Blast from the Past
 

I was staying with my uncle for the past few days, and I took it upon myself to dig around in his shed to find a couple boxes filled with old LPs from "back in the day." We searched through them, and I pulled out all of his prog rock albums, which included mostly Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Gryphon, and a little bit of Genesis. I had to grab Ravi Shankar and Paco de Lucia as well. :D

It didn't take much to convince him to let me borrow them along with a very nice Sony phonograph he had stored in the garage, so now I've got it all at home.

Anyway, many of the LPs are unplayable because of warping, which is quite a shame, but the newer ones seem in good condition. However, one issue is cleaning; I've managed to get by on a few by blowing off most of the debris, but some have gotten quite dirty, and I was wondering what the best way to clean them off is. I'm sure there are a lot of people here who would know!

Be gentle with me..........
 

http://www.beverlyrecords.com/reccare.htm

Some useful hints here lemur but be careful with that toothbrush. Don't use too much detergent either and always go in the direction of the groove not centre to edge.

Don't use a cloth that is likely to flake. I'd suggest a decent, soft, chamois leather.

You lucky man you. I get a real buzz out of finding old vinyl. A neighbour recently moved house and gave me over 200 LPs (all classical music) among which were a large number of rarities.

Well, these instructions seemed to be aimed towards LPs that have gotten filthy, though what inflicts these is primarily just dust and other floaties. Perhaps it would just be enough to whipe it with a soft towel or cloth, or should I not forgo getting it wet?

Something soft like a velvet pad would probably do the trick lemur. You can get these in a lot of good record stores or specialist Hi Fi shops.

Put the LP on the turntable and clean it that way.

for warping, I've had a bit of success with putting them flat on top of the refrigerator and putting something heavy like a dictionary on top. give it a few days(weeks?) and hopefully they'll flatten out enough to play.

for cleaning there's always this:
http://www.wellspent.org/Product?p=27203&c=9352

Recoton's site(they make DiscWasher) is currently under construction...

Lemur

NOw whether this can obtained in theses days and ages I don't know as it's years since I was forced to clean an LP.

But before, I bought a bottle with a kind of liquid plastic, which one carefully painted a layer across the record. The idea being that liquid fills out all the groves and dirt. The liquid is based on a highly inflammable chemcial which when exposed to air evaporates. This means the plastic becomes solid. With the help of sticky tape the plastic is peeled off the record taking the dirt with it. It works. And the plastic pealing can, if its whole be, played as well.

you can still find those LP brushes/cleaners-
that usually comes w/ a small bottle of cleaning fluid.

i have one from the 80's by audio technica.

Yes, my uncle said he had something exactly like that, but he couldn't find it.

Anyway, I have been using a piece of velvet cloth to clear out the dust, and it seems to be working just fine. Aside from that, the LPs don't seem to need any additional cleaning.

A good bet (if you are in a large city) would be to find the local indie record store where they sell indie, punk, emo, core, and post rock. Most underground and indie bands these days, and most indie labels, have brought back vinyl. It's "hip" buy music on vinyl again, at least non-commercial stuff. Atlanta even has a music store that is nothing but vinyls from indie labels, and they make handsome money.

My bet is that these places will have the modern accessories (sp?)needed for vinyls. Worth a shot anyway.

after i posted, i realized- check the dj section at
guitar center, ect., usually in pro audio.
they should carry record cleaners.