These things are tough and there's no need to be gentle with them. I use a large old toothbrush on the worst of them with diluted Dawn dishwashing liquid and scrub the heck out of them, following the grooves. Then I rinse them under the tap and do a final rinse on my Nitty Gritty using distilled water. For 78s that look to be in basically clean shape, I just use VPI fluid in the Nitty Gritty with no rinse (at least until I play them and see if additional cleaning is necessary). I have three 78 rpm styli/carts: Grado, Stanton 881, and Shure. Soundwise, they rank in that order. The carts sound unbelievably better if you strap the two hot pins and two ground pins with very thin wire, holding it on with the cartridge leads. This can virtually eliminate surface noise on 78s in decent shape. I have many 78s that sound better than the same music on LP and CD -- this can be a jaw-dropping comparison. BUT WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T USE ALCOHOL ON 78S -- IT WILL DISSOLVE THEM. Good luck, Dave
How best to clean old 78s.
Well, this is the first time I'm posting in the analog forum. I was wondering if you could help a poor, unenlightened digital format guy.
A friend of mine knows someone that has inherited a collection of old 78 records from circa 1920. They had been stored away, but like anything that's been in existence that long [I guess that would include my dad] they're not in optimum playing condition.
Can you offer some recommendations as to how to clean and/or to a certain extent restore these old records? Would it be much different from your regular cleaning routine?
I apologize for the vague question as I don't know the exact condition of these 78s. I'm told they probably won't be played back on a high end system either.
Thanks in advance,
Dean
A friend of mine knows someone that has inherited a collection of old 78 records from circa 1920. They had been stored away, but like anything that's been in existence that long [I guess that would include my dad] they're not in optimum playing condition.
Can you offer some recommendations as to how to clean and/or to a certain extent restore these old records? Would it be much different from your regular cleaning routine?
I apologize for the vague question as I don't know the exact condition of these 78s. I'm told they probably won't be played back on a high end system either.
Thanks in advance,
Dean