Am I brushing records wrong?


I just cleaned a bunch of my records, using the sink washing (with the GroovMaster) method described by a fellow 'Goner.

When I'm done I place the record on the player for a final dust cleaning with my Audioquest carbon fiber brush. Just looked at the record under the light, and there are dozens to hundreds of tiny little hairs over the record. Brushing them just moves the around, but they're almost impossible to get off. Sometimes they just change the way they're pointing, sometimes the brush goes right over them, making them seem like a scratch, but they're not.

Am I carbon fiber brushing incorrectly? I usually brush with many swipes from the center to the edge while the record spins on the player, attempting to brush the dust off the record. I think the carbon fiber bristles are the little hairs I'm seeing, though, so maybe I shouldn't be brushing.

Incidentally, many of my brand new records still have surface noise, and quite a bit of ticks and pops...I'm pretty disappointed. Maybe if I had an autocleaner it would help, but I'm manually washing with soap/water, then using a stiffer brush to apply Record Research Deep Cleaner, so I was hoping for no noise.
matt8268

Showing 1 response by dougdeacon

Matt,

The others have described the proper technique for using a carbon fiber brush. "Hundreds of tiny hairs" on a freshly washed record are almost certainly carbon fibers from your brush. They are indeed very difficult to remove. Try zapping with your ZeroStat gun (you have one, right?) and then blasting with compressed air (you have that, right?).

It may be time for a new carbon fiber brush.