(Not) taking care of your records

nomos

Administrator
I don't really take care of mine very well, beyond putting them back in their sleeves when I'm done and trying not lay greasy fingers on them when I eat and mix at the same time. Sometimes I leave them on the decks getting dusty for days at a time and when I play them the needle looks like a snow plough.

What should I be doing to preserve them? What techniques/machines/rituals do people have? I know there are audiophiles and collectors here. I read something about cleaning with windshield wiper fluid. Other people concocted solutions that involved photofinishing chemicals.

Also, if anyone has tips for flattening records I'd be interested. I've tried the oven-and-glass method on a pair of badly bent records (someone, possibly me, left Showbiz and AG beside a heater. this is making me sound downright abusive.) and it worked fairly well.
 
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captain easychord

Guest
me too, i need help on this. im so shit at taking care of my records
 
Yeah I shocked a few people on record-collecting forums by admitting that after paying £50 or whatever for a rare record, I am usually scratching with it in a club the next day.
Some people collect records just to look at them you know, they put them on the wall!
Sealed copies etc.

I think it is perverted.


Cleaning tips: I got something in Canada called "Dr Spin's" cleaning solution, works pretty well. Or you can just use water and a TINY bit of detergent. The main thing is to get it all out of the grooves, you have to play the record a few times after you clean it, and if you can be bothered then play it backwards too, using a needle that you don't care about too much. Seems to get everything out of the grooves. Otherwise a record will definitely crackle the first few plays after you clean it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Some people collect records just to look at them you know, they put them on the wall!
Sealed copies etc."
There's a shop down the road from me that, as far as I can tell, sells only frames for putting around your record sleeves when you put them on the wall.
"does anybody know how how to de-warp vinyl?"
I'd like to know that too.
 

nomos

Administrator
A DIY record cleaning machine:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/recordcleaner.htm

Or this bad boy...
Lori_ash.jpg


Only $2095 at this place :eek:
 

Canada J Soup

Monkey Man
autonomicforthepeople said:
I've had the best luck with the 'place in direct sunlight between two pieces of glass' method mentioned there. If the weather isn't obliging, you can also place on top of the fridge near the back for 30 minutes. Actually baking in the oven sounds a bit too extreme.

Ever noticed how certain lables are more prone to warping than others? I don't know if it was Magic Juan being cheap on the pressing, but every Metroplex record I've ever owned has been warped / eventually developed a warp.
 

nomos

Administrator
On the warping front, I've been wondering what effect extreme cold is having on my mailorder items. In the dead of winter (-30C-ish), even if I'm able to grab a package from the mailbox immediately, there's no telling how long it's already been outside.
 
Idle Rich - you must live near Broadway Market??
I wouldn't mind putting some record sleeves on the wall but to not play the records is ill.

Warped records - there are 2 ways a record gets warped
1 = getting too hot and melting a bit, try the 2 sheets of glass trick if it's too fucked to play. if it's warped but plays, I would leave it!

2 = when they fuck up the pressing so that one side of the record dries faster than the other and the record gets "cupped" - this is a common problem especially in these days of declining vinyl quality, making records properly is becoming lost knowledge. so you get a lot of cupped records. so one side plays fine but the other side is skippy especially when you're trying to cue it up. you can often fix these by bending the record in the opposite direction to the cupping and flexing it a bit, works about 50% of the time, but it takes a mixture of bravery (you have to do it quite hard) and gentleness (not too hard or it'll snap)
Don't come running to me if you snap it!

peace
 

petergunn

plywood violin
Canada J Soup said:
I've had the best luck with the 'place in direct sunlight between two pieces of glass' method mentioned there. If the weather isn't obliging, you can also place on top of the fridge near the back for 30 minutes. Actually baking in the oven sounds a bit too extreme.

Ever noticed how certain lables are more prone to warping than others? I don't know if it was Magic Juan being cheap on the pressing, but every Metroplex record I've ever owned has been warped / eventually developed a warp.


yeah, the 2 peces of glass method will work, depending on how bad the warp is... it's all a bit of luck, some warps can be fixed w/o any audible weirdness, others will still sound a little warped even when flat.. i think it depends on the type of warp...

for cleaning records, i have an anti-static brush for day to day use, and i use an old t-shirt and warm, soapy water for deep cleaning... some people believe alcohol can hurt your vinyl, so better safe than sorry...

lastly, change your needles often and buy the best needles you can afford to avoid cue burning your records... i found this out the hard way... :( :mad:
 
D

droid

Guest
There was a great article about this in Wax Poetics a few years back... some good pics of 12s in the sink.
 

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
i went to a record collector store in LA (A-1 Record Finders or soemthing, next to Paramount on Melrose). I was talking with the owner about cleaning records and he said not to waste money on record cleaners. Just get a $2 bottle of Zippo fluid, and it works better.

Honestly, I still havent tried it.

And thanks for the info on cupped records. I wondered why some of em show up like that. It makes em damn near impossible to mix, especially from the beginning.
 

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
all my records are in poly-lined sleeves

and they're actually quite expensive now

maybe I should insure the sleeves :D
 

petergunn

plywood violin
Freakaholic said:
i went to a record collector store in LA (A-1 Record Finders or soemthing, next to Paramount on Melrose). I was talking with the owner about cleaning records and he said not to waste money on record cleaners. Just get a $2 bottle of Zippo fluid, and it works better.

Honestly, I still havent tried it.

i have heard this before, it seems a little caustic to me... i DO use zippo fluid to remove price stickers from covers of records, it works like a charm for that... but, for the record itself, i dunno about that...
 
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