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Options for ridding records of static electricity

I am getting back into vinyl, listening to “garage sale” finds and also new albums that I have been picking up. I have a nice old Linn Sondek LP12 with the felt mat. Every time I go to remove a record from the spindle or flip the record, static electricity grabs the felt mat and it sticks like a magnet. I have to very carefully flip the felt mat at the corner with my finger but one of these times I’m going to slip and smudge or scratch a record. 

I’ve seen the “Milty Zerostat” and seem to remember this product from back in the day. I see that it is still made and there is one eBay vendor that has them for $77. Is this my best bet? I thought Michael Fremor talked about these in one of his videos. 

Are there other products I should look at to reduce static electricity on my records? Thanks for any help you can give.
masi61
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,199 posts
 
Woops, I forgot to mention. Putting ANYTHING on your records is plain silly. You will just grind dust into the stuff and make mud. Just watch what happens to your stylus. It will gum up faster than ever unless it is the same hoax perpetrated by Last which is just a type of Freon that evaporates entirely. Great racket. Turns all your money into vapor. 
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,835 posts
 
@mijostyn  If you cannot hear what the dust cover does negatively for the LP12 SQ, there is little more to be said. The use of a product like Gruv Glide is beneficial in many instances, and like chayro stated above, it will minimize the build up of static. YMMV.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
I think the kindest thing to say here is that in Mijo system to his ears he hears no degradation in SQ with the dustcover on and down.
And we certainly cannot gainsay that as we are not there.

However if you use a little bit of statistics you will see that vastly more members do hear degradation in SQ on their TT with the dustcover on and down.

Nuff said imho. 
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,411 posts
 
I’m not a proponent of products like Groove Glide as the actual installation process involves static charge.

We take care and time and expense in cleaning our precious lps. Why in the _ell do we want to then add another product in these freshly cleaned grooves? Makes no sense.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,835 posts
 
@slaw  The actual installation process of Gruv Glide involves static charge, do explain? 
Most folks use Gruv Glide on noisy pressings to reduce back ground hash, it also secondarily helps in reducing static build up on the vinyl. Personally, i see little reason to use it on pristine vinyl, but it makes plenty of sense on less than pristine vinyl...if you ever used it that is..............
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