 AM on October 9, 2008

I always assumed its because older analogue synthesizers were often fairly delicate beasts, with a tendency to drift out of tune and have certain components that go on the fritz regularly.

Put something like this in a room with a heavy smoker and it will end up covered in deposits of tar and nicotine. As a heavy smoker, I see this whenever I open up a computer case (though that might be a different scenario because the fan case sucks the smoke through the components.)

Presumably, people believe that a synth that hasn't been exposed to all this smoke is likely to stay in good condition longer, and is less likely to need an extremely expensive restoration soon.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:55 AM on October 9, 2008

Smokers often smoke while playing the keyboards, cigarette ash seems to work itself into every little crack and crevice which could cause problems with the device. So they're saying that there isn't cigarette ash in it and it doesn't stink like cigarettes.
posted by thylacine at 12:57 AM on October 9, 2008

I think it's more for the aesthetics mentioned above (smell, lack of burn marks on the cases, etc). An old anecdote, which is not data, but does show how resilient older electronics can be when subjected to a smoker. A guy I knew had a Tandy Color Computer in the 80s, and was a heavy chain smoker. He had his ashtray on top of the computer, right on top of the air vents. One day the computer started acting... funny. We opened the case up and there had to be 3 inches of ash covering EVERYTHING in the case. 10 minutes with a vacuum cleaner, and everything was right as rain again. It seemed the only negative effect of the ash on the electronics was that it acted as an insulator, trapping the heat in the components.
posted by barc0001 at 1:14 AM on October 9, 2008

Right -- the tar in the smoke is sticky. Even when you don't have the ashtray on the vent, over time, tar will stick to the chips, which will attract a layer of dust. Tar/dust layers slowly accrete, which impairs cooling. Depending on the item and how much cooling it needs, this can have essentially no effect, or it can make the system unstable.

The newer it is, and the more digital it is, the more heat it's likely to produce, and thus the more sensitive it's likely to be. That old CoCo could take three inches of ash because it was incredibly slow, and thus didn't generate much heat. A modern system would have failed much sooner.

I don't know anything about how analog synths are built, so you'll have to determine for yourself how much it might matter. It's quite possible to clean circuit boards, so if you determine it DOES matter, you should be able to restore a smoked-out synthesizer to near-new condition. But you may never be able to get the smell out of the plastic. Some old plastics cling to that smell like a hobo to his last bottle.
posted by Malor at 1:57 AM on October 9, 2008 [2 favorites]

And how come nobody ever includes that in descriptions for secondhand electric guitars?

"From a smoke-free house" is pretty standard in secondhand furniture ads for the reasons of stink and discolouration mentioned above. And, er, synthesizers are more like furniture than guitars.
posted by ninebelow at 2:41 AM on October 9, 2008

Malor nailed it. It's the tar. After a while it builds up and it gets into the pots and sliders and gums things up. This is also particularly bad for optical compressors and tape machines. I recall there being lots of problems with ADAT machines and Tascam DA-88 line of multitracks that came out of smoker studios.
posted by chillmost at 2:54 AM on October 9, 2008

Technically the tar from cigarette smoke is an electrically insulating material. The particulate matter is initially very small so it tends to deposit on metal surfaces and is very difficult to remove with mechanical means (you can't wipe it off). Basically smoke contaminates the surfaces of your electrical components making anything composed of moving parts intermittently functional.
posted by ptm at 5:32 AM on October 9, 2008

The smoke also gets into the switches and pots and makes them not work right. I was a smoker, and a lot of the audio equipment I smoked around eventually had terrible problems with contacts not closing properly and crackle on the volume knobs.
posted by gjc at 6:24 AM on October 9, 2008

I distinctly remember that my Mac Classic came with a warning not to smoke around it. I'm not sure why. Possibly the build-up of tar could effect mechanical parts like fans, or even the thermal characteristics of the electronics. Perhaps the acid in the built-up tar could cause capacitors to fail?
posted by paulg at 8:09 AM on October 9, 2008

"Here is yet another reason to buy our stuff! Did we mention that it also comes with packaging and a receipt printed on the finest thermal paper? Well it does!"
posted by electroboy at 8:57 AM on October 9, 2008

"Used in a smoke -free environment" is a common line for all sorts of used music and recording gear, not just synths. Microphones take enough abuse from saliva deposits building up on (or rotting) diaphragms, that adding tar residue is a big turn off for buyers.

Guitars on the other hand are often more desirable if they have a patina from years of use and mild abuse. Getting the paint and wood to fade and have an orange tint is likely enhanced by years of playing in smokey bars.

Almost all electronic equipment will develop crackles and noisy switches with use - being in a smokey environment will possibly speed up this process. Contact cleaner will work wonders to solve such problems.
posted by Paid In Full at 9:22 AM on October 9, 2008

I can't speak for musical gear but I can speak for electronics in general.

I buy a ton of electronic stuff off eBay and mod/refurb it for various purproses (think moding old Xboxes to be media centers, etc.) I hate when I get stuff from a smoker. The electronics/boards are always coated in this brownish, ultra fine dust. It's a bitch to clean up, much worse than just standard household dust.... and it stinks.
posted by JFitzpatrick at 12:14 PM on October 9, 2008