What do you do when nothing seems to get LP clean?


What do you do when nothing else seems to work? I have scrubbed with disc doctor brushes; used VPI fiber brush; tried multiple washings and nothing seems to get out this visible "gunk". Whatever it is, I've noticed it on a number of used LPs that I've tried to rescue. Its not raised, but just seems to have "attached" itself to the vinyl. Is it mold? I know its hard to know what exactly I'm dealing with without being able to see it, but what do you use as a last resort, when nothing else seems to do the trick?
stew3859

Showing 1 response by johnnantais

I have to chime in here in the interest of music-lovers who understand the whole cleaning issue, but aren't particularly bothered by them. I find the two-answer list of Mr. Kidknow a mite harsh: Answer Three is don't worry about it, don't clean them (apart from a Diswasher unit or something along those simple lines), keep the record player and keep buying lots of records and enjoying them. Don't get me wrong, someday I will probably buy myself a record-cleaning machine, I see the logic and expect results, but in the meantime, when I buy used records or new, I check them for condition, take them home and can't wait to slap them on! In most cases the record sounds terrific, and I sit back at the music which pours forth regardless of complicated cleaning processes. I have too many records to contemplate multi-stage cleaning processes, I'd have no time to listen to music! All that said to insert Answer Three (buy music, listen to it and don't worry about it because nothing will make these last forever and someone should be enjoying them, the more the merrier), I understand that cleaning records makes them even more enjoyable. But remember, it's about the music first, and we can't be bothered always worrying about improvement while listening to the pieces various musicians have composed. I'll be watching to see what the final consensus, if there ever is one, is, while I put a few more quarters in my VPI record-cleaning machine fund and throw a few more dollars at the local vinyl-vendors.