Advise needed - faulty LP's (not glossy/not shining)

I have found some records that have been donated to me and not played for a lot of years do sometimes seem to have a bit of mold on them which makes them dull looking. After 2 -3 washes through my VPI 17 they are a hell of a lot better and very playable.

Be careful though, I would never play one of these without a good cleaning first.

Cheers

Tim

if it is mold, then it's fine. I'll make sure they are clean. BTW, not sure whether this would help, after cleaning, the records are partially glossy and partially not.

Difficult to see with your photos, but that dull looking area looks like lacquer of some sort, how do they play? Is there extra noise on the dull areas?

Just a thought, on the inner run off part place your finger on it, is it rough, it might be the top layer coming off, not sure though.

Tim

Yes, there are extra noise from the dull grooves. When u said it 'dull', I think the sound is dull too. I believe because they were kept too long in its plastic sleeves which is not good for records storage. 

Difficult to tell from here but it could be fusion between the pvc of the record sleeve and the record, are they all in a pvc/paper sleeve? do you have any that are in just a paper sleeve and are those ones ok?

Don't know what the answer is if it is fusion.

Hi Mike,

Yeah, luckyly few records kept in paper sleeves are ok. e.g. The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Free- Heartbreaker. Those spoilt are mostly kept in the plastic sleeves. Btw, what is fusion relating to vinyl records?

Cheers.

The record being made of petrochemical and same for the poly sleeve, over time may be reacting with each other fusing together, which at best can cause just a slight surface marking, more noticeable on the shiny run off area, or in a worse case it will cause severe surface noise and I am not sure if it can be cleaned or not as it's chemical bond onto the surface.

Hopefully others will help answer if a fix is known.

I can't help, but perhaps my experiences with different types of sleeves (for CD!) would be interesting for some: I remember when these thick CD binders first came out. Had vinyl pockets lined with 'breathing' fabric on the other side. Turned out the vinyl stuck to the surface of the CD, while the fabric caused scratches. I'm not aware of anything that could be done to remove the vinyl residue.

Some plastics should be safe for archival purposes: polyethylene or polypropylene are less strong than vinyl and slightly less transparent than PVC, but are not acidic or chemically attach themselves to other plastics. Dupont's Tyvek material is a supposedly almost inert non-woven type of paper, which some companies make into sleeves. It has the side benefit of being less abrasive than paper. Either PP or tyvek sleeves should be good for regular use or storage of vinyl.

Cheers,

EJ

The inner sleeves that Decca used to use during the '60s and early '70s sometimes had an unfortunate habit of reacting with the vinyl  records within.  You'd literally have to peel the inner sleeve off the vinyl.  The vinyl itself was left with a kind of patterned residue all over.  Playing an LP like that was risking major damage to disc or stylus.  Luckily Decca cured the problem and the late '70s inners are much, much better.  I have found that if you run these LPs through a cleaning machine with a fluid mix that's on the alcohol heavy side then most all the damage is completely removed.  Do each side twice to be sure.  Then place inside a new Nagaoka or similar inner sleeve.

A distilled water to isoprop alcohol mix is quite normal in record cleaning fluid.  True, some don't like Isoprop because they reckon it damages the plasticiser (arguably not at this dilution), but this is very dilute, and where you have the reacting going on, you're going to need all the help you can get!

My usual mix is 10 parts water to 1 part isprop, and 3 or 4 drops of photo-flo.  For those that have bad reaction with the inner, then use 5 parts water to 1 part isprop with 3 or 4 drops of photo-flo.

You'll be amazed.  After a good scrub and a couple of runs through the Nitty Gritty, even the worst looking of the reacted LPs came out looking and sounding almost like new.  Then re-bag in a new inner-sleeve.

Plastic covers are usually fine, just so long as the LPs aren't kept anywhere too damp.  Ironically the plastic can be a problem when stored in the damp...

Thanks Richard. Thank you very much indeed.

The inner sleeves that Decca used to use during the '60s and early '70s sometimes had an unfortunate habit of reacting with the vinyl  records within.  You'd literally have to peel the inner sleeve off the vinyl.  The vinyl itself was left with a kind of patterned residue all over.  

Hi Richard,

A Fontana record from the '60s I bought on Friday had this problem. As you say it was particularly a problem with Decca inners. One clean on the Keith Monks and it looks and plays like new.

It's important to stress that once a record has been cleaned it shouldn't be put back in the old inner sleeve, especially in the condition achiques' LPs seem to be in. 

ATB

Steve

Lots of the 70's plastic clear outer album cover sleeves also stuck to the album covers.

When you try and take the album out after many years,It pulls all the art work off.

I dont use those anymore.

I use  poly outer cover sleeves now.

Around £8 for a hundred.

Stu.