I bought my first 12" the other day, and it's already covered in dust, and what americans call "lint." I was wondering if it was ok to use a glasses cleaning cloth to wipe down the vinyl if not, what else? and what can I use to clean the needle? Thanks Woof
I always use an LP cleaner - they're like a piece of velvet attached to a sponge pad. It's always best to clean vinyl while it's on the turntable, just hold the pad in the centre and move it towards the outside edge with the disc turning. Cleaning vinyl is something of a lost art - we all had to do it before the days of CDs...
Again, I have a Record cleaner like you described. Mine an original from the 70s I was told to just wipe records front the centre out, this stops any damage being done to the grooves as your wiping against them... never done it with the deck spinnign though.
Don't use the above products if you want your vinyl to last. The only real way to clean vinyl is... Keep you platter on your deck dust free firstly so you don't make your clean lp's dirty when you play. Always use a wet cleaner as in a fully wet one, not a spray. The best are machines like the Moth cleaner (available on ebay) which uses a fluid and then a vacuum system to remove all the fluid and dirt from the lp. If this is too expensive then get a knosti wet cleaning system (also on ebay) which is a manual version of the above. These are the only true ways to clean vinyl properly. Also then only put the lps into clean sleeves, not the card hard ones or dirty old ones that came with the lp. These damage them and just get them dirty again they are also usually highly static. The poly paper ones are best as they are least static and are rigid without spending silly money on expensive sleeves. Finally i always use a soft lp brush after each play to remove any dust attracted to the lp while it was played. Also i highly recommend a small paint brush (new) for cleaning your stylus, as there is no point having a clean lp then putting a dirty stylus on it which will push dirt deep into the grooves. If the stylus hasn't been cleaned for a while put some isopropyl alcohol on it and clean it with that. Keeping vinyl properly clean isn't an easy business, but it is well worth doing as it prolongs the life of the vinyl and your stylus. You also wont get clicks and pops every few seconds. Almost every single one of my lps plays silently with almost no background noise (excluding warped vinyl and badly pressed) including some 1950's vinyl i have that has been abused most of its life. Any more questions do ask.
Pretty much same as dom for me, I use a Knosti cleaner on all my records when I first get them home, then after drying they each get a new Nagaoka inner sleeve (and a cheap outer sleeve), then before playing I use a Monacor carbon fibre brush. I also use a small brush I got with my cartridge to keep the stylus dust free.
Using Anti stat poly bags in a very good move. You should be able to pick a ton up reasonably cheap at the independant record retailer of your choice. A carbon fibre brush is good to use before every play. Carbon Fibre is esential as it works by using the staic to attract the dust away from the record and onto the brush. Start on the inside with the record spinning on the platter and gently move to the outside. A stylus brush is vital as especially as you stylus starts getting on a bit it will pick up dust very easily. Try and find as soft a brush as possible. Always brush from beind the stylus towards the you and with speakers and amp turned on so you can hear if there are any problems. Another problem is dust on felt mats as it gets very easily attracted to them. Washing a felt Mat is a bad idea however giving them a gentle vacuum and replacing them once in a while is always a good idea. Personally I don't like wet cleaning systems as I always have problems with residue. I do use them ocassionly but I attempt to just keep them as dust free a possible as it's always a lot of hassel. If your really serious about getting rid of all the dust and residue then your looking at a vacuum cleaning machine although these are very expensive even for a manual. As this is your first record I suspect you dont want to speand a huge amount so you may want to look into making your own cleaning fluid using a mixture of distilled water and isopropyl. Now back to running in my cartridge, 9 hours down, 41 hours to go.
Personally i find isopropyl and distilled water too harsh with my records. So i use L'art du son on my record cleaner. It contains no alcohol, and uses environmentally friendly ingredients. It also happens to "sound" better imho.
