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VPI TNT static problem, Why?

My new reference deck is a older TNT3 that I have had VPI upgrade the tone arm wiring and rebuild the motor. This deck was an upgrade from a Michell Gyro deck that I had for 4 yrs. I have serious static problems with this plater which I have never had with the Michell. I clean a record with the VPI HW 16.5, then go to place the record on the platter - each time I get a static shock from the metal section of the platter, which has caused me to drop several LP's - major no no. Even when I pull off the LP - you can hear the static attraction to the acrylic platter. Now the Michell platter was acrylic( or so I thought) and this never happened. Is this something I have to live with or have others had this problem and solved it. I really like this deck as to the depth and detail, but this static stuff is driving me crazy.
brucedan
headsnappin's avatar
headsnappin
295 posts
 
Well, it doesn't pick up dust very well and creates static.
larryi
3,969 posts
 
I agree with Headsnappin. Dry brushing doesn't really do much to keep a record clean. Instead, it creates a static charge that causes dust to adhere even more to the record and cause static discharge problems. Go with a cheap wet/vacuum cleaning system (I actually prefer manual application of the fluid and manual turing of the record over motorized features).
brucedan OP
16 posts
 
To all: Zmrs13 had the solution. The issue is with the center bearing shaft along with the metal banding on the platter side. Dry brushing was never an issue as the HW 16.5 is a wet vac. By just using a plastic cable tie on the shaft and running a 22gage grounding wire that was compressed to the shaft, and then ground to my main amp - took care of all static buildup. I think what was happening is as follows: the platter being acrylic and metal is set in a total acrylic deck. All my other decks have some metal in the deck - be it a floating suspension or solid type. Here the TNT is all plastic - no metal other than the bearing shaft. Any time a plastic material ie: acrylic is spun as is the platter, a static charge will build up, usually this is taken care of by grounding the tables frame. So by grounding the shaft - all is good.

Again thanks to Zmrs13.
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