Today I got my hand on Abbey Road, the 33rpm from the beatles.

Not in the best shape out there. Some scratches.

The antiquarian (a friend of my brother's) took it from his "unchecked" lot on my request, we almost placed it back, but I opted to try it on his changer... it plays good, even if there's visible scratches.

So I took it.

but it doesn't play good on my record player. Ok, my player is not as good quality, the arm is lighter and likely not that well balanced and all. But the fact remain that it didn't skip on his player.


So... I think there should be a way to fix it?

is there a trick to fix mild scratches on 33s?

alternatively, a way to make my record player more reliable would be nice too...

What models and cartridges were the turntables?

My school of thought has always been that ~1/2g of tracking is all that I want. He may have his set much higher. As kids, we used a nickel (5g!) to make scratched records play without jumps.

Well, if you have nothing to lose, and have a steady hand and great magnifying lens, and great eyesight, you can take a very fine shaved pin, and crosscut the scratch groove by groove. Then the needle should track, and the tick should be inaudible. There was a kid in my dorm who could do this, all those decades ago, and it was truly amazing.

I'll ask again, what are the turntables and cartridges involved? An old record with scratches probably won't play very good at 1/2 a gram, better lay a dime on that tone arm. Just kidding since a cart designed to track at 1/2 a gram will bottom out doing that.

I didn't pay much attention to his turntable, but its a high-end from the 70s, from the look of it.

Mine is an el-cheapo modern crosley, I currently don't have any other turntable.

I tried to add a few nickels, well, I even emptied my pockets putting change on it with no result. (don't go imagining a huge pile of change, there was about 4 nickels and a few dimes)

I really don't mind if it sound scratchy at the end, if I wanted a perfect audio I'd use the CD... there's something from these over-listened vinyls that has some charm.

The record has been played a lot for sure, and has one pretty big scratch.

At this point, I'll try the needle idea... there's nothing to loose, it skips already - several in series at the end of "Get together"


If I can't manage to make it playable, the guy proposed to exchange it for another beatles record. Its just that Abbey Road is something special... and he don't have another one.

Sorry, I got Marsupial and mescalero mixed up

Before using a steel needle, try using a wooden toothpick, tracing the grooves in the area where the scratch cuts across, to push the ridges back. Strong light source and good magnification recommended.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try toothpick. Seems like a milder option.

so far no good. This record has been played at way too many party to be salvageable, I am affraid.

I am wondering if I should just use it as decoration. LOL.
or take up the seller's offer to change it for another beatles.

That's the best that can be said for that record. <g>

I think I'll use it as decorations. Well, I could still listend to it, as there's no repeat, but it skips several places and sounds utterly bad on some areas.

but it happens to be a great cover, so I guess it'll become wall decoration, with the vinyl coming out.

Try to get a little strip of lead and break a small piece off or if your arm is metal a small magnet would work better. I use that all the time for scratched albums and it doesnt hurt anything on the player or album as far as i can tell
Joe

Or stacking a couple of pennies on top of the headshell <g>

Fellas,
Me thinks your approach to forcing the stylus to track through the scratches by adding more weight isn't really addressing the problem, and will surely contribute to the added deterioration of the record. Perhaps there's a bit too much friction on the tone-arm pivot to overcome the natural tracking of the inward spiral. Cheap turntables at best can track through a record in "good" condition, but I suspect that there's so much internal friction (relative to a good quality turntable) that when the stylus hits that cross-cut, it just stays planted in that groove and skips.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you go out and buy a "real" turntable just for this one record, but if you truely enjoy the vintage sound of vinyl (with all the requisite surface noise, ticks and pops) then perhaps it's worth investing in a good used vintage turntable. Even a modest turntable with a brand new Audio Technica cartridge (tracking at, say 1.5 grams) would have much better characteristics than the "Crosley" turntable, which frankly isn't much better than a kids phonograph. Your investment might be $100 or less, and you would preserve what's left of your vinyl collection for years to come, enjoy much better fidelity, and get the playability that you want. Just my two cents.

Bryan in Tennessee

I wish there was

As suggested above go out and get a decent turn table like possibly a Marantz 6110 from the early 1970's. Thats Mickey Mousing what your doing.

My 1956 RCA Victor Deluxe changer can play any record (Damaged or not) and make it sound good, the scratching noises are virtually eliminated, and skips are a rarity, I'm using a Stanton/Pickering Stereo cart on here,



-Nolan

Let say I don't know much about changers / players... how would I select one. In fact, where would I find a good one to begin with?


I might be interested in replacing the crosley with a similar (but better) unit...