Staying in the Groove

A friend of ours took home an old turntable that he had found in his dad's basement. He wanted to know how to hook it up to his stereo. I explained the process to him and then said, "For now, only use junk records to test it. Don't try playing anything nice until you get a new stylus." He looked at me like I was from Mars.

He replied, "My dad never ever played it, Brent. It's like brand-new." I assured him that he knew more about its history than I did, and I didn't argue. I still stand by my statement, though. If you found an old fork in your dad's basement, would you immediately use it to eat dinner, or would you make sure it was clean first?

Remembering that got me thinking about the needle on my turntable. When had I last replaced it? The earliest would have been in 2013... seven years ago? It was time for me to get a new stylus. I found a replacement on Amazon.

Does it make a difference? Holy cow, I was a little embarrassed that I had let my old needle get so worn out. Even my scratchy, thrift store records sounded better. 

Like this one. I was pumped to find an original release of Pet Sounds at Goodwill, even if the album's cover was water damaged. BTW, Rolling Stone just ranked Pet Sounds as the 2nd Best Album of All Time this morning. How's that for timing?

I've had Pet Sounds on CD since 1990, but I hadn't heard it on vinyl. 

Sure, there are some pops and clicks to be heard, but they don't overpower the music. The problem was a skip in the first song, "Wouldn't it Be Nice." Brian Wilson sings, And after having 'skip!' together... I tried vacuum cleaning and the wood glue method, but that skip! was still there. So frustrating. 

I Googled "How to fix a scratched record" and spotted something that I hadn't heard of: using a wooden toothpick to fix a skip. The idea is to use the toothpick to physically clear out the debris that the cleaning couldn't. A (soft) wood toothpick would probably do the least damage to the vinyl. 

Here's my school turntable. The Pioneer PL-4 works, but it's not going to win awards. I pulled it out of storage to try the toothpick fix. This year my classroom is all but empty due to Covid-19 cleaning protocols. 

This is the little amp that I use to power a pair of headphones. 

I'm not quick enough to see the exact place that causes the stylus to jump. I need to slow the record down to spot the damage. I unplugged the turntable and spun the record by hand until I reached the correct scratch. You can still hear the music even if the turntable has no power.

My eyes aren't what the used to be, either. To have any chance of seeing what I was doing, I had to use a the smaller, more powerful lens at the bottom of my magnifying glass.

The record appeared to be clean, and the scratch wasn't very big, but you can see some of the crud I removed with the toothpick. (Full disclosure: this picture is of Carole King's Tapestry. It also has a skip.)

I cleaned the gunk off the record's surface and gave it a spin. Hey! That worked! I could hear where the skip had been, but I could also hear "Wouldn't it be Nice" all the way through. That's a bit of a relief. 

Disclaimers all over the place. This toothpick fix worked, but I would only try it you've cleaned your vinyl as well as you can, and the remaining skip is driving you nuts. If you are worried that the toothpick could do more damage, then don't use it. My guess is that you will always hear the damage in this spot, even if the needle stays in the groove. I am also sure this will not work for all skips. Somethings just cannot be repaired. Sometimes you just have to walk away.

Still, it was a lot of fun to try this fix. Armed with a new stylus and a handful of toothpicks, I'm ready to battle any vinyl scratches that come my way.