Vinyl Repair?


Last night my wife was putting on our near mint condition original Tusk pressing and proceeded to drop it. In the process of catching it, she put a pretty good gouge into the first 2 songs, resulting in healthy pops I'd like to eliminate if possible. I’ve checked out a couple of YouTube vids on how to fix, but figured I’d trust people here to truly know. Seems like my options are 1) Put weight on needle and hope that somehow regrooves it (also seems like no one here is going to advocate for using your stylus in this manner) 2) the toothpick trick which seems to get good reviews and 3) some sort of 1500 grit sandpaper which seems insane.

Any advice pre divorce?

128x128mtbiker29
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Fly to Siberia, ride a horse into the tundra and dig into the permafrost. Dig until you find a long, tubular, curvy white thing. 
 Put it in your back pack and take it home. 
 Buy a saw. Cut a small piece off. Sharpen it. Make it real pointy. 
 Place it on your turntable, arm, headshell. Place your Tusk Lp on platter and drop the sharp pointy thing into the groove. 
 That might fix it. 
Note: be extra careful with the Let It Bleed album. 

None of the above methods work, I've tried most of them. The only cure is replacement...Sorry :-(

My wife has never touched a record in over 30 years. Only thing she knows is the volume knob. It only goes counter clockwise for her.....Tell her to stay away and consider Tusk an inexpensive cost of making this change permanent. What if it was a very expensive out of print one? 

all i can say is for people who can find an affordable specimen, thank god for CEDAR! iZotopeRx works almost as well.