LAST???? Has anybody tried this?

Hi. I've treated some 1700-1800 LP's with LAST since about 1980, and think it is an excellent preservative, particularly if your vinyl gets a lot of play. As you may be aware, the abbreviation "LAST" stands for "liquid archival sound treatment". The chemical composition of LAST is intended to reduce the effects of wear by the stylus, apparently by bonding to the vinyl molecules. LAST is used by the Library of Congress to help preserve old recordings, which is a pretty good endorsement for the product's safety.

The purpose of LAST is not to make the recording sound better, except to the extent that it reduces wear in the LP's grooves. However, based solely on my own listening impressions, I think that LAST does make a slight but audible improvement in the overall sound, perhaps due to reducing the friction between the stylus and the LP.

In short, I think LAST is a good investment if you have a large LP collection that you want to preserve, or simply if you have some prized and irreplaceable LP's that get frequent use. I have only one caveat: make sure your LP's have been thoroughly cleaned before using LAST -- which you evidently have been doing.

I endorse the comments already made based on my experience. I've applied the LAST Record Preservative to over 4,000 LPs over the past 12-15 years with no adverse side-effects.

I've used LAST on at least 6,000 LP's, spanning a period of more than 16 years.

I echo all the other positive comments and must say that I am delighted that even my most frequently played records have maintained almost 100% of their original sound quality.

Since I've been out of vinyl for quite some time, I have several unopened LAST kits. If anyone is interested, please contact me.

For daily cleaning just take 1 pt. of rubbing alchohol and empty it into a kitchen pot.Pour in a1 Gla. of distilled water add two or thre DROPS of clear dish liquid and if you want it to spread evenly use Kodak Photoflow to break up the lquids surface tension and spread more easily.A VPI tech told me about that brew and the LAST guys said they had no problem with it.But get the Power Cleaner of really gunky LP's.I've gotten stuff that seems close to chewing gum pressed into the grooves durring the Eisenhower adminastration to loosen up.LASTLY (heh heh) use the PRESERVATIVE.The guy at VPI who gave me the homebrew recipie also said he had nothing to gain by recomending it but he wouldn't go without it.Said he did demos at shows and people had played treated LP's hundred of times and sounded like a doz plays.If you really want to spend moneythe consensus is while the power and Preservative is good stuff if you want a comercial cleaner the Disc Dr. is best.I have used Tourumat but found it too expensive.I use the home stuff and mentioned LAST stuff on $500 Blue Notes.But above all you need a machine.A VPI 16.5 is the best value and mandatory.To preclean and save your tubes you could be really anal like me and use an Alsop cleaner or other pad.As important as the LAST is I would rather have a VPI and water than any chemicals at all.