The Unlikely Superhero
Want to learn how to fix a broken record? Get rid of those pesky skips in five easy steps and make your scratched records sound like new... minimal equipment required!
Picture the scene:
You are in full trance, spinning your favourite record, vibing with the music… until the record starts skipping.
Oh $#!%! That’s it. Party’s over. The record is ruined.
Just as you are about to put the record away and search online for a new copy, you spot something unusual flying towards you.
High in the sky, soaring at 770 miles per hour, coming to your rescue.
Is it a bird? Is it plane?
No… it’s a toothpick!
Really? A toothpick?
The superman of the vinyl world, ladies and gents, is an ordinary —yet unassumingly powerful— kitchen-style toothpick.
Not what you were expecting? Well… not all superheroes wear capes!
I have successfully repaired skipping records in a couple of minutes using this nimble yet highly effective tool.
The why
The reason why such a brittle object is so effective at fixing skips is precisely because of its delicate nature.
The surface of a vinyl record is sensitive in a peculiar way. Records are durable, particularly when handled and stored correctly. However, their surface is highly susceptible to dust, humidity, and physical damage such as scratches, scuffs and, occasionally, warping (especially when exposed to excessive heat or pressure).
There’s a very limited number of things that can get in direct contact with the grooves without messing things up or causing irreversible damage.
If you think about it, the shape of a toothpick is not too dissimilar to that of a stylus.
This slender kitchen utensil can reach the grooves more easily and a lot more gently than most other mundane objects lying around your house.
Plus, its soft wooden material is a lot kinder than other similarly-shaped tools, such as a sewing needle or the tip of a paper clip, which can wreak havoc on your records.
The how
Make sure you use a standard-sized kitchen toothpick. It must be clean and, obviously, unused (this should go without saying, but you never know).
There are different methods and techniques, each with their pros and cons. Here’s mine:
Identify the exact area where the record skips. Use the label (distance and positioning) as guidance.
Remove the record from your turntable and inspect the area in good light. Make sure you can identify the exact location of the scratch or scuff causing the skip.
Place the record on a microfibre cloth on top of a stable surface such as a table (or your usual cleaning spot). Give the record a good dry and wet clean (if you need a hand, check my cleaning guide).
Grab the toothpick from one end and gently move the other end back and forth on the problem area only. Be patient. Go slowly. Don’t overdo it: maximum one minute. You don’t want to cause more damage.
Give the record another dry and wet clean before sound testing it. You should already see an improvement in sound. Repeat the whole process if necessary.
For additional tips and slight variations in method/technique, check out this article as well as this one (with videos).
Oh my goodness! Are you really recommending other vinyl bloggers? Sending your readers their way?
Yes, I love recommending other bloggers, even if they’re not on Substack. We all have something slightly different to offer. There’s room for everyone.
The proof
You might be thinking…
Ah! Very nice, your step-by-step guide. I want receipts! I want a before-and- after comparison!
Fair enough. Here you go:
Before:
At 0:48, the stylus bumps into the scratched area and doesn’t budge. The song in question didn’t make things easy: a repetitive beat with all that high frequency sound in the inner grooves, where there’s not a lot of room for the stylus to move freely… it was a skipping accident waiting to happen.
Yet, after one minute of careful toothpick magic, I managed to reduce the skip to a barely audible click which, while not ideal, doesn’t interrupt normal playback anymore.
After:
Sure, I could scrape a bit more and see if I could completely remove the click, but that’s where you need to make your own risk assessment. My take? If it ain’t broke no more… don’t break it again!
Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? Rants? Hit the comments button down below.
Thanks for reading/listening. Happy (skip-free) spinning!
Thanks for this toothpick tip!
First, allow me to nerd out! That was a Tabu label, and in the '70s (and in the U.S.), that was an RCA affiliate specializing in R&B and disco. There...that was from memory; now, Bradnerd needs to go check: Sure enough, RCA '77-'78, but curiously (and, this hasn't stuck with me), they moved to a long-term stay with Epic/CBS from '78-'91, before going to A&M '91-'93, and Motown '93-'96 before going under!
Who you were playing, though, I have no idea, Disco Boy! Was that the S.O.S. Band? I squinted.
As for skips, I had no helpful Andy to guide me in the '70s (or any other decade, come to think of it!). Here's how Fred Flintstone, here, dealt with a skip like you had in your video (y'know, when the bird with the long beak stood on the turntable as our early-era stylus)! I certainly didn't think (and, frankly, couldn't have thought...I just wasn't that creative; I had a cloth, and that was my go-to for everything vinyl-related!) of a tooth pick. If there was a "stop" like what you had, I'd take the record off, look closely to see if I could spot a speck o' dust or something.
The only thing I'd ever do is just gently and slowly move my anti-static cloth over the offending groove. I might've also gently moved the cloth back and forth a few times to dislodge whatever. If THAT didn't work (if you can read while shutting your eyes, you might want to, here), I'd put the needle down just before the usual trouble spot. If it still did a stop like that, I'd😱gently push the part of the tonearm that housed the stylus over, or "through" the spot. I actually seem to recall that working more times than not! If it went back to playing OK, I'd usually hear the pop I picked up on your record, but certainly worth settling for that over a full stoppage and skip!
I'm glad you're teaching a whole new generation how to care for their vinyl, Andy! Don't do what Neanderthal Brad did!! A lesson for all of us!