During the golden age of vinyl, Ronco sold vacuums to keep your records clean. But there was always a cheaper DIY hack — a hack demonstrated in a video created by a Youtuber who simply goes by “ghettofunk13.” Just pour some wood glue on your record, spread it around carefully as the turntable spins (don’t get it on the center label), and you can apparently get rid of those snaps, crackles, and pops. The video is pretty straightforward. But it’s worth noting the addendum “ghettofunk13” later added in text: “You can use considerably less glue and still get the same effect – it cuts the dry time way down. Just be sure that you get the whole record covered!”
Over on Metafilter, one commenter took “ghettofunk13” to task, saying “The bass is muddy and there’s no clarity and sparkle at the high end…. He should have used de-ionized wood glue from a polycarbonate (NOT polypropylene) bottle, and spread it in the direction of rotation with a hand-polished cedar shake. Amateur.” Just something to consider if you plan to do some DIY record cleaning this weekend. You can get a few more details on the process here. Try at your own risk.
FYI, over at Kottke.org, you can see an excellent microscopic photo of vinyl record grooves. Jason writes, “When you look really closely at record grooves, like at 1000x magnification, you can see the waveforms of the music itself. Sooo cool.”
Related Content:
How Vinyl Records Are Made: A Primer from 1956
A Celebration of Retro Media: Vinyl, Cassettes, VHS, and Polaroid Too
Neil Young on the Travesty of MP3s
World Records: New Photo Exhibit Pays Tribute to the Era of Vinyl Records & Turntables
The “taking to task” is actually a jokey reference to hi-fi obsessives who talk about the benefits of gold cables, etc…
Maybe. But 18 hours-ish a side? I did the math. At that rate, I’m looking at 1.44 million hours just to do my LPs (that’s 60,000 days, if I do them one right after another, or 16+ years).
Though I kinda wonder what’s wrong with some isopropyl and a record brush? Might be a bit more environmentally nice, as pointed out by somebody above.
What happens at 3.04 of the video? It’s like the image is peeled off for some reason. Is it the same reccord before and after that moment?
Wouldn’t recommend this at all. Been reading about the work of this guy who is both a vinyl buff and a chemist so he knows how to get dirt off vinyl in the best possible way…
http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/discdoctor_e.html