What's All This Then

Why should I care what this guy has to say?

The correct answer is that you shouldn’t. We’re all entitled to our opinions. Develop your own. I try to be sane and rational, but that may change with the level of caffeine intake. I’m just telling my stories in the hopes they may amuse and/or inform others. And... I Confess... I'm showing off my bitchen collection a bit.


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

I Put a Cork On It



A Christmas gift for my turntable.  I put a cork on it.





I've had a lot of static in my house recently.  Santa Ana winds.  No rain.  The dog (probably not a cause, but we tend to blame atmoshperic anomalies on her).

Static can make a record sound scratchy even though it's not.

Records are spun here on Technics SL-D2 tables.  The original rubber mats had to go bye-bye as they were decomposing into an oily goo.  At first I thought it was just some oil surrounding the moving parts that got loose, but was advised by a turntable tech that it was the rubber.   I then sought out felt 'anti-static' mats.

These looked cool, but it seemed to me they generated static on their own.  Sometimes I'd even take an LP off the platter only to have the 'anti-static' mat come up with it.    Didn't seem like they were doing their job of sucking away the charges.

After about 30 seconds of research online, I saw that cork was the way to go.  Great.  Then I saw that cork mats were in the neighborhood of $50 unless they had some advertising on it.  Some were even as high as $120.

I then did about 30 more seconds of research to discover that they could easily be made at home.

This is exactly what I did.   The process is very simple.

1.  Go to a craft store and get a sheet of cork.  I got a four pack of 12 inch squares for under $10.  You can even find some patterns and colors if you choose.  I got green ones.  Usually you won't see it if you're playing LP's, but I play a lot of 45's.

2.  Find an LP you don't care about.  A hacked up disc or any Eagles album will do.  The LP WILL get damaged.  I recommend using an Eagles album.  It's good for humanity.

3.  Take a sharpie, mark the center hole and trace the perimeter.

4.  Cut it out using an exacto knife.

5.  Voila.

It's got a nice grip.  It's kind to your records. It looks nice.




No comments:

Post a Comment