robin_campbell36•1mo agoProlific Poster

I always thought wet cleaning was overkill until a crusty $2 record changed my mind

I picked up a beat-up copy of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours at a garage sale in Nashville for $2, and it had so much surface noise I almost tossed it. After watching a YouTube video from a guy in the UK, I tried a homemade solution of distilled water and a drop of dish soap (no fancy machine, just a sponge and a drying rack). Has anyone else had a cheap record totally come back to life with a basic wet clean, or did I just get lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

john4301mo ago

I had the exact same thing happen with a $3 copy of Neil Young's Harvest I found at a flea market in Austin... that record was so gritty I thought it was ruined for good. I used a similar homemade mix with distilled water and a tiny drop of dish soap, scrubbed it gently with a soft microfiber cloth, and then let it air dry on a dish rack. After that, the pops and crackles were probably 90% gone, and it sounds nearly as clean as my brand new records. It's wild how much dirt and grease just sits in those grooves and a basic wet clean can fix it so easy. You definitely weren't lucky, that method works more often than not in my experience.

wren_rodriguez1mo ago

Distilled water really is the secret weapon for this stuff. Tap water has minerals that just dry back into the grooves and cause more crackling down the road. I've done the same thing with old classic rock albums I pulled from thrift stores and it's amazing what comes off on the cloth. Sometimes I'll do a second pass with just distilled water to rinse any soap residue, then pat dry with a lint free towel. Makes a world of difference when you're spinning something like Harvest, those Neil Young records are notorious for picking up surface noise. Did you notice any difference in the high end frequencies after your clean?