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How do you react when someone grabs an LP by the grooves?


BeBop

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Part Two: Does it matter is it's a mint 50s Blue Note or a trashed copy of Frampton Comes Alive?

I imagine most of us cringe, either one. Perhaps we can muster a shout over the Blue Note. Or a tear. I found myself cringing a little too much over that Frampton or a Saturday Night Fever.

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I cringe BIG TIME.

I cringe particularly heavily (deep inside, though I have had people tell me they noticed me cringe by the look on my face :D ) when I see people do this who ought to know MUCH better: Other (self-professed) collectors, deejays, record dealers, etc.

In the case of other collectors, as long as it is their LPs they are free to do with their platters as they see fit, like Paul Secor said above (though I don't quite get it why they do it) but it is annoying when it's those who take a closer look at MY surplus LPs I have up for sale at fleamarkets. I tell them politely but in no uncertain terms to NOT TOUCH THOSE GROOVES! (By the look on their faces I often seem to be the first to tell them this in their entire lifetime ...) Hey, after all when they just take a look at the disc it's not theirs yet so they'd better be careful with someone else's goods...

(And sometimes I have half a mind to yell at these jerks "If you cannot reach an octave with your hands then DON'T MESS with longplayers!!" :D )

As for deejays, this seems to be a particularly frequent occurrence. Beats me why when it comes to collectible music or "vinyl only" DJs where the records aren't easily replaced. Even if you can clean fingerprints away you can only go so far ...

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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If you are selling at fairs or street markets, you could turn it into a "teachable moment"- along the lines of:

"Are you familiar with LPs? .....let me show you the best way to handle them.....here's why.....great LP sound etc." Might ring up a sale or make a convert as a result.

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If you are selling at fairs or street markets, you could turn it into a "teachable moment"- along the lines of:

"Are you familiar with LPs? .....let me show you the best way to handle them.....here's why.....great LP sound etc." Might ring up a sale or make a convert as a result.

Honestly, that's more of less the way I do it. Not about being "familiar at all" but asking very, very politely not to get their fingers on the playing surface, etc. as a measure of protecting the surface etc. However, you have to be clear and act fast (if you need to tell them at all) because once they get their fingerprints on the platter the next one will sneeer at that very record, claiming lack of care for the record, etc. etc. ;)

And then there are those who by the way they act must have been into all this for a very long time and YET they seem to have utter trouble coordinating their fingers to get a record out of its inner sleeve (more so if it is just a LITTLE tight).

No doubt you know the kind .. those who press their fingers together to "grab" a record (as if in a vise) to get it out of the inner sleeve (as opposed to those who SPREAD their fingers out (octave!!) to hold the record at the center hole and outer rim and nowhere else). Clumsiness revisited ... Quite a bit like those who NEVER seem to manage to get antique books correctly out of their slipcase without tearing its edges.

And yes, this does give me the jitters.

Not to mention that it keeps baffling me how vinyl can attract hermit-like geeks of the kind who at best cut their fingernails about twice a year (let alone clean them ...) tdo12.gif

Although records are only a small sideline (duplicates from my collection) at my usual fleamarket stalls that I hold once or twice a year you learn to tell those characters apart pretty fast, particularly since I am far more often on the buying side at those events and always try to treat the objects I inspect with the care I'd expect myself as the owner. ;)

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Word!

JoanSelectsCoverVol.jpg

There's a part of me that likes playing old trashed (within reasonable parameters) LPs...like, I got an original copy of Face to Face, and it's had some "social wear" to be sure. But that's comforting to me, because if I ever found a copy of that album in pristine condition, I would be said, thinking about how this was one time that Face didn't get heard, or at least probably didn't get heard in full Face-ial circumstances. As it is, I hear the hiss and occasional pops (never like skips, though) and I think, alright, this record was used for some getting down, FACE-MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, and that makes me happy.

Of course, that's just a part of me, and god knows when I get some older DG album or the likes, I'm like, there was no getting down going on here, there was just people who didn't take care of their records, although if somebody can conjure an image of getting town to a DG record, hey, I'm open for that.

It's those Goodwill-level Easy Listening records I'm not sure about...is this Jerry Vale record so noisy because it was used for some heavy bedroom action over the decades, or by some depressed drunk housewife who just let it play over and over all damn day, or was it some peoples who had no sense of proper record care, or just what, that kind of uncertainty can be troubling.

As far a the young 'uns, though, consider that part of the thrill for them about vinyl is the whole tactile experience, the enjoyment of the object itself at least as much as the contents. So maybe it's that they can get the music in pristine virginal digital all day long, but they got THIS, they gonna touch it all over and make love to it like that. The music condom comes off.

Just a thought.

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Good points.

Some years ago I bought a copy of Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else" / "47 West 63rd Street, N.Y. 23" pressing, DG vinyl and RVG in the dead wax at the princely sum of 1 euro at the annual clearance sale of a local collectors' record shop. Sure enough, the record is scratchy (some very feelable), scuffed, has some heave "sideswipe" scuffing all through Side 2 but the pops and crackles do not yet overwhelm the music and it plays through fairly well and teh cover is halfway presentable. So at that price I have no reason to complain about such a "period document" that still testifies of the "party action" it apparently saw ... ;)

But the past life of some record (orignal 50s pressings 'n all) that cannot be remedied anyway and avoiding further deterioration today are two differnt stories altogether after all ... ;)

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