Classic or dud: scratchy records

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I tend not to replace records with nicer copies even if it's something really scratchy that I bought for a quarter. Of course, if it's an album I think I might be really into, I might not buy the super scratchy copy in the first place, thinking I might find a better one at some point.

I don't think owning scratchy copies of records keeps me from listening to them at all. I might, however, be more likely to think of listening to certain albums if I had really nice copies instead of scratchy ones.

I was just listening to this really scratchy copy of the Incredible String Band's Changing Horses album that I have. It's funny because the music actually sounds great amidst all the crackling and pops, so it was obviously not played all that much. How then, did it become so scratchy? And why is it that there is a greater preponderance of really scratchy records from the late sixties then there is from the seventies onward? What the fuck were these hippies DOING with these records?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:26 (twenty years ago)

dud.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

http://www.garlic.com/~tgracyk/columbiadiscjpg.jpg

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

78s rule.. even if I have to pitch them up @ 45rpm + 8% to still hear it sound all slow and luuded.

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:30 (twenty years ago)

i have a nice old 7" copy of ray and betty doing "baby its cold outside" . its crackly as fuck but that just makes me think he's got a good little fire going.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

It got played a lot.

And why is it that there is a greater preponderance of really scratchy records from the late sixties then there is from the seventies onward?

They've been around longer so they got played more.

What the fuck were these hippies DOING with these records?

Playing them.

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

...a lot.

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

I don't think so. I have records that I'VE played a lot and they get groove wear, which is different than scratches. Seriously, this ISB album sounds great except for the fact that there are a ton of scratches on it.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

And I've been buying old records from the sixties since the eighties and there were a ton of them that were totally fucking scratched then, too. There must have been some new record care consciousness that started in the seventies.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

My copy of "Mob Rules" by Black Sabbath is very scratchy, and I've gotten used to hearing it that way - it sounds more like the cover looks, and my impressions of it have set somewhat so that any copy but mine doesn't sound right. Further, now that I've heard it being not-scratchy, the whole album doesn't sound the way I want it to anymore anyway. I want it to sound like I'm thirteen years old!

― Pangolino 2, Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

people used to keep them in stacks on the floor near the stereo at parties. people were drunk. they didn't care. i don't know who was worse though. hippies, p-funk fans, or little kids.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

entropy

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:43 (twenty years ago)

I don't think anyone in the world ever played Changing Horses a whole lot (though it's pretty good!)!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

someone's kid probably used it as a frisbee then

― donut e-goo (donut), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

Is it visibly scratchy or just dirty? I hate to state the obvious but a lot of those crackle and pops could just be dirt, grime, and static electricity.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, marks all over it. I clean records with a brush and sometimes wipe or even scrub them if they have actual dirt or grime on them when I buy them.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 01:59 (twenty years ago)

mold

try warm water. shampoo is good cos its designed to wash out quick.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:00 (twenty years ago)

Wait, are you saying this record is moldy? No seriously, it's clean. (Thx for shampoo tip!)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

maybe micro-pores! (i dunno really)

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:09 (twenty years ago)

Scott makes a good point about parties. I own a mono copy of 'Out of Our Heads' that I swear must've belonged to a frat house in the '60s. Noisy but sounds good anyway.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)

i definately have records where it's a classic (some folk stuff, or some old industrial), but unfortunately alot that are dud.
i wonder about how other people clean their records. i've been using a record store 'cleaner solution' that works quite well, but i wonder if there is an easier answer. i do warm water/soft cloth also when i get really bad discs, like the box of moldy records out of a barn recently.

― deru, Wednesday, 22 June 2005 05:12 (twenty years ago)

So, a call for solutions. I recently bought about 1000 45's from the jukebox collection of a now out of business roller-skating rink (hooray for the salvation army.) Problem here is, several of them inexplicably have tiny speckles of paint on one side or the other.

Any suggestions on how to remove paint from vinyl? I'm at a loss. Needless to say, these weren't stored well, so we're not talking collector restoration or anything...

― John Justen (johnjusten), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

It's unlikely that you'll be able to remove the paint without damaging the record. Any solvent that's strong enough to remove paint will melt the vinyl, and if you try to pick the paint off you will scratch the records.
That said I probably would go for option 2. But first they should be cleaned on a vaccuum-powered record cleaning machine. The VPI 16.5 or a Nitty Gritty Record Doctor are terrific machines. Both are highly expensive though-- there is a record store here in Chicago that will clean your records on a vacuum machine. Perhaps there's one in your area as well.
Also check out http://www.musicdirect.com/
They have a range of record-cleaning products and devices.

Scratchy records are definitely duds. Bad for the stylus and bad sound.

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

Pfunk fans,hippies,lil kids..none of them can hold a frog shaped candle to th folk fans..The records i pikk up from folk heads are always partied on heavily,wax stains,,holes where there shouldn'tbe holes..Folk heads drank alot of cheap wine and mexican grass so they always ended up with a pile of theo bikel lps underneath their drunken naked hairy folk filled bodies

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Thursday, 23 June 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

you're supposed to throw them at zombies

― katie, a princess (katie, a princess), Thursday, 23 June 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

One of my very first was a scratchy record by The Zombies.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Thursday, 23 June 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

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