Vinyl Repair?
Last night my wife was putting on our near mint condition original Tusk pressing and proceeded to drop it. In the process of catching it, she put a pretty good gouge into the first 2 songs, resulting in healthy pops I'd like to eliminate if possible. I’ve checked out a couple of YouTube vids on how to fix, but figured I’d trust people here to truly know. Seems like my options are 1) Put weight on needle and hope that somehow regrooves it (also seems like no one here is going to advocate for using your stylus in this manner) 2) the toothpick trick which seems to get good reviews and 3) some sort of 1500 grit sandpaper which seems insane.
Any advice pre divorce?
Hey all, Just a postscript on this. For Christmas I bought a nice ProJect record cleaner and while cleaning some of my top choices I did finally try the toothpick trick on the Tusk record. It wasn't a 100% fix but there was improvement as a result. |
Fly to Siberia, ride a horse into the tundra and dig into the permafrost. Dig until you find a long, tubular, curvy white thing. |
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There's nothing worse than dropping a mint copy of an album onto the floor as it hits something on the way down. You can attempt to clean it up; but usually it will never sound the same. Just go on Ebay and purchase a new sealed album, many are available. Or, you can go to Discogs and purchase a nice used one. Good luck! |
@clearthinker , "better than a jump." That is the first time I have heard that. It must be the British term for a skip? Not only is the toothpick to big as you suggest but the wood is too soft and dull to shave the defect blocking the groove any way. In the case of a severe scratch multiple grooves are probably blocked. At any rate you would have to have great light and magnification and a cutting needle to have a prayer of clearing the skip/jump. It is certainly cheaper to buy a new record. My wife will use the system but she stays way clear of the turntable even though I have tried to teach her how to use it. Good female instinct. Now I'm going to be banned from twitter. |
I haven't tried this but I wonder if rubbing the damaged area with a Mr. Clean scrubbing pad with a little water would remove the groove nicks toward the top of the grooves without damaging the rest of the groove. It's soft and slightly abrasive but not near as bad as sandpaper. I'd try it on some old inherited damaged LP's for grins but my TT is down, Jim S. |
$25 on Discogs for a NM/M- original pressing copy. This is the only way to get rid of the deep scratch. You can get a copy for $5 too, but a NM/M- condition of quality will be the correct satisfaction for replacing your NM copy. That's what I would do so it's just my opinion. Good luck to you. I hope that you are enjoying a quality replacement within a week. |
There's a digital answer too. I have one demonstration LP that's rare. It has a long scratch across the one side. POP, POP, POP! I recorded the album to my computer and used WAVES audio restoration. The pops were completely gone. I got lucky. Obviously, the reason why this method worked is because with a gouge or scratch, the groove is broken but the information is still intact, restored by the elimination of the gap formed by the damage. You can then play your prefect CDR! Joe |
We are obviously all a little crazy. On a couple occasions I went as far as using a thin threading needle to get rid of a skip. It worked on one album but also destroyed a song on an original very expensive NIN The fragile triple album. Ended up buying a new remastered copy. If you play a lot of albums, it's not if but when s**t will happen. Once while brushing a mint US original of The Wall, I dropped the old style wooden brush and the corner of the wooden part struck the vinyl, badly scratching the entire first song of side 2. Had to fork out big bucks to find a NM replacement for this one. Another time while lifting up Hawkwind's Levitation album (the one with Ginger Baker), the record got caught in the screw groove of the VPI classic spindle and came back down violently on the spindle badly scratching the end of side one. I found a great replacement copy while vacationing in Switzerland. All that to say life is too short to worry about a couple of vinyl accidents. I now rather think of them as nice anecdotes in my collection. Do yourself a favor, buy a new copy, the odds of fixing a scratched record completely are close to nil and it's a lot cheaper than getting a new wife. |
Your disc probably would have been better off if your wife had let it fall. But catching things you have dropped is a reflex action. If the behaviour is to become regular, it may be good to ask her to trim her nails.
Seriously, long long ago in the days of hardly compliant suspensions I was successful a few times at re-tracking LPs that 'jumped'. But the process always left an annoying click. Admittedly better then a jump. I surely don't get the sand paper idea, that's just insane. |
@vinylvin - Did you mean buy another wife or record? Cheap to get one, VERY expensive to get rid of one.....or so I've heard. |
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@dweller Never heard of that method before...sounds interesting. |
+ 1 rodman99999 I call it "the appointed flipper", no drinking or toking while record flipping is going on. The alternative is to have a playlist with a "Party" lockout. Flip the switch and it plays until you turn it off, but no monkey business, it’s locked. Hard drives or memory sticks are great for that. An electric fence for the TT is a better idea, that will get her moving and sober up a bit.. LOL Terms like Fumble-belina have to be used.. :-) If she thinks you're being mean, start using a score board.. That works.. |
If you want to experiment (after purchasing your new copy), buy the cheapest low compliance cartridge, with a diamond stylus, and install in your arm. Next, warm up the spinning vinyl with a hair dryer (on low). When warm, put the stylus as close to the damage as possible and play 'till it exits the damage area. Repeat until sounding better. GL |
I feel your pain. I once dropped a newly acquired 1st pressing, NM Blind Faith album and went to clean it and it slipped from my hands and down a wire metal shelving unit which took its rating from NM to G- or F in less that a second. It made for a good skeet shoot though. So I did have some fun with it.😡😀 BTW, IME, if the toothpick doesn't work then its pretty much final. I tried a straight pin on it and it made it worse, if anything. So i stick to the toothpick. Removes particles very good. |
+1 for @vinylvin comments. Fixing a scratch is not really a fix. Buy another copy. |
I’m sure you saw this on some of the YouTube videos… the issue is to remove the little burrs that we’re caused by the scrape across the grooves and are positioned in the path of the stylus as it traces the groove. I have tried the sandpaper method on old throwaway records and find that it doesn’t do much (maybe I just was not vigorous enough). Have not tried the toothpick method. One thing I have found useful is to use one of those stiff little stylus brushes (like what you get with some stylus cleaner fluids) and go carefully back and forth across the scratch, over and over. You will see debris (looks like coarse dust) as you do this. Next, give it a rinse in your vacuum machine of choice (I use a standard VPI), and you are ready to go. Gentler than the other two methods, and might get you close to being back to Lindsey Buckingham’s angst without you feeling the same toward your wife. Good luck! |
