Vinyl foibles

I have been doing some testing on my records that shouldn't have clicks but do. When I put them in the Degritter the clicks disappear. I was assuming that was because the Degritter removed gunk (which it does) from the album's surface. But the more I thought about how many clicks I've heard on records that should be pristine, I realized that the Degritter is also removing static.

I have a Milty Zerostat gun which I have hardly used. I am now judiciously using it to clean all parts of the record. And I find no more clicks. This isn't exactly scientific, but I'll keep testing it.

@audio-b-dog   In my home I keep the humidity ~51%, and I can use the Zerostat to eliminate static temporarily from my LPs.  I have found that slowly squeezing the trigger once, aiming at the center of the LP, and then discharging the Zerostat pointing away from the LP is sufficient to destaticize both sides of the LP.

I also use the Zerostat after I've played an LP before returning it to its sleeve. Often, I reclean the LP with my carbon-fiber brush after playing as well as before.  I have a strong light about 6" from the turntable that enables me to see any dust that settles on an LP.  Despite playing LPs with the TT's dust cover down, some dust may still appear on the LP after playing it.

Another thing you may find helpful is to slit the sides of your sleeves so they open like a book.  That way the LP doesn't slide out of the sleeve, which creates a static charge, even with rice-paper sleeves like MFSL's.

An easy way to detect static is to take a small piece of styrofoam and tape it to a piece of thread.  The styrofoam will be attracted to an LP with a static charge, but not one without a static charge.

@drmuso 

Thank you for all that useful advice. After all these years, I am just learning that static has been making a lot of noise on my records, with clicks and pops I thought were because of age or gunk. I have been using the Zerostat wrong, I find out, thinking that it was working when it was clicking. The truth is just the opposite and I need to learn to slow down my trigger finger. Don't know what kind of music you like, but I'm listening to Pharoah Sanders' "Karma" loud because my wife is gone. With all the improvements I've made to my system, the recording sounds marvelous. That's what it's all about.

@audio-b-dog  You're welcome.  IIRC correctly, records tend to get negatively charged, and you just want to use the Zerostat to give them positive ions, which happens when you pull the trigger; releasing the trigger produces negative ions, so you direct them away from the LP.   I've read here that it's desirable to pull the trigger slow enough to avoid the "click" sound, but that's hard to do on some of the guns.

"Karma" is a great record, well-recorded as well as good music.  Alice Coltrane's music from this period fits well with Pharoah's and he plays on some of them.