Back To Static!


We had a long discussion on the possible causes of static electrical charges on records in another thread. We just had a real good cold snap in New England dropping the humidity to under 20% so I was able to run a set of qualitative experiments documenting some surprising results that I hope will clear up a lot of the mystery and help people contro static charge and the accumulation of dust on their record. 
Static field meters are expensive.  The cheapest one I could find cost $260. I had to find a more sensitive way to measure static as it became apparent that using your own hair is very insensitive. Studying the Triboelectric series I noted that polypropylene is at the opposite end to PVS.  I have polypropylene in the form of suture material, the blue thread that many of you have seen. I tied a length of 6-0 Prolene  to a wood dowel and it worked beautifully. The PVC attracts it like a magnet and the Label repels it. It will pick up very small charges that otherwise go undetected. I can now define four conditions; No charge, Light charge, Charged and Heavily charged. It turns out that completely discharging a record is not easy. The label will actually donate electrons to the vinyl over time reaching an equilibrium point. Totally discharging a record required using a Pro-Ject conductive record brush wired to ground. If I suspend a discharged record (no thread activity) by it's hole within 30 minutes it will develop a slight charge (vinyl attracts the thread, label repels it). This will appear to us as an uncharged record. 
Does playing a record increase the static charge?  Yes absolutely, and the charge is additive. Playing the record over and over again progressively increases the charge from slightly to heavily charged. 
Does how you store the record effect charge? Yes absolutely. Records stored in MoFi antistatic sleeves come out with the baseline small charge. Records stored in paper come out with a noticeably higher charge. These are records that have been totally discharged prior to storage. A record that is charged when you put it away will come out at least as charged even if you are using anti static sleeves. Do conductive sweep arms work? Sort of. If the sweep arm leads the stylus charge will still accumulate. The brush has to track with the stylus. 
Unfortunately, I could not get hold of a Zerostat to test it's effectiveness. Regardless, a charge will accumulate with play.
The single best way to totally discharge a record is a conductive brush wired to ground. Just holding it will not work as well. The impedance of your tissue is in the megaohms. You want a dead short. Even so, a small charge will accumulate over a short period of time. The safest assumption is that there is always a charge on the record attracting dust. So, don't leave records out for any period of time. In regards to the hot topic of dust covers, a properly designed Dust cover does not affect sound quality. If your dust cover does effect sound quality in a negative way then you have a choice between sound quality and dirtier records. Your records, your choice. 
I would love to be able to stage voltages. If in the future I manage to come up with a static field meter I will repeat all of this in a quantitative way. Humidity is a huge factor. Those living in more humid environments have less trouble with static accumulation. I suspect everything occurs in like fashion just the voltages are lower. Lower to the point that they do not need any device to lower the charge?  I don't know. 

128x128mijostyn
@antinn 

Are you sure the tips of the CF brush have not fractured? Pieces 5 microns in length and 7 microns wide would not be visible but could be audible.  
You may be interested in feedback I had many years ago with Brian Garrott, of Garrott Bros fame - they produced cartridges and also rebuilt/retipped all manner of exotic cartridges.

Brian told me that one of his bugbears was the amount of carbon fibre fragments through most of the cartridges in for rebuild - visible with microscope. I have never been able to reconcile this with many top end cartrdige manufacturers that I respect who deliver cartridges complete with carbon fibre stylus brush.

Brian also told me the excessive use of record preservatives/liquid stylus fluids was quite common and it would wick up the cantilever and literally gum up the works.
@antinn , 20 years is a long time. Averaging 2 records/day = 14,600 records played at 0.0002" = 2.92". On bristles that are only 1/2" long I think that would be noticeable:-) I know, that assumes each bristle loses a fragment at every play but I certainly would have noticed a 16th of an inch. I had two of these arms one brand new in it's box unused. It is unquestionable that an occasional fragment of brush broke or abraded off but this never presented a noticeable problem. 

I think that is the Kuzma record cleaning stand over a US tank with an elaborate filter scheme. Very nice. I don't buy used records. If I were to buy a unit I would clean individual records before play and put a sticker on the inner sleeve to indicate that it was cleaned. Used like this the Degritter is fine. The overriding question is whether of not this would improve the experience. I am very much on the fence with that one. If I had a buyer set up for the Degritter ahead of time it would be an easy choice. Anybody want a brand new lightly used Degritter? 15% off retail.
Dear @mijostyn : Due to your thread I gone to my " closet " and find out to Discwasher new Kits with two new Zerostat guns and found out a new EDA Hunt brush.

So I started to use both items playing several of my very well know LPs and just from the first one I was really aware of the true benefits of those devices. What I did and do is first a shot with the Zerostat and second step use of the brush.

If the system has high resolution the benefits are not small.

Thank's for your thread.


Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Hey Audiogoners,
I used to get horrendous Static on My TT,  and after a little experimentation,
got rid of it years ago,  & It was simple..
Being an Electrician,  I figured if I would tackle the problem,  Focusing
on Grounding.
1st of all the TT Base (Plinth)  is a  VPI TNT V HR  (about 15 Y.O.)
Platter is a Teres 4" thick Cocobolo  with Teres Spindle/Bearing assembly.
What I did: 
I grounded the Spindle to My Allnic Phonostage, using a #12 copper wire.
This alone,  removed some of the static, But static was still present.
I then took a 3" long strip of very thin copper ribbon (a little thicker than
the average aluminum foil), And laid it down on the platter, & up against
the Spindle/Bearing Housing, Which is about 2" in diameter (at top of platter).

The ultra flat copper Ribbon  extends across the platter 3"" & is held in place
simply, by a thin rubber washer that I slipped over the Spindle.
This annihilated all Static, & is still kicking butt 8 years later.

I  would imagine using basic aluminum foil would work just as well, I used copper,
simply because I had some leftover from a job I did for Compuserve. 
I had used the copper ribbon in the flooring of Their server room to address
the same problem (Static).  All the Ribbon was grounded through a copper wire
that I ran around the perimeter walls to a ground rod.