My Dad was so great about cleaning his records and stylus every time. I shudder now to remember loading pennies on my arm to fix a skip. Yikes! I'll need to look into one of these options.
Thanks, Colleen! Ah, the old trick with the coin. I can’t say I haven’t tried it! 🙈 Typically it’s got to do with the tracking force and/or the counterweight of the tonearm. Sometimes the record may be too damaged for any stylus to read properly, though. This might be a good idea for a future post, so thanks for that!
Great info, Andy, and well-presented! I love how you highlight the more important words and directives in the piece! That's helpful. It's interesting, too, to see the new products available for cleaning (with the bright colors, etc). Back in the day, as you can imagine, cleaning materials (cloths, brushes, stylus cleaners) were relegated to few and far-between high-end sound purveyors, and maybe (with cheaper, lower-quality products) your neighborhood record store.
It'll be fun to await your further dive into stylus-cleaning products, as well as seeing how well your Vinyl Passion "goo" performs for you! Cheers!
Thank you so much, Brad! I really appreciate your comment and feedback!
Yes, I can imagine back in the day the market and opportunities to get stylus cleaners must have been quite limited compared to now! Now, if I may say so, there are (in my view), a little bit too many, which causes confusion and, understandably, some people to feel overwhelmed. That’s why I always insist on keeping things simple and establishing a routine rather than trying to do too much too quickly 😉
Right.....how the pendulum has swung! From the '70s-era back-room vinyl-care (like behind the red curtain at....uh, "certain" book/video stores😱...."pssst, hey kid, wanna see a stylus?") to "ooh, that vinyl thing is back again....how can we exploit it?" of today, I can certainly see (with your wonderfully-focused articles) how the market could, now, be glutted! So, a great strategy for folks to fine-tune and personalize their vinyl care!
Absolutely! There are definitely more and more people who want/need/are curious about vinyl, versus a (re)nascent industry trying to catch up with demand (which partly explains the inflated prices of most new records). On the outskirts of this supply/demand struggle, you have all this (certainly nascent) “accesory” industry trying to sell you all sorts of things “to better preserve your records and audio system” and/or purely for decoration. If you add to this the amount of information and resources available on the Internet, all sorts of people telling you what you should and shouldn’t do, what you should buy and shouldn’t buy… you can imagine the picture is quite different! I sometimes feel you guys from around your generation learned to use, handle… breathe vinyl with a lot more ease and certainly a lot less overthinking than us younger generations in the vinyl revival age.
Great assessment.....on your last sentence, this: You're right. If serious, we knew where to pick up what we needed to, without the blaring noise from money-makers trying to exploit. As you and I have discussed before.....the obligatory anti-static cloth, plus a tiny brush for the stylus, and tending to changing regularly....that's all we had, and it's all we needed! That, and how to HOLD and re-sleeve the record!! I think I learned that before I could walk!!!!😁
My Dad was so great about cleaning his records and stylus every time. I shudder now to remember loading pennies on my arm to fix a skip. Yikes! I'll need to look into one of these options.
Thanks, Colleen! Ah, the old trick with the coin. I can’t say I haven’t tried it! 🙈 Typically it’s got to do with the tracking force and/or the counterweight of the tonearm. Sometimes the record may be too damaged for any stylus to read properly, though. This might be a good idea for a future post, so thanks for that!
Great info, Andy, and well-presented! I love how you highlight the more important words and directives in the piece! That's helpful. It's interesting, too, to see the new products available for cleaning (with the bright colors, etc). Back in the day, as you can imagine, cleaning materials (cloths, brushes, stylus cleaners) were relegated to few and far-between high-end sound purveyors, and maybe (with cheaper, lower-quality products) your neighborhood record store.
It'll be fun to await your further dive into stylus-cleaning products, as well as seeing how well your Vinyl Passion "goo" performs for you! Cheers!
Thank you so much, Brad! I really appreciate your comment and feedback!
Yes, I can imagine back in the day the market and opportunities to get stylus cleaners must have been quite limited compared to now! Now, if I may say so, there are (in my view), a little bit too many, which causes confusion and, understandably, some people to feel overwhelmed. That’s why I always insist on keeping things simple and establishing a routine rather than trying to do too much too quickly 😉
Right.....how the pendulum has swung! From the '70s-era back-room vinyl-care (like behind the red curtain at....uh, "certain" book/video stores😱...."pssst, hey kid, wanna see a stylus?") to "ooh, that vinyl thing is back again....how can we exploit it?" of today, I can certainly see (with your wonderfully-focused articles) how the market could, now, be glutted! So, a great strategy for folks to fine-tune and personalize their vinyl care!
Absolutely! There are definitely more and more people who want/need/are curious about vinyl, versus a (re)nascent industry trying to catch up with demand (which partly explains the inflated prices of most new records). On the outskirts of this supply/demand struggle, you have all this (certainly nascent) “accesory” industry trying to sell you all sorts of things “to better preserve your records and audio system” and/or purely for decoration. If you add to this the amount of information and resources available on the Internet, all sorts of people telling you what you should and shouldn’t do, what you should buy and shouldn’t buy… you can imagine the picture is quite different! I sometimes feel you guys from around your generation learned to use, handle… breathe vinyl with a lot more ease and certainly a lot less overthinking than us younger generations in the vinyl revival age.
Great assessment.....on your last sentence, this: You're right. If serious, we knew where to pick up what we needed to, without the blaring noise from money-makers trying to exploit. As you and I have discussed before.....the obligatory anti-static cloth, plus a tiny brush for the stylus, and tending to changing regularly....that's all we had, and it's all we needed! That, and how to HOLD and re-sleeve the record!! I think I learned that before I could walk!!!!😁
Exactly! You, my friend, were fortunate to experience in the flesh those golden days!