Does smoking really cause problems in the...

[texlop]

Does smoking really cause problems in the studio. I have heard not to buy stuff from people that smoke in their studio. The smoke damages mics, mixers and other stuff. Is this true? I just bought an AKG C 1000 S off ebay and there is a strong smell of smoke coming from my mic. It sounds ok but I don't think it gets loud enough. Coud this be from the smoke. I've known condensers to be really good at picking up stuff but doesn't seem to pick up that well. Or is this how this mic really works.

[clamp]

Good question. With all the online seller hoopla bragging non-smoking status, you wonder if this is good smelling gear hype or do mic elements build up with resin or pots gum up with ash or old gear arcs across the tube pins because of smoke?
In my experience with old guitars it seems that 70's era Les Pauls have very fragile finishes particularly when they and their owners smell like cigarette smoke. They cloud and strip into polish clothes when you try to clean them.
I'd have to guess a certain amount of smoke ends up as vapor resin and gets depositted on capsules and connector pins. This is just an ametuer guess. Surely a more experience engineer could answer more correctly.

[chikkenguy]

it is a fact that smoke leaves some sort of deposit on things. so if it is on your switches and such, it has to make some sort of difference. whether the difference is audible or not is a different matter. i would say that condensers would be particularly susceptible to smoke. smoke can also damage hard drives, although most are probably sealed these days...

[E-cue]

Does smoking really cause problems in the studio.

Yep. It's bad for gear. Ask anyone that refurbishes mics. Reason 893,849,236,125,GHT,929,289,379,8G3,464,213,724,324,346,203 to quit. Something else to consider: inscence can yield similar harmful results.

[SecondSon]

I have heard that they are bad for electronics that you use to mixdown to cd's with. Because there is such a small area between the actual writer and the cd, smoke residue can build up on this, and make the thing not work as well. Not speaking from experience, just what I read. I am always sckeptical getting mics from ebay as well. I usually try to buy them new, though I haven't really had any problems.

[Slider]

Yeah it gives them more character.
No really... Smoke is bad news on mic capsules.
I don't know about consoles. I guess it could make a difference after years of smoke.

[joeysimms]

In the heyday of classic engineers working with amazing consoles and mics, seems like everyone smoked. But, they all had round-the-clock techs on call doing the maintenance. Do you? If not, you might want to keep excessive smoke from permeating your gear.

[Roboburger]

If you want to see serious smoke build up, go to the smokiest club you know of and take an amp out of the rack. Pop open the top and you will see this grey fuzz all over everything. That's condensed humidity (sweat) and cigarette smoke. It's really fucking gross, and it affects the amps ability to stay cool, which affects power supply, which affects tone and dependability.

Now I'm not saying that the occasional cigarette in the studio will do the same thing- we're talking hundreds maybe thousands of cigarettes a night over the 200 nights a year this club is rocking. But I would be against allowing smoking full time in the studio. But if someone needs to blow a lung during a long session, I let 'em and warn 'em that the next one will be outside.

[tiger vomitt]

my mom is a serious cig smoker. there is this one lamp in the house.. i always thought it was a bronze color. when i was maybe 27 my stepdad cleaned off the lamp with some super-gunk-off kinda cleaner. it was a silver color underneath all the years of nicotine funk covering the lamp. true story. before the cleaning it was as yellow as the backgroud of this webpage you're looking at right now.

there was also this doorbell in the house, it had the 2 long tubular bell shaped things coming out of it that went ding dong when the bell rang. when the doorbell was replaced, of course i wanted to salvage the bell part of it. when i put my hands on it it was really sticky, like if you ever eat dates how the really sticky ones get. it was from the years of cigarette grime on it.

ever see a long time smoker with a beard? notice how the hair is all yellow around the mouth?

do i want that on my gear? hell no.

[joel hamilton]

I am STILL cleaning off the nicotine from my console. The pots and switches seemed to have smoked 2 packs a day in the 70's....

I cleaned a house owned by two OLD smokers. They had been sort of shut ins, and smoked ALL THE TIME. I had to razor blade the gummy tar/nicotine disgusting stuff off of the windows, forget everything else. The windows had this greasy, tar-ee, nasty stuff all over them. I did this twice a year for two years.

I smoke marlboro reds, and I wont share it with my studer, or my console, or my hard drives, mics... None of that stuff wants to see airborne particles of any type.

[JGriffin]

my mom is a serious cig smoker. there is this one lamp in the house.. i always thought it was a bronze color. when i was maybe 27 my stepdad cleaned off the lamp with some super-gunk-off kinda cleaner. it was a silver color underneath all the years of nicotine funk covering the lamp. true story. before the cleaning it was as yellow as the backgroud of this webpage you're looking at right now.

there was also this doorbell in the house, it had the 2 long tubular bell shaped things coming out of it that went ding dong when the bell rang. when the doorbell was replaced, of course i wanted to salvage the bell part of it. when i put my hands on it it was really sticky, like if you ever eat dates how the really sticky ones get. it was from the years of cigarette grime on it.

ever see a long time smoker with a beard? notice how the hair is all yellow around the mouth?

do i want that on my gear? hell no.

When my grandfather died a few years back--he smoked cigars--we went through his house to clear it out and several items we thought were yellow turned out to in fact be white.


I did a record in a studio in Detroit called Campo Studios, owned by Choker Campbell (Motown Records bandleader). The consoles and racks were literally sticky with tar and nicotine residue--if you put your hand down on something it came up tacky. Gross. The smoke combined with kerosene space heaters that sucked all the oxygen out of the room put my keyboard player in the hospital after the first tracking day.

[spiral]

DIDN'T YOU SEE THE RAD DIAGRAM I POSTED!? Man, have you been living an empty life.



Fear it.

[joel hamilton]

Wow, pollen looks mean!

[spiral]

Wow, pollen looks mean!

Seriously! Don't my allergies know it.

The head of the Bic guy? Smoke particle? Discuss.

[nestle]

I have a new tele and I really like that patina that guitars get from being around smoke. I figure I should start smoking and hang it on the wall, maybe blowing in its direction now and then. Any brands that good for yellowing a guitar?, I've heard Marlboro's are pretty good for that vintage effect. But I will be careful just to smoke around the guitar and not my mic's