Reducing background fizz and pops on Vinyl.

Thanks guys I appreciate the honesty, and I am pretty much sold on the quick and easy fix of the Gruv-glide because it is cheap and everything I read about it makes sense. It is a lubricant and it would have to physically give smoother playback after a good basic cleaning and treatment. so I am going to try it and go from there and that way i'm out 20 bucks and so what? Its worth the attempt to get quiet playback without getting to deep into it. I hate buying equipment and tweaks now, I use to do it all the time, but now All I am worried about is the music thats all I want to hear, I don't care about who's name is on the products anymore as long as they work. :-) thats why I wanted your experiance's so I don't follow the same crash and burn paths by my own trial and errors as I used to.

I refuse to pay $30-$50 a gallon for record cleaner when I can make my own for pennies a gallon.I figure thats about what it costs for the "good stuff' and I wont pay someone to do what I can.
My cleaner is:
4 parts to 1 of distilled water and alcohol.Get as a high % as you can find and with no lanolin in it.
You can find 96% if you look.
Next in is 10 drops of Kodak photo-flow.You can get a life time supply at a camera shop for $4
Next in is 10 drops of Direct tile cleaner.Again,a life time supply for $3
I have found Groove-Glide @$25 a can 'ok' it's worth it I guess.Not a huge improvement but some.
Be careful the first time you use it.I caught quite a buzz the first time and I was laughing and flipping my expensive Japanese imports around the room like a frisbee the first time I used it.
Not quite as good as a killer doob though!

Last products.

My formula is very similar to the one mentioned above. I clean a new record with this formula, and then apply last Xtra Strength cleaner, then record preserv., then place it in a VRP or VPI rice paper sleeve. I have many records which are very very silent. Only faint occasional noises which are not at all invasive. I also use stylast on the cartridge. It pays to get a quiet table like the VPI Aries (my choice) and there are other good ones... the table can create/transfer a lot of noise. Jandj

I have very little surface noise problems & I don't even have a cleaning machine! I do want to get one, but presently lacking any space to install one I've simply been doing without. What I do use is the good old DiscWasher handheld wet cleaner, which although not an optimum device it does do a decent job. I don't use it for every play, just occasionally, followed up with a Hunt EDA dry dust brush for every play. First I use a Zerostat antistatic gun on the LP, then the Hunt brush, then a blast of canned air to blow away any remaining dust specks. A dap of Record Research Labs LP9 on the stylus also helps to reduce surface noise as well as stylus & record wear. Last or GruvGlide on the LP makes them even quieter but I don't use it very often.
Maybe my good experiences are due to more than just these cleaning rituals. I've read that the overload charactaristic of your phono stage equates largely into this (some of them can handle signal levels OK, but they overload & accentuate surface noises if poorly designed). Other noise-factors I'm sure relate to turntable & stylus design (my setup is the VPI HW19MK4 with a Grado Signature arm & Grado Statement Reference woodbody cartridge). This rig sounds wonderful & I don't even have it fully tweaked as yet!