[John Casler]

Back in the 1980's there was a product called "TWEAK".  It was a solution that you applied to your interconnects and RCA jacks that "supposedly" assisted the flow of electrons.

So I bought some (and I still have about 1/3 bottle left) and I would Cramolin (contact cleaner) my connectors and then "TWEAK" them and then plug them all back in.

I would do this about once a year.

I swear, the system always sounded better when I "TWEAKED" everything.

Maybe it was just cleaning the contacts, or maybe there was something to it, or maybe it was just like how your car drives better and has more pep after a fill up and carwash

Anyone know if this product still is sold?  It was fun to do if nothing else.

[RickB]

Yep, I remember the stuff, also sold as "Stabilant 23A" at NAPA auto parts stores for use on automotive electrical systems.

Nasty stuff, I can't tell you the number of RCA jacks that I have seen that once had Tweek on them and the chemical damaged....looking at the jacks under magnification looked like the gold plating had been "blasted" off the substrate....

One of my best friends has a Hafler preamp he built back in 1984 or so....the RCA jacks were upgraded to whatever the best was available back when he built it....they are totally shot now with pitting covering the entire outer section of the jacks....he was a religious user of Tweek until he retired the preamp a few years ago...I looked at it about a year ago after he told me he pulled it out of the closet and saw what condition the jacks were in...I have also seen this on several older used units that I know fellows used the stuff on...others have also reported the same effect...

It did work, though, for a while, but there are better substance out there now...Caig products, Kontak, for instance, and I wound never use the stuff again...I still have a vial of it here just to remind me!

So, you may be lucky and not have it damage anything, as for me, I'll never use the stuff again....

Just my opinion...

[Tonto Yoder]

Of course I remember Tweek--he's a character on South Park.


Don't see how he could affect your stereo though.

[michael w]

The name was "Tweek", a contact enhancer distributed by Sumiko.

I still have a sealed sample in the original syringe packaging.

Be very careful using this stuff as tended to gum things up and/or caramelise when dumped in places like tube sockets.

Ugh.

Tweek the cartoon is what most owners looked like after discovering the damage this stuff could do.

[John Casler]

Wow, hadn't heard any war stories like that about the stuff and i still have the equipment I used it on (actually even in the 70's -since I too remember the first batches were packaged in a syringe type applicator)

All my contacts, some gold plated and some regular are "intact" and fine.

I wonder if it has to due with the Cramolin treatment I used too.

The Cramolin was a two step de-oxidizer and cleaner that was also big at the time.  

As far as the jack damage, maybe the product worked "too" well.  Seems to me the explanation was that it promoted "molecular migration" to "bond" the surfaces of the jack with the interconnect.  Sounded like BS at the time, but with all the damage that some seemed to incur, it might have done just that.

Wonder how many products today will turn out to be "harmful" in some way to the sound or the hardware?

[byteme]

I've also got about 1/2 or 2/3 bottle of that left.  Bought it in the 80's I think.  I stopped using it a couple years ago after reading that it f'd things up chemically.

[Mike B.]

I just recently ran across a syringe of the stuff in my audio closet. Terrible stuff and Caig Pro gold is the way to go today IMO. I still have a bottle of the red Cramolin.

[Bosh]

All my contacts, some gold plated and some regular are "intact" and fine.

I wonder if it has to due with the Cramolin treatment I used too.

The Cramolin was a two step de-oxidizer and cleaner that was also big at the time.  ...

I still have a "Tweek" bottle (from the early 80's) with the little applicator brush.  It's now filled with Pro Gold.

As I no longer own the equipment I used it on, I can't report on nagative effects.  But from what I hear I'm THRILLED the ex got it all in the settlement!

I've been assured by friends in pro audio that the stuff was pure evil, and entire jack bays had to be replaced because of it.  The Cramolin de-ox probably saved your inputs.

PS:  Another "contact enhancer" to avoid is "Silver Bearing Grease".  Uggg.  Shorted 5 interconnects with that awful gunk.  And ended up highlighting it in the first (and last) "Tweak From Hell" awards in J-10's old column in s'phile.

[John Casler]

I guess all these horror stories explain why it is still not on the shelves