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Options for ridding records of static electricity

I am getting back into vinyl, listening to “garage sale” finds and also new albums that I have been picking up. I have a nice old Linn Sondek LP12 with the felt mat. Every time I go to remove a record from the spindle or flip the record, static electricity grabs the felt mat and it sticks like a magnet. I have to very carefully flip the felt mat at the corner with my finger but one of these times I’m going to slip and smudge or scratch a record. 

I’ve seen the “Milty Zerostat” and seem to remember this product from back in the day. I see that it is still made and there is one eBay vendor that has them for $77. Is this my best bet? I thought Michael Fremor talked about these in one of his videos. 

Are there other products I should look at to reduce static electricity on my records? Thanks for any help you can give.
masi61

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,590 posts
 
my lp12 platter is damped, it is not stock. I has a near zero mass addition that drops the residual ring out of it by probably ......4+ magnitudes in length/tail (time)
Damped and near zero mass addition?? The only way I know of to do that is by making the platter into two bits so that one bit robs the other of energy at its resonance point. That way the two are anti-resonant, but even then it really helps to apply additional damping. And a felt pad would will be a static and sonic issue! Felt, in a word, sucks, when it comes to LP playback.



atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,590 posts
 
The Linn felt mat damps out the platter and is spec’ed for the table. While I suspect you have not really AB’ed a number of mats for the Linn, the unfortunate thing ( unfortunate, as the felt mat does incur static) is that of all the mats I have heard on the table ( and that includes rubber and vinyl) the felt is easily heard as being superior.
@daveyf  This really strongly suggests that you are dealing with a resonance- and that the felt is part of the tailored sound as a result. I prefer to kill resonance and vibration entirely. I've had the good fortune to have a platter pad that does that really well (it was designed over a ten year period using many different turntables) and also master tapes- and the machines on which the tapes were made, as well as LPs made from the tapes.


At any rate, felt isn't going to work if you want to get rid of static. A spinning LP made of plastic acts very much in the same way as a Van de Graaff generator but if the LP has a low dielectric constant with respect to the metal platter, static charges can drain off without popping or the like. 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,590 posts
 
Felt is terrible for a mat. The only reason it gets used is for DJ stuff where it can act like a clutch- you can stop the LP but the platter continues to spin.

The function of the platter pad is to damp both the LP so it does not talk back to the cartridge as the groove is traced, and to also damp the platter itself. Felt simply can't do that; if high end audio reproduction is your goal, your investment dollar in the turntable as a whole will not be served by felt in any form.
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