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Ask the Vinyl King Column

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Ask the Vinyl King

Ask the Vinyl King

June 2005

Can you repair scratches?

 

Text Box: Have you ever had one of those days when you sit down to play your favorite record, and then the unthinkable happens? You ask yourself ‘Hey, did I just hear a skip?’ or ‘Crap, it’s playing that same groove over and over and over….?’ Well, this month we’ll tackle that question. I remember a question that some had sent a couple of years back. I have long since forgotten the name of the person that sent it to me, but I certainly remember the question. The basis of the question was ‘can you repair scratches in LP’s by playing records backwards?’ The answer to this question is, yes, in some circumstances. Let’s start with first things first. Make sure you have taken every appropriate measure in cleaning the record first. A skip can sometimes be easily fixed by simply cleaning your album. One little speck of dirt in the wrong place can cause a mass audio discomfort. Try cleaning first before going to the next step. I’ve rehashed the cleaning question below. As we all know vinyl is a continuous inter-circling groove, if this groove is distorted than we get those nasty ticks, pops, and even skips. These distortions are usually due to misuse, constant playing, or even poor a manufacturing process. Pops and ticks come from simple distortions in the grooves, but skips are when the groves have moved or are missing. Below are some examples of records. This is what a normal record should look like, well sort of. My artistic abilities on the computer are somewhat limited.

Now we get into our skipping records
A.
B.
C.

Text Box: If you look at Figure A you envision the record in motion this would be record that would skip into the next groove, and continue playing. In Figure B the needle will hit a wall. Depending on the angle the groove, this can cause one of two reactions. One is it would skip to the next track, as in Figure A, or kick it back to the previous track which would result in that annoying repetitive skip. Playing the record backwards on the albums represented in Figure A and B in some cases can actually knock the groove back into place resulting in the album being repaired, if at least temporarily. An added note would be that, keep in mind needles aren’t meant to play backwards, so there is a possibility of damaging a needle over repeatedly doing this. If you can easily replace a needle, and it won’t cost you a great deal of cash to replace it this method would be acceptable on those rare occasions you need your treasured music back to it original form, or at least at little closer. In Figure C you notice that part of groove is totally missing. Of course the playing backward method will not work on an album damaged this badly. I have heard of people repairing these albums with wax, a small exacto knife, and a magnifying glass. The idea behind it is to recreate the missing groove with a fine wall of wax. . I have never tried this, nor do I believe I ever will. You’d need the eyes of a hawk, I don’t. The steady hands of a surgeon, don’t have those either. And the patience of Job, yeah right. The added fear of doing more damage would always be in the back of my mind. If you want to try this one, do it at your own risk. If you succeed shoot me an email, I have a few records you can fix. Just kidding. One final thought on this matter. I wonder who thought of this originally. I have a thought. It was a die hard Beatles fan getting down to the mystery of the Paul’s dead. He was looking for all the backward masking messages, and accidentally repaired all his albums.

 

 

Text Box: And now to cleaning records, from a previous column. My answer has been changed slightly. John asks: Album cleaner is virtually impossible to find anymore. Is it safe to use CD cleaner on albums? If not, what is the preferred method for cleaning record albums? Any suggestions? Yes, album cleaners are nearly impossible to find anymore. In a lot of cases their contents didn’t differ from what I’m about to tell you. I agree with the major consensus that a 50/50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and distilled water is the best solution. Some people go as far as saying denatured alcohol and filtered water, due to the fact that both have less impurities. I don't see the need to go to that far, and plus they are not readily found at your normal supermarket, at least not the markets I frequent. Use a soft clean cloth or towel to clean the records. Try to keep the solution off the labels, because they may bleed, bubble, or come off altogether. Clean the records in a circular motion, following the grooves. Make sure to hold the records by the edges. In the cleaning process I use the shop towels that come in a roll and use a spray bottle with the solution. I spray the shop towel and clean until I happy with my endeavor. After cleaning, dry the record with dry, soft cloth or towel. The shop towels can work in this case, but only if you lay it on the album and let it absorb the solution. I wouldn’t suggest rubbing a dry shop towel on the record. The best idea is you need to find something that is very soft, and at the same time very absorbent to soak up the excess of the solution. And there you go -- you've just cleaned your record. One thing that I must add is that since you've just cleaned up your record and it's looking like it's brand spanking new, you have a choice. Do you want to put it back in that dirty inner sleeve you just pulled it out of? With a small investment you can get some new inner sleeves, and give your beautiful record a nice clean home. This is totally up to you. WARNING: This cleaning process must only be used on records consisting of polyvinyl. It's not advised to try this process on records consisting of acetate, shellac, or vulcanite that are often found on the older albums. This same cleaning process can be used with CDs. The only difference is to clean the CD from the center to the outside, instead of the circular motion used on the LPs.

 

Text Box: My apologizes for forgetting last months column. I was holding out too much hope for receiving some questions. MY BAD!
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