Check your precious vinyl

Posted by: count.d on 05 February 2002

I was looking at a record of mine that I hadn't played for a few years.

On close inspection I could see a lot of smudging on the surface. You can wipe this smudging away. Then I realised I could read the words "TONAR" across the vinyl surface.

I generally use Nagaoka record sleeves, but had bought quite a few of the "TONAR" sleeves a long time ago. They are the same shape and lightness. They have the word Tonar in small circles across the sleeve.

Some how over time, they have transferred a slight amount of grease onto the record surface. Where the ink lettering is on the sleeve, it has left a greasy imprint on the vinyl. This can be wiped off easily, but I wonder if it has long term damage if you don't wipe it off.

The Nagaoka don't seem to do this, but I'm still checking.

Has anyone else heard of this?

Posted on: 06 February 2002 by Dave Hartley

I also use a mixture of Tonar & Nagoaka inner sleeves.I've just checked a record that not been played for years and can see NO grease marks off the Tonar sleeve.

Just out of interest where do you store your records and is the enviroment warm....

Mine are fairly loose on narrow shelves in a coolish room.

Dave

Posted on: 06 February 2002 by count.d

Dave,

Mine are stored vertically, open fronted cabinet. Never damp, never hot, dark room where I use the computer. Room used daily, so not stagnant air, etc... I wouldn't say the lp's are loose, but they are not tightly packed together.

After my post yesterday, I have spent hours going through my collection. I used 200 of the Tonar sleeves and I would say approx 170 of them have left removable marks on the vinyl. Ten were particularily bad being greasy all over. Most were just very lightly marked where the Tonar logos are printed. If I didn't find a badly marked lp, I probably wouldn't have noticed the rest. Where the logo is readable on the vinyl, that particular lp wouldn't have been played for a number of years.

None of my vinyl have finger marks. Never cleaned and put in the sleeves from new.

There is not one mark from the Nagaoka sleeves whatsoever.

I'm not willing to take any chances and have swapped all the Tonar sleeves for my stock of Nagaoka. £50 down the drain.