Product Care & Safety

Prints and framed art

  • Hang out of direct sunlight. Any pigment fades eventually and a south-facing wall gets there fastest.
  • Dust the glazing with a dry microfibre cloth. Spray cleaner onto the cloth, never onto the frame, or it wicks under the glass.
  • Let a rolled print sit flat under a couple of books overnight before framing. It will relax on its own.
  • Handle unframed prints by the edges. Fingerprints on matte art stock do not wipe off.

Instruments

  • Keep them out of the loft, the garage and the conservatory. Wood hates the swing between hot and cold far more than it hates either extreme.
  • Aim for something like normal room humidity. A guitar left next to a radiator all winter will develop sharp fret ends and eventually cracks.
  • Wipe the strings down after playing. Sweat is what kills a set, not playing time.
  • Loosen the strings a little if an instrument is going into storage for months. Not slack, just off full tension.
  • Get a new instrument set up locally. Action, intonation and nut height make more difference to how something plays than anything on the spec sheet.

Strings, cables and small parts

  • Store spare strings sealed. The packet is doing a job — once air gets at them they corrode whether you play them or not.
  • Coil cables loosely, over and under rather than round your elbow. Cables fail at the connector, and the damage is done by twisting.
  • Never pull a lead out by the cable. It is the single most common way a good cable dies.
  • Keep a spare of everything that is cheap and stops the session dead: strings, a lead, a battery, a pick.

Vinyl and storage

  • Store records upright and reasonably tight. Leaning stacks warp, and horizontal stacks crush.
  • Replace paper inner sleeves with poly-lined ones. Paper is abrasive and it is what puts the fine scuffs on a record you have never dropped.
  • Keep them off the floor and away from radiators and windows.
  • Brush before each play. It costs seconds and saves the stylus as much as the record.

LED signs, lighting and electricals

  • Indoor use only unless a product says otherwise.
  • Use the supplied adaptor. Substituting a different power supply is the fastest way to kill an LED sign and it voids everything.
  • Mount to the fixings supplied and into something solid. Plasterboard needs proper anchors.
  • Keep acrylic away from heat sources; it distorts long before it burns.

Acoustic panels

  • Panels absorb reflections inside a room. They do not stop sound leaving it — that is a building job.
  • Vacuum foam gently with a brush attachment. Do not wash it.
  • Wood slat panels take a dry cloth. Avoid anything wet on the felt backing.

Safety

  • Small parts — picks, capos, end pins, batteries — are a choking hazard. Keep them away from small children.
  • Button and coin cells are genuinely dangerous if swallowed. Keep them out of reach and get medical help immediately if one is.
  • Wall-mounted items must go into a stud or use the correct fixing for the wall. A falling record shelf is heavier than it looks.
  • Stop using anything electrical if the cable, plug or housing is damaged.

Everything we sell is intended for ordinary domestic use. If a product carries specific manufacturer instructions, those come with it and take precedence over this page.