Dealing with Static on LP palyback

@richardbrand, 

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't know what a reflex clamp is?  Is it one that uses a lever to grip on the spindle to exert downforce on the record?

Yes, such as the SOTA clamp - Reflex Clamp – Sota Turntables.  VPI tables have a threaded spindle, and they have a screw-down clamps.  A washer about 25-mm wide and 1-mm think is used to lift the record a little, and then the reflex/screw-down clamp slightly bows the record near the outer edge of the label to clamp it to the mat.  They are very good for records with dish warps.  But, like all things, some people like them and others do not.

@antinn 

Thanks for that.  As (bad) luck would have it, one of my records has just developed a warp, and I also bought a second-hand RCA Living Presence which is my first noticeably off-centre record.  I have not worked out a theory of how eccentric records interact with a tangential tonearm but intuitively pitch should rise and fall with each revolution.

Some have suggested that the Holbo platter is slightly dished, but if so, it is not obvious to me.  However, its puck is massive enough to completely flatten my newly warped disk.

One thing I think we could agree on is that a metal platter will donate electrons to a vinyl record if there is sliding friction between them.  The micro-surfaces are important, especially the high points, as that is where electrons concentrate.  This is the principle behind electro-polishing which preferentially dissolves the high points of a metal surface.

@richardbrand 

"Does anybody here really believe that?"

Apparently not.

@antinn 

"These are the most salient remarks of any passage posted in this thread since I’ve been following it."

Did you completely ignore this?^

I am bowing out of this discussion, as my views and experience have already been stated.  However, Richard, I gotta say that your notion that an "electron" can be trapped in a dust particle (or whatever you want to call it) along with a positively charged ion and yet still exert a deleterious effect due to its negative charge, even though neutralized by the nearby positively charged ion and thereby evading detection by an ES charge meter, is untenable.  ES charge is measured in Volts.  If there are no volts measured, there is no net negative charge (negative in this case, at least) and there is therefore no effect of ES charge in the neighborhood. You insinuated that I detected no charge after playing an LP, because my meter is "cheap".  But it does detect thousands of volts of charge when I yank an LP from its paper sleeve, with predictable regularity.  And it does detect the dissipation of that charge when I subsequently treat that LP with my Zerostat (following the classical directions of how to use a Zerostat), so what does it matter if it’s cheap?  And how do you define cheap?  If I told you I used a $200 ruler to measure the diameter of an LP, you might say that was a very expensive ruler.  Many others use a comb and a piece of toilet paper to detect ES charge. Now THAT is cheap. As you noted, and I do agree, there is much that we do not yet understand about ES force. It's quite a fascinating subject, actually. So is the question of what is an electron, really?