One of my decks is creating a bit of static while the record plays, and the contacts look a little dirty. i hope this is the only problem anyway, so what's the best way to clean them?

Do you have covers for your decks? I have had a few problems lately and I think it is due to dust build up in crevices and cracks that are a part of the table. Like inside screws and such which causes things to tighten up and what not.

As far as cleaning the metal parts of the table, alcohol should be fine. Just make your you really dry it all off when you are finished. And the static might be coming from dust on the records themselves. Just wipe them down a little before play.

Yeah I saw your post about the screws, but I'm talking more about the 4 points that the cartridge connects to when you put it on the tonearm. I am pretty sure thats the problem, as the static noise is the same as when your disconnect the cartridge while everything is turned on (as opposed to dust on the record).
Thanx anyway.
I might try some alcohol and see how that goes...

What I do to clean metal contacts is use a pen eraser... you know the double erasers where one end is standard pencil and the other is that rough grey one... Use the rough one on the metal contacts and that cleans up any excess crap that has built up.

It's also got graphite I beleve which is what makes it a better conductor of the signal. This info also goes out to when your doing some PC maintenance and cleaning... rub it along the bottom of your cards to clean the gold contacts.

Alcohol will also do the job... Just be careful to clean everything properly.

Thanks Timski.
Who'd of thought a throwback to school would really be useful? An eraser would be way cheaper than a bottle of Scotch, just not as much fun with the leftovers.
(joking -isopropyl prefered)

Also found this http://www.turntabletech.com/diy.htm
Says the cart is probably causing the prob.