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I have been buyng old 78s lately , and I had a strange thing happen while I was using my carbon fiber brush on a rotating 78. The rotating record actually grabbed the brush right out of my hand and flipped it onto the floor. I blamed the occurrence on the worn grooves first. However, when this happened again on another 78 that I purchased from the same Ebay seller, I decided to investigate.Upon closer examiation, I noticed that the surface of the 78 was very sticky. This would account for the brush being grabbed ut of my hand. Before cleaning this unknown substance off the record, I wrote the seller and here is his response:
"I have, and listen to a lot of the these old records. I clean them with olive oil and have had no issues with that. As far as the sticky substance, I'm really not sure what that would be since I used the oil to clean them. Are the records you received from me unplayable?"
I didn't know whether to get angry or double over from laughter. I started to think about the grocery store produce manager rubbing oil on his cucumber, or the used car salesman painting the bald tires black on his oil hemorraghing 1980 Buick Century.
So, I wrote a long, polite, letter to the seller suggesting the problems of his olive oil technique and of better methods of cleaning. This was his response:
"I appreciate all the feedback as it is always nice to get other ideas. Since I sell a lot of these records, I will definitely take any help I can get. I guess that the oil just seems to bring back some of the luster these old records loose over the years. I can take one that is starting to look kinda weathered or tarnished and it just seems to put the spark back into them. But I am going to print off the information you emailed me and study it to see if I can come up with something better. Again, I certainly appreciate your help and knowledge and hope to do more business with you. Have a great week."
I had to laugh hard again, as those visions of the oiled cucumber and painted car tires were dancing in my head once more. I don't know whether to take the seller's answers as pure innocence or as those from a sleazy used record salesman.
Anyway, after heavy brushing in a punchbowl partly filled with water and Woolite and the label protected by the Groovmaster Label Saver, the olive oil is gone. As you can see by the picture, the record was in excellent condition and did not need to have its lustre restored with olive oil. Bill.
Follow Ups:
Do you have to use Brutus force as well and then dry it of with spinach. One of those moods today.
OLLY
Henry
...........was trying to sell this TD150 on ebay a while ago. When I emailed him, letting him know he had the wrong headshell on the arm and that it would not be possible to adjust a correct zenith angle in that configuration, he said that he thought all he had to do was set stylus force. Wanted to argue the point too.I wouldn't put it past this fellow to oil-up a record just for good measure. Shines 'em right up, doesn't it!
sheesh.
... you have GOT to keep an eye on anyone who rubs oil on their cucumber ---- not to mention their records. But, might I suggest a good balsamic vinegar to go with....?
..but as per the sage advice of Jenna Jameson, au natural, is preferable. People squeezing the Charmin freaks me out a bit though ;-).
Dve the weather is finally so nice here.. not even the Yanks woes can bring me down.. Only April anyway ;-)
Hi Bill:I have a small number of 78s that I look forward to playing once I can accommodate them. Naturally, I've wondered about cleaning, realizing anything with alcohol will be a no-no. You mention Woolite. Is this Oxy Deep? I tried that on some very dirty and non-valuable LPs and was amazed at the results. Not only did they sound good but they came out with most of the natural vinyl luster restored.
So, (anyone) what are recommended cleaners for pre-vinyl 78s?
i really have always stuck with distilled water and dawn liquid. the things about 78's is that you can keep getting stuff out of the grooves you're not supposed to , in theory endlessly, as there is some abrasive stuff in there that should stay. Too much water can weaken the record to when stressed and wet it is more vulnerable.With my 78 collection, I have found that cleaning helps a lot but it's not quite like cleaning a 33. On 33's there can be this night a day difference. On the 78's you need to remove all the real dirt but not everything that will come off it, or you'll be taking some of the record with you. Most 78's have been thrashed and damaged. After getting actual dirt off, a channel selectable preamp and a cartridge with interchangable styli are key.
surfactant(sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate) as in a product called Labtone that was recommended for 78s in the following article:http://home.earthlink.net/~gnordenstam/RecordCollection/Cleaning.htm
A very similar surfactant is also contained in the Disc Doctor's Miracle Record Cleaner and is called triethanolammonium dodecylbenzenesulfonate.
Woolite was also recommended in the following series of links on Audiogon.com:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1124989009&read&3&4&
Be sure to read the responses as well, especially the following one on Woolite:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1124989009&openflup&11&4#11
I have not tried Oxy Deep on 78s or LPs yet, but it does sound promising. Oxy Magic, on the other hand, contains alcohol, so I would never use it on 78s. In addition to the hydrogen peroxide in Oxy Deep, there is glycol ether, some surfactants, perservatives, and water. I am not sure if the glycol ether is harmful to shellac in 78s, so maybe someone else on the asylum can help us here. I did purchase a bottle of just hydrogen peroxide from the drugstore thinking this would be a safer approach for 78s, but I have not tried it on a trashed 78 yet.
I sometimes prewash the 78s in the punchbowl as I described; treat the bad ones with buggtussel enzyme; then wash and rinse them again on my old Nitty Gritty 3.0 machine. However, all of this work will never overcome the damage done from metal needles and heavy tonearms. The only ones that I own that are totally quiet are classical 78s like old Victor recordings of Caruso, etc. that were probably played only once.
Thanks Bill.My real treasure and concern is with a Louie Armstrong All Stars album from Town Hall 1947, a four record set. This came from family and was played on a standard tt from the 50s and 60s, not the arm & hammer style of the Victrolas. However, they are dirty and grayish so best restoration will be important.
I also have a box of 78s that came with a floor model Victrola I got some time ago. Have not looked through all of those as I don't expect much considering how they were played. Likely to be a Caruso or two in there though.
I don't how to post multiple links in one letter. Maybe someone could help me here. Thanks, Bill.
Bill,The message box you type in here accepts standard HTML and stores it in the Asylum database, so that when the post is retrieved, the HTML you wrote is blended in with HTML the Asylum generates.
As you know, you can put a single link in the text box at the bottom and optionally configure a title to be used. If you don't add the title, the default is to use the text of the URL as the title.
To put your own link in the message, the syntax is:
< A HREF="a fully qualified URL starting with http://" > title < /A >
1. Upper case is not required.
2. The tag "A" can be any letter as long as the closing tag matches.
3. Don't add any extra spaces around HREF="some URL", or the angle brackets and the characters inside.
4. Make sure the URL is enclosed in double quotes.
6. Don't forget the closing tag - the < /A >So to have something like the following:
Cleaning and Preservation of Cylinders and Discstype in
< A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~gnordenstam/RecordCollection/Cleaning.htm" > Cleaning and Preservation of Cylinders and Discs < /A >
Regards,
Geoff
nt
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