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stereo for the joy of it - can records be cleaned?

I came across a living stereo set of classical records called "Stereo for the joy of it".  It includes some very well known living stereo recordings.  The records are very dirty and it appearss as though the cellophane sleeves may have permanently damages the records.  Is their any way of cleaning these records and getting good results.  They look almost unplayed except for the dust and the cellophane damage.
tzh21y
recordgenieusa's avatar
recordgenieusa
26 posts
 
Of course I am biased as the owner of the ultrasonic record cleaning service Record Genie, but the Audio Desk and Klaudio ultrasonic record cleaning machines offer great results. I also have a VPI 16.5 that I use for pre-cleaning very dirty or moldy records before ultrasonically cleaning them. Let me know if you are interested in having your set cleaned, my rates are affordable (as compared to buying machines) and I have happy customers all over the USA.
recordgenieusa's avatar
recordgenieusa
26 posts
 
czarivey, I'd love to see your cleaning videos, so I will PM you. I'm guessing you might be using a "V8" tank cleaner and rotisserie? 
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
Nop I'm using surgical instruments cleaner and "rotisserie" :-)
I've also been using my VPI to pre-clean records, but instead, I hook up high-rpm drill onto the spindle and rotate records FAST so they will loose most of debries.
After all done, I hook-up drill to the spindle again and spin them FAST. My VPI is retired... 
tzh21y OP
1,654 posts
 
Can the cellphone residue or not sure if it is rice paper, brown sleeves actually be removed from the vinyl?
recordgenieusa's avatar
recordgenieusa
26 posts
 
tzh21y,

I’ve seen different sleeve materials interact differently with the record surface, some of the worst are the wiggly "contact patterns" made by some older poly sleeves that affect the surfaces of the vinyl.

If you’ve got "bits" of sleeve stuck on the record surface then obviously those need to be removed from the playing area, and I would use my VPI 16.5 cleaner to do that first, and then use an Audio Desk or Klaudio ultrasonic cleaner (or both) to clean deep into the grooves.

Otherwise, the good news is that sleeve marks/patterns are generally cosmetic and not audible, since they are only on the surface of the playback area (tops of the "lands" between grooves) and not down in the groove walls where the music is.

Having said that, while the appearance of some surface marks will be removed or reduced by thorough cleaning, other surface marks will be impossible to remove, so it’s really just a case of cleaning and seeing what happens..

Let me know if you would like me to try..
Dave
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