Record cleaning

[TC Chris]

Just played an old Mitch Miller LP; better sounding than most Columbia discs. First I used the record brush. I have an old Radio Shack carbon-bristle record brush, a long thing about the width of the grooves on one side of the center hole. I usually breathe on the record surface so a bit of condensation forms, on the theory that the moisture will make the dust stick to the brush.

Wondering what others do for this purpose.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

If I am doing LP's, plastic records, and not the old shellac 78's, I like to use Windex. I spritz a bit of Windex on a microfiber towel, then wipe with the grooves. I bought some brushes women use to put on makeup at an auction. Those makeup brushes are wonderful for cleaning the stylus. They are stout enough to get the dirt, but soft enough to not damage the needle or the cartridge. I keep a can of compressed air so I can knock the dust and dirt out of the cartridge. You see guys on YouTube who make a video of an instrument they have meticulously restored, then they play a nasty, dirty record. I try not to play a record until I have cleaned it. I don't like using anything but plain water on the old shellac 78's.

[hermitcrab]

I think any way you prefer is probably OK as long as you get the grooves clean... I just use one of those spin clean deals and it seems to work OK. I know after about 10 dirty records you gotta change the solution which I use ...distilled water/alcohol/dawn soap.

[William]

I have one of those. It came with solution so that's what I use. It works good.

Bill

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Very old school, but works for me, and is inexpensive.

I use the sink faucet and 1 drop of plant based liquid dish
soap for each side.
First rinse with water for gross dirt removal,
being careful to avoid the record label.
Then 1 drop of soap, clean one side, then the other.
Final rinse of both sides and dry with low lint cotton dish towel.

I really like the PfanStat anti-static as a final treatment,
if the record seems to retain static charge, or
if the record has significant shallow scratches.

[TC Chris]

I have one of those. It came with solution so that's what I use. It works good.

Bill

Me too, for old/dirty records. But I'm curious about hermitcrab's formula.

Chris Campbell

[William]

You, Chris, were the one that recommended the Spin Clean too me.

Bill

[hermitcrab]

the formula I use I found on a record forum , and that poster claimed it was the same as what they sell you... I mix mine up in the same 16oz bottle that came with my spin clean .... 12 oz distilled water, 4 oz of 70% alcohol , and 1 or 2 drops of dawn dish soap , I never when above 70% alcohol for fear it might be too much for the vinyl... my biggest complaint is the static charge records retain ... someone needs to come up with a way to de-ionize records as they play on the table...a small ion generator perhaps next to the tonearm as it plays it attracts the ions? like a small brush riding ahead of the tone arm .... hmmmm....audiophools would buy it ... they buy into every gimmick out there...

[hermitcrab]

Just played an old Mitch Miller LP; better sounding than most Columbia discs. First I used the record brush. I have an old Radio Shack carbon-bristle record brush, a long thing about the width of the grooves on one side of the center hole. I usually breathe on the record surface so a bit of condensation forms, on the theory that the moisture will make the dust stick to the brush.

Wondering what others do for this purpose.

Chris Campbell

I find any of those Columbia records of the early 60's do sound great after all these years ... I have a stack of Ray Conniff records and once cleaned they sound like new... like 10" LP's , I don't think the original owners played them to often...

[TC Chris]

the formula I use I found on a record forum , and that poster claimed it was the same as what they sell you... I mix mine up in the same 16oz bottle that came with my spin clean .... 12 oz distilled water, 4 oz of 70% alcohol , and 1 or 2 drops of dawn dish soap

Thanks for the formula. Dawn seems to be the universal choice. It's what they use for cleaning birds that are soiled by oil spills. What kind of acohol--rubbing? Denatured shellac thinner?

Chris Campbell

[hermitcrab]

I just use plain old isopropyl alcohol

[Motorola minion]

I asked some fellas one at record-swap what they use and the formulas with distilled water isopropyl and Dawn discussed here is what they recommended using a spray bottle and microfiber towel. I use a "Discwasher" that was similar to the record brush Radio Shack sold. These were sold in the 1980s and probably still available.

Discwashers are meant to have the leading edge soaked with "cleaning solution" then brought down on a spinning disc to wet the grooves, then roll to the trailing edge to dry it and pick up the dirt. It had a stiff little brush to drag the dust out of the soft black cushion that picks up dirt from a record.

[Firedome]

I still have a Dishwasher somewhere in a box in the basement, fluid long gone. I never could seem to find the right way to clean records, there always seemed to be some kind of residue, or maybe it was just wear. I always had v good TTs and stylii, and tried to be careful, but background noise always seemed to be coming from something. Thought about one of those fancy record cleaning machines but they were more expensive than the turntable.
When CDs came were a revelation, and I bought one of the first ones about 1982. Sound with dead silence in the background, no click hiss or pop, but even after 3 more of them ultimately they all just seem to be lacking realism compared to like-new vinyl played on a good setup.

This always seemed to me to be the solution, I've been following this for about 25 years hoping the price might come down, but still about $10,000 the last time I checked: https://www.elpj.com/

[19&41]

I miss the cleaner that Ball Brothers used to make under the Sound Guard label. It came in a container that had a 3 inch foam pad at the top of the container that would dispense and spread out a clear coating onto the record that would then dry and one would use a piece of masking tape on the coating to lift it off of the records surface. That stuff would even remove paint from record grooves.