You are right. Alcohol is not aggressive enough and did little to nothing. Since I have experienced this only once in the hundreds I have bought I think for now I do not want to go through a lot of trouble gathering additional cleaning products. Disc Doctor has been great on every other LP. I will set this one aside for now and if it becomes a more common occurrence then I will revisit this thread and try some of your great suggestions .Thanks for all the answers, Bill
Gunk will not clean off LP ?
I purchased a used Jimmy Smith LP that is absolutely scratch free but had an extremely dull shine to the vinyl. I clean all LPs with a VPI 16.5 RCM and Disc Doctor before play and that has always brought back the original shine to the Vinyl. This time it did not come back to shine and on playback sounds like the LP had been treated with something that did not come off in cleaning. After 2 cleanings it appears there still is some sort of treatment that had been applied and did not come off. It’s a great album but I am afraid to play it because whatever it is I don’t want it to gunk up my stylus. Any ideas on how to clean it off? Thanks Bill
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Alcohol alone is not an aggressive solvent and will undoubtedly not do a good job unless a good surfactant in sufficient volume is present in your cleaning solution. For the record Freon is Dupont's trade name for a group of chemicals; it is not a single product. The base chemical is trichlorotrifloroethane. It is blended with other solvents such as acetone, IPA, etc. for use in cleaning and refrigeration applications. |
Thanks for all the responses. The haze does look like something was intentionally applied; I suppose an anti static attempt? Since I have reentered the vinyl world recently I have purchased and cleaned hundreds of used LPs and this is the first time I ran across this. As Albert suggested I am going to try alcohol and if it doesn’t sound better after that I may clean the LP with it as well. So if drinking alcohol or cleaning the album with alcohol doesn’t improve it then I’ll take Jaybo’s suggestion and toss it |
Gregm....There are many on the market. Visit the detergent aisle of your supermarket. I am most familiar with the heavy duty hand cleaner stuff (used after working on your car) but it includes pumace and would be unsuitable for LPs. The DuPont solvent in the product that Albert identified may in fact be what we came up with at work. The Micro Care Premier product is the safe approach, as it has been evaluated specifically for LPs. If you are interested in experimenting, and want to save a few bucks, try something from the supermarket. |
Eldartford, the cleaner I referred to as Freon is actually Vertrel (DuPont). It seems to clean like Freon but as you say, Freon was banned for such uses. Here is a link to the product. Premier It's not quite as good as the original Nitty Gritty "First," but that product is no longer available. |
As Albertporter says, Freon is the best cleaner there is, but the environmentalists have banned it. In my business (manufacture of missile guidance systems) we used to clean everything with Freon, but were forced to find something else to use. After a great deal of research and testing it was found that the citrus fruit based cleaners were almost as good as freon, and much better than other alternatives. I suggest that you get some and try it. Of course you should avoid the products that include an abrasive. |
I could have been one of those LP's treated with the canned spray that offered "static free" playback. Many of those formulas contained silicone and other ingredients that are difficult to remove. There is a Freon based cleaner called Premier that works well and possibly the old tried and true alcohol and water (for this one instance). I'm not big on alcohol on LP's but many audiophiles use it with good success and report no problems. I love the Record Research fluids, works well on every LP I've tried it on, but your album sounds like it's covered in something that's really sticking to the surface. Whatever you try, if you find success please post back here for others to see. Good luck. |
I know this getting into whole ritual but imbedded is suggestion.Does not sound like spores but if it is their is a product called Bugtusssel that is supposed to be best at removing mold spores.I would get a small bottle of LAST Power Cleaner.I use it and then use home brew on my 16.5 (distilled watter with a few drops,say 3-4,of Dawn dish liquid and 3-4 drops of Kodak Photoflow which can be bought at photo shop.It breaks up water tension and allows even spread).Next I use a Alsop Orbitrac to clean off cleaner and gunk.Finally I use plain distilled water run through a Britta piture (takes some minerals out) and have CLEAN extra VPI tube to use this final rinse.Then I use the best record care product ever made LAST preservative.You could just use LAST Power Cleaner run one with cleaning fluid,then once again with plain water and it should remove it.I should get some buggtussle to remove mold spores since their impossible to remove. But for you the simple short clean and rinse after Power cleaner should do trick.Some clouding can be part of manufacturing process (and nothing can be done)but that does not sound like your problem. BTW After all this using Touramat liquid which makes a slick groove surface and your choice of CAREFULLY applied stylus cleaner treatment retards ware as well at cutting down friction (if using stylus treatment take an small stiff artists brush and razor cut at 45 degree angle and use that to clean stylus-that way you get less fluid on brush instead of slopping it on with brush in bottle.This can lead to liquid creep up stylus into motor assembly).Again I prefer the LAST product. But clean 'em up and get that LAST PRESERVATIVE!!!!Mike,head tech at VPI said he had people bring LP's up for play and he'd ask how many times they'd been played and they's guess 300-500 times while he would have guessed half a dozen.That from a man who had no finacial (or otherwise) interest in reccomending the stuff is high praise indeed.You use probably the best cleaner so why not seal the LP's up?.The effect on sound are minnimal if any from the preservative which is absorbed into the vinyl.But the LAST power cleaner(start with small bottle and see if it's worth the absurd price like I think it is) should clean and artifacts that can be removed. G'luck Chazz |