Post #75281 by Feelin Zombified on Mon, Feb 9, 2004 5:40 PM

On 2004-02-04 15:27, TikiGoddess wrote:
You can clean your vinyl records with soap and water.

NOOOOO !!!

please please please do NOT use soap on vinyl. Ever.

A little story:
about 7 or 8 years ago I was at the local mastering house having my newest release cut. What is unique about this place is that you could sit, hangout, watch & listen while your 12" was cut. By that I mean not just "sweetened" to a master tape, but actually cutting a master platter on a lathe. The owner, Ron Murphy, is sort of a Detroit legend. He's been cutting records since the Motown days, and his personal collection was something like 1.5M records.

Anyway, Ron loved to BS and bitch about this & that, and this time he pulled out a handful of old records that someone had brought to him in desperation. They had used soap, and the grooves were clogged. Almost beyond repair. Ron then gave ME a lecture about cleaning vinyl (cussing every 3rd word).

BTW, the local record shop uses this method too: rubbing alcohol used sparingly. the higher percent the better. Remember, if you use 70%, then 30% of it is water, and thats bad. so aim high. Also, don't do it often. Once or twice in a records' life is plenty of trauma as it is.

-Z