Turntable noobie...what advice do you have?

@mijostyn: Good point about the Dust Bug not being conductive; that had not occurred to me. It's been a long time, but I seem to recall the Bug traversing an LP side at about the same rate as the arm on my AR turntable (this was in 1969, before some of you were born ;-).

One thing that makes such a device irrelevant to me is the fact that imo the most important time to neutralize any static charge on an LP is before you clean it. If, like mijostyn, you don't "believe" in cleaning an LP before playing (other than with a dusting brush, of which I have the Hunt, Decca, and new Audioquest), I guess you disagree. We all find our own preferences in LP care; whatever works for you is cool.

Consumer alert: A while back I instigated a thread dedicated to disclosing the used LP's I had recently obtained, which has laid dormant for quite some time. For the benefit of my Portland neighbors, I will now go to it and list the LP's I brought home this week. 

@lewm is SO right about record cleaning machines not necessarily being anti-static devices. In fact, I have found that more than two revolutions of the drying function on a VPI vacuum machine will CREATE static on an LP. Fortunately, two revolutions leaves the LP completely dry, and static free.

I myself never felt "silly" using the Zerostat, but that’s moot now that I have the superior Furutech DeStat III, a fantastic, highly effective, easy to use, anti-static device. Too bad about the price :-(. Lots of brand new/factory-sealed LP’s exhibit a considerable static charge when removed from their sleeve, often emitting a "cracking" sound when leaving the sleeve. Speaking of sleeves, after cleaning a used LP replace the original inner sleeve with a poly sleeve from someone like Vinyl Storage Solutions in Canada, half the price of the identical MoFi sleeve. And replace new paper sleeves too.

@mijostyn: I had a similar type "dust sweep arm" in the late-60’s (the Dust Bug, made by Cecil E. Watts of England). But your recommendation of using one in place of an anti-static device---such as the Zerostat or DeStat---is not a good one.

First and foremost, even if the bristles of the dusting arm are effective at neutralizing an LP with a static charge (I have no knowledge one way or the other), it will do so only when the bristles arrive at any given area of the LP surface. In the meantime, the entire rest of the static-charged LP surface will be attracting dust down onto it.

Secondly, anti-static devices are more effective at neutralizing a static charge when the LP is hand-held, rather than sitting on the platter. The conductive grounding wire of the sweep arm you show in no way aids in neutralizing a static charge. Sorry to be the one to tell you that, but it’s a fact. If it did work, using a bare metal platter would work just as well, and they don’t.

There are anti-static brushes made for the photographic industry, with conductive bristles designed to clean negatives. You’ll notice none of them feature a conductive grounding strap. That is just done on consumer models aimed at gullible record collectors and beginner audiophiles. ;-)

The used LP’s I buy locally almost always have a healthy static charge on them (some record shop owners "clean" their trade-ins with a microfiber cloth and Windex, though a couple of mine have a Nitty Gritty or Record Doctor vacuum machine).

From the very long record-cleaning post on Bill Hart’s site (I can’t recommend it too highly), I learned of a great first step in cleaning used LP’s: You can find on ebay a number of sellers offering a hand-help device that is comprised of two plastic discs slightly larger than the diameter of LP center labels, each disc having a rubber gasket around it’s perimeter. You cover the label on both LP sides with the two discs and secure them with the supplied bolt and plastic-handled wingnut.

You are now ready for the first step in the cleaning process. Hold the LP under the running faucet in your kitchen or laundry room sink, and use a brush of your choice and some mild liquid detergent to wash all the dust/dirt/fluff off the LP. The LP is now pre-cleaned for your record cleaning machine (vacuum or ultrasonic). This does the same job as the Spin Clean and Knosti "tanks", without leaving behind a plastic tub to empty and clean. Doing such a pre-wash keeps the record store/previous owner gunk from dirtying your record cleaning machine/water.

An enthusiastic 2nd on the recommendation of @tomic601 and others for the reading (several times) of the encyclopedic tome on record cleaning found on Bill Hart's website. Indispensable!

As for dealing with the static charge found on many used record shop-"cleaned" LP's (and even some new/sealed LP's):

I bought the original (white) Zerostat when it was first introduced, and for years suffered with it's 'fiddly-ness" (you have to squeeze the trigger veerrry slowly). Then the Nakaoka Kilavolt No. 103 was introduced. Hallelujah! At least as effective, and much easier to use.

Unfortunately the Kilavolt went out of production quite a while back, but there is an even better anti-static product now available: the Furutech Destat III. However, it is priced at an absurd $399! Music Direct currently has it on sale for $329, and if you watch ebay closely you may get as lucky as I and find one for the $200 I paid a coupla years ago.

@tomic601: Yer on, buddy! I'm heading out to sea in July (a cruise to Alaska), and may be heading down to SoCal (Glendale) in a coupla weeks, where I'll be visiting Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Gawd I miss that place!

Last Record Preservative is a great product, which I have been suing since it was introduced. So is Stylast. Last founder Walter Davies was my first high end dealer, when he had a little shop in Livermore, CA.

For used LP buying you’re fortunate to be in Portland!

Music Millennium is great for new LP’s, though you will pay full retail for them. MM also stocks a fair number of used LP’s, and at generally reasonable prices, some as low as $2-$3!

Here are some other good used LP shops in Portland:

- Crossroads Records, 8112 SE Harold Street (just off Foster Road). This is a multiple-vendor operation, one large room with individual sellers. Thousands and thousands of records, so plan for at least a few hours of browsing.

- Jackpot Records, 3574 SE Hawthorne (a block away from Fred’s Sound Of Music hi-fi store). A good little shop with a limited but high-quality inventory. They are also a new reissue label, their release of The Flamin’ Groovies’ fantastic 1976 Power Pop classic Shake Some Action (produced by Dave Edmunds at Rockfield Studious in Wales) due later this month.

- Little Ax Records, 4142 NE Sandy Blvd. (right by the Hollywood movie theater). A small shop, but with very hip inventory. At LA I finally found a copy of Out Of Hand by Gary Stewart. They also had a copy of John Simon’s Journey album, but as I already have a copy (found a few weeks ago at Tomorrow Records---see below), I left it for another person of exceedingly-good taste ;-).

- Tomorrow Records, 700 SE Hawthorne. A medium-sized shop, with a very diverse non-Rock inventory, particularly Jazz (though also plenty of Rock). They also sell 70’s-vintage mid-fi components, if you’re into Japanese receivers, Dual record changers, and JBL-type loudspeakers (I’m not). Great inventory, reasonable prices.

- 2nd Avenue Records, 400 SW 2nd Avenue. This place reminds me of the late-60’s hippie-era shops of my youth, though without the patchouli oil/skunk stink (thank God ;-). Kind of a mess, but with lots of records and associated parapherlania (t-shirts, etc.) at good prices. Very narrow isles inside, metered parking outside.

Of course a Google search will lead you to lots of others, but the above is a good start. Discogs is also a great source, though the seller’s adherence to grading standards varies somewhat.

As for record cleaning: IMO absolutely required if buying used LP’s. Do NOT play a used LP without a deep cleaning first! A vacuum-style cleaner from Record Doctor, Pro-Ject, or VPI, as a minimum.

And then you will need LP storage shelves. Check out the IKEA EKET for a cheap option. A 4-cube 27.5" square assembly for $60, better imo than the LP collector-favorite Kallax (more structurally stiff, with a back panel).