A Sticky Situation

I really like the listening station at Zzz Records. If you're curious about a used record, you can use their turntable and headphones to give it a spin. While I was previewing Survival by Grand Funk Railroad, I looked up and spotted this record in the return bin.

I'd like to thank whoever listened to this record and decided not to buy it. The Halloween masks first caught my attention, but Marvin's groove was what made me take it home. The record did have its share of pops and snaps, though. 

I had hoped that cleaning the record with my old Discwasher brush would help.

The brush does a nice job removing surface dust and dirt, but it doesn't get very deep into the groove. Sadly, the crackle on this record was getting hard to ignore. That was frustrating because the songs were really growing on me. Rather than toss this LP, I tried an experiment. I cleaned the record with wood glue. 

I've read posts and watched YouTube videos about this process, and it seemed pretty simple. The idea is to cover the vinyl's surface with a heavy layer of wood glue, let the glue seep into the record's groove, and then peel the glue off after it had hardened. Allegedly, the dried glue can remove dirt and debris that a brush cleaner cannot. I figured it was worth a shot.

After practicing a couple of times with a junk record, I cleaned Marvin Holmes and the Uptights (love that name). I would have given the record's condition a 5 out 10 before the glue cleaning, and an 8 out of 10 afterwards. Scratches can't be cleaned away, and you will always hear them. Until I find a better copy, I can live with that. 

Disclaimer: Try this on your own records at your own risk. I have no idea if this process is damaging the record is some way. 

Here's what the process looks like on a 50 cent LP (the cost, not the rapper). This record looked interesting, but it was filthy.

Even the inside of the cover had a layer of dirt on it.

According to the Dusty Groove blog, "The Purpose were produced by the legendary Tom Wilson when he launched his Raputin Productions in 1968... but this group somehow was lost in the shuffle, an obscure funky rockin’ bluesy combo, with an integrated lineup, and instrumentation that includes organ, guitar, bass, and drums. The tracks are all originals, with a funky feel to them, and some good grooves on the best tracks.The lead singer's in kind of an Eric Burdon mode, but on the groovers, this comes off as sort of a mod soul/beat group sound, which gives the cuts a great A-Go-Go beat."

Sounds like this record is worth saving. 

I like Gorilla Wood Glue. I doubt the brand of glue matters. (I tried Elmer's, and that was a bit trickier to peel off.) You can see here that I don't have enough glue on the outside edge of the record. I had to squirt on a second application out there.

An old, plastic gift card helped me smooth out the glue. Then I used my finger to smear glue where it needed to go. This isn't a cake; it doesn't have to look pretty.

Wood glue dries clear, so it gives you an idea when it is ready. This is after one hour:

Three hours later:

I think it's best to let this much glue dry overnight, so here it is the next morning:

I used the same gift card to lift a little lip of the glue. Angle the card up away from the record's surface; don't dig into the vinyl.

Once there is enough for your fingers to grab, the glue peels off pretty easily. You can first run the gift card all around the ouside edge to loosen it if you want.

Gross! Record molting.

I cleaned the surface again with my record brush.

Did it work? Yep. The first song, "Dustcracks, Bugs and Roaches", was so dirty I didn't know The Purpose were using an echo effect. Now I can hear it. 

Is it perfect? Nope. A dirty record is probably a scratchy record, and I can't do anything about those scratches. 

Takeaways:

• Only use WOOD glue. I like the Gorilla Glue brand.

• Bring the layer of glue all the way to the outside edge, the dirtiest spot on the record.

• If you splatter glue on the inside "dead space" of the record (near the middle), wipe it off. Those little spots of glue are hard to pick off when they are dry. If they dry across the groove, then they will make a pop louder than dirt.

• I wouldn't do this to a valuable record or one that is only slightly dirty.

• There are better and much more expensive ways to clean a LP, but this way is cheap and fun.

• Saving a fifty-year-old record from the recycling bin feels good.

• No matter how dirty they are, don't put glue on your Dad's Beatles records.