cleaning gritty surface noise on LPs


Back in the '70s I used a Disc Preener to clean my records.  At times I, or perhaps a roommate, might have gotten the Disc Preener too moist, and the result has been a low-level, gritty surface noise on some of those old records that are otherwise in good shape.

I've tried cleaning them with various record cleaning solutions (mostly alcohol-based) with my Nitty Gritty RCM, and nothing has lessened this particular noise, even though they have worked fine with other LPs.

Has anyone encountered this problem and solved it?

128x128drmuso

Ethanol and isopropanol (one or the other, ethanol preferred) are beneficial additives to an LP cleaning solution along with a nonionic detergent. If you’re using pure water alone, your solution cannot dissolve oils or lift and solubilize dirt deeply in grooves. This has been discussed here ad nauseam.

ghdprentice, Better be careful, when my hair stylus found out about my cartridge stylist, all hell broke loose! 😁

I'm afraid you will not be able to fix these records. Cleaning, as you have already noted, does nothing. Somewhere down the line something happened to them, maybe played with a bad stylus. In a last ditch effort, incase somebody sprayed them with contact cement, you can spray them off with brake cleaning fluid. It will not damage the record, I have done it to prove a point.

The best approach will be to buy new copies of the music you cherish.

Ultrasonic cleaning is a fad and the process has extreme limitations.  

Could that “something” that happened to make LPs noisy have anything to do with using one or more of those LAST products? Perhaps a very long term effect manifested after a few decades? I don’t have an opinion; just wondering out loud.