properly handled vinyl

[azrockitman]

I've been increasingly digging into my vinyl collection and just recently started thinking about the oldest "non-beatle" LP that I own (the first several LP's I bought were all Beatle records)  It's probably a jimi Hendrix LP but while poking around, I noticed Brewer & Shipley's Tarkio album with One Toke over the Line, their biggest seller.  I am so thankful I was careful with my LP's.  Ive never done anything but clean them with one of the felt cleaners...it was a "preener", back in the day, and since then any modern day equivalent.  And the B & S album is 43 years old right now.  Clean, no scratches, and the only clicks are those that it likely came with.  It's not a stellar record but has several good songs on it but mostly, my point is that I've done nothing extraordinary but keep my fingers off my LP's all these years and kept the dust off in a very easy manner.    I did notice this nice discovery.....never noticed before the guy that was listed as playing steel guitar. 

[Grainger49]

I'm jealous that you haven't had equipment that destroyed any of your old albums.  Or bad habits that destroyed them, or friends that mishandled them....

You get the picture.

[4krow]

 I went off the deep end cleaning, lubricating('Last' Products) and anything else you could come up with. I won't say that I regret it, but it became quite a process just to hear one side of an album. In my world, you only cleaned one side at a time.

[Mike B]

That's what I always did, put it on the platter, spin it up and use whatever "cleaning device" was popular at the time.

Now I just use a brush.

Really filthy records are best cleaned over a sink with soap & water & alcohol rinse.

[Grainger49]

I had a Preener, Dust Bug, Humidistat, Parastat, RWB (record wash brush, all the preceding are from Cecil Watts), Diskwasher, the whole load of popular and inexpensive cleaners back in the 70s.  But I never handled my LPs touching the grooves.  The problem with some of my old albums were parties where sticky drinks got sloshed on them, someone pulled the arm across an album or things like that.

Today I use a VPI 16.5 and AIVS (just bought a two year stock) cleaning fluids.  These have resurrected some LPs that I thought were hopeless.

[azrockitman]

god, I forgot about the dust bug.  I had one.  Like a little plastic 2nd tonearm.  Used it religiously.

[vrgard]

Fun to be reminded of all the turntable/vinyl "tools" we used in the 70's.  As for my vinyl collection from my youth, not only am I glad I was reasonably careful with it but just as importantly I'm glad that I hung on to it (sometimes it's good to have a packrat nature?) rather than dump it when I got away from audio for a decade or more back in the late 80's.  Revisiting it now, some if it is atrocious (I bought that?!? When there was so much better stuff available then?  Sheesh, what was I thinking?) but then there are the hidden gems and the wonderful reminders the music and album covers trigger in my mind.

-Randy

[azrockitman]

Randy, I had that exact experience the other night.  I liked a group called Automatic Man years ago, I own two albums of theirs (probably the only two)  I pulled one out the other night and started listening to it and thought I must have been temporarily insane back then for liking it.  Hmmm, maybe their other LP is good.....

[najo49]

The nitty gritty record cleaner,is a product I could not live without. Buy solution make a gallon and it takes 2 mins to clean both sides. everybody should have one. Not every time you play it but every 4th or so.Jann O

[galyons]

I went "extravagant" in the early 80's and bought a VPI 16 vacuum record cleaner.  Still in service today, although it was upgraded to 16.5 when VPI made the kit available.  Can't imagine not having it, especially when vinyl was thrift shop or tag sale only!!!

Cheers,
Geary

[earwaxxer]

I remember being 'religious' about not playing the same album within a 24hr period or so, due to something about the vinyl needing to "settle" after it was played. Not sure if thats real. It made sense at the time. That was an easy one for me though, because I believed in not "over listening". There was some time needed for the experience to be "absorbed and integrated" into the consciousness....

[Chris]

You guys are hilarious about the "why the hell did I buy that before?".... and yeah, I HAVE to get me one of those VPIs someday...I was a LAST guy myself... however, one never knows what the long term effects are with that stuff.. I guess I will find out when i get my albums (not many, maybe 150) out of their 20 year slumber that were treated and cleaned with the LAST record preservative... somehow, that word scares me....   I am sure the VPI will suck all that preservative crap off though.. and I will go from there just cleaning only....

[Paully]

Last isn't coming off, from what I know it is bonded to the vinyl.  But also, from what I have read, Last shouldn't have bonded any dirt to the record, so if that's true cleaning will still help.  But the last is there to stay.

I would recommend a VPI first and foremost.  But if that is pricey for you, as it is for me, buy a used Nitty Gritty off of eBay and use that for a while.  I have one, I would love to buy a VPI as the ability to have it spin while you apply fluid and scrub is wonderful and the vacuum is more powerful, but my Nitty Gritty gets the job done.

[Hank Murrow]

I've been increasingly digging into my vinyl collection and I am so thankful I was careful with my LP's.  Ive never done anything but clean them with one of the felt cleaners... my point is that I've done nothing extraordinary but keep my fingers off my LP's all these years and kept the dust off in a very easy manner.

Dear Rockitman; I stored my 1200 disc collection in the eighties after collecting since the fifties, and only got them out again once PB had built a BH Customs Eros to join the Linestage and 2A3 amp he built for me. I got a VPI table and BPS EVO lll cartridge, and gave my records a trip through the Spin Clean. Somehow, the BPS found clean vinyl and there was very little noise in those old grooves. My music choices were surprisingly good back in those days, so I have a vault of good listening ahead of me.

Cheers, Hank in Eugene

[azrockitman]

I would like to get a machine some day;  even taking good care of LP's, I'm sure a good cleaning would do all my vinyl some good. But I just can't justify (to others in my household) the money for a VPI, so maybe I will poke around for a NittyGritty that's affordable.  For step one.