How to fix a scratched or skipping vinyl record album. 

That cardboard example was sick! Lol

Love the cardboard groove explainer ✌️🌹🇦🇺

This is a public service for us vinyl enthusiasts-thank you!

That was the best way to explain a record skip, pretty ingenious, great job and thank you!

i've used that exact same technique for years with about 90% success rate. never had the patience to go over a long scratch like that but i've fixed dozens of skips and sticks. good work!

Great to see someone trying to preserve these gems, regardless of the effort it takes, kudos to you 👍

Cardboard skip demo best explanation ever....good work !

Thank you Sir, very informative, and thanks for calling them 'RECORDS' and not 'vinyls'! I fixed an old scratched and jumping K-Tel record recently, probably only worth 5 bucks to many, it has some great 70s tracks on it! I used a toothpick. Sounds great now. Greetings from the UK.

Loving the example, made it all very clear for me, a visual learner. Thank you so much!

Getting back to my vinyl after 40yrs lots of good stuff to pickup on thxs

Honestly I didn't even finish watching had to stop and say that you cardboard demonstration is seriously the best. okay, continue watching...

Thanks for your solution. I just used a sharp wooden skewer on my recently bought second hand copy of exile on main street. It was stuck on the intro to sweet Virginia which was a real P*ss off. I found the scratch, rubbed the grooves and then gave it a clean, no more skip. Thanks mate !!!! Also Sam Cooke is well worth your effort, I play Sam all the time, he was a genius who died too young and not enough people know about him.

Just want to tell you that I used your technique to remove a scratch skip and it worked!! Had a Bing Crosby Christmas song that had a skip…. Used your method and it plays great. Enjoy your site.. have learned a lot Thanks for the tip!! Bob

Love your giant groove demo. Brilliant.

Thank you! I purchased an album on Discogs that I had wanted for 35 years (The Cure - Happily Ever After) and it had a pop on the first track from a very minor imperfection. I used a sharp bamboo skewer, being afraid to go full on needle, and it completely fixed the pop.

Very slick presentation which explained it well.

Dude, the props department killed it with the cardboard set. Nicely done. Question, do you “drag” the needle through at an angle or vertical?

Thank you very much for this video. I dropped a brand new copy of The Cure's Disintegration my first time playing it, while flipping from the C side to the D side, and in the heat of the moment I broke my rule to just let the record fall and hit the carpet (which won't hurt it). In my fumbling attempt to catch the record, I scraped it across the corner of the stylus cartridge and now have a scratch across the last 3rd of the title track. It still plays without skipping, but there's a pop in what is normally a pretty smooth and atmospheric song. I'm going to give this a try and hopefully salvage the track to a degree. It's heavy vinyl (probably a factor in my dropping it), so hopefully it isn't too hard to fix. Lesson learned though, better to put a fingerprint on the record than handle it by the edges and lose my tenuous grip.

Great insight, very creative Thank you

I still think it's amazing that vinyl records hold music down in the grooves, and a needle running over them will play the music. It almost doesn't make sense even though I understand how it works.

This was quite epic man...excited to try this...can you show us a video for us that do better seeing someone doing it.

Cool! Will definitely try this trick! Thanks Matt! 😄

Thank you forn the very informative and valuable information shared here. I appreciate the honesty - this kind of work is not for everyone! I just received my dads old vinyl collection that was not properly stored. Some are in better shape than others. But I appreciate the shred knowledge here on YT. I will not take a needle to any of those records - esp the 78s! thank you for sharing.

Dedicated tutor,Greatest achivement.

Excellent cardboard demo on what’s happening at a micro level!

Spatula City!!! Yeah boy I'm 40 and I know where that came from🤣 Love and appreciate your helpful video man. Thanks 👍

Wow!! Like revelation straight from God!!! Love your demo with the cardboard.

Ya Dude, this was an awesome video and gave me the courage to give it a shot. Excellent.

Thank for bringing helpful tips,so I can save a couple of my fave/hot waxs 👍❤❤❤🎸🎸🎸🖖

Wow! That is incredible!

Love this its great to understand what happens Thank you😊👍

This video helped so much!!! Thank you so much!

I saw this dude in the thumbnail and i knew instantly he was the vinyl wizard

great video, as a poor artist i buy a lot of second hand and cheap records so thjere are a few scratches, some real bad ones,so i will try this out and if it works i will be forever grateful....good on ya mate a very useful vid.

Thanks for playing my favorite singer of ALL TIME, the late, great Sam Cooke! I have that album on CD.😀😀😀

Nice fix on that lp. Sam Cooke thanks you! And deserves it. Great record.

Thank you so much. This is a great video.

Great info. Smart, honest guy.

Thanks for the TIP there Record Dude.

Great video thanks for sharing

Very good preface and practice. We never did this back in the day. Now it’s ear nirvana. We didn’t know and record quality was engineered to be obsolete with cd in the horizon. We all became fooled for the most part by convenience, portability ….the instant of it all. Now these old ears can listen to nothing but records, even noise and clicks is easier than the ice pick compressed digital signal regardless of the eq. Need to find a good dac I guess?Cheers!

Now that I'm on the right stream. Is there anything you can do to for static on the lead in at the beginning. I noticed that quite a few of my older albums the lead is has a lot of scratches probably from dirty paper sleeves or, worse yet no sleeve at all. Would wet sanding with like 5000 grit polishing pads work?

About locating the pop or stick on a record - I stand directly over the deck, look down on the record and get a fix on which part of the record label passes by when I hear the sound - the logo, the speed, the song list, whatever. 90% of the time I locate the place first go.

The cardboard example was great!! I'm sure trying to move the groove is tedious work.

Amazing video! Can you provide a link for the magnifying glass you use?

FIX YOUR RECORDS PEOPLE! Thank You for this fantastic video. This video is correct & accurate, anyone that says contrary is an ignorant shaky-handed dolt...tell them to get lost. Ive resurrected many discs the same way. There are people that insist this cant be done, ignore them. Go Slow when evaluating & repairing, find your patience, take your time!

Yes the information in this video is correct. I used to use Steel points years ago now I use a different material and a slightly different technique than described in this video. It can be tedious if you don't have the proper work environment. * incidentally I have fixed a 1st press Stereo Canadian pressing of Kind of Blue ;) hahah

Thanx a lot pal...and yeah takes a lot of time patience and practice

Nice. There is a reason that I closely inspect records when I am buying them. If I see a scratch, I don't purchase it, unless it is a must-have album. I worry about damage, or early wear, on my stylus. I will try this on some of my albums that have some pops and ticks. Thanks for the information.

Great video thanks!!!

Now I need to get a Sam Cooke record to listen to that song, lol!

Thank you man. I have plastic beach by the gorillaz on vinyl it’s my favorite vinyl and it skips ay the beginning. After crying for 15 min I decided to see if could fix it and you saved my night thanks.

I checked your website for your vinyl sales. Do you have a category of rare more expensive albums?

Awesome man great job!!

I found a kiss love gun lp in an antique store. The vinyl itself looks pretty good but the very beginning of love gun there is about 2 or 3 skips. No scratch. So is it dirt. I have cleaned it with dawn in distilled water with a small amount of 91 isopropyl and sprayed it down and scrubbed with a soft bristle brush at least 3 times. I do think its getting better especially since I have a better player. I have some records with a lots of light scratches but they sound great especially after my method of washing. I want to add I’m not wet playing either.

Can you post a link to that small handheld magnifier with the two types of lights?

My vinyl keeps skipping and it’s new but I don’t wanna try to fix it cuz I know I’m gonna mess it up even more 😭😭

Fantastic!!!!! Great information man!!!! Thank you!!!! Sam Cook is definitely worth it!!

Excellent !! Very valuable info for us Vinyl collectors. *what turntable are you using?

Great demo thanks! Can you please say what kind of needle you’re using, sewing, gramophone? Only my favorite 78’s have scratches, a couple of breaks too. I’d like to try resurrecting them.

been looking for that dice forever

Enjoyed the video and have subscribed to your channel. Question. Where do you get the magnifying glass? What type of needle? Love the prop btw I want to try this technique.makes sense it would work. Thanks

I have a record scratch that looks more like a smudge than a scratch but i think its still a scratch is there a specific soloution for that?

watching this reminds me why so many people switched to cds back in the day .........and now of course many are switching back.... funny how most folks didn't really bother cleaning records too much in the old days when there was plenty of time compared to now !

@Spatula City Records - what is the magnification strength of the pocket microscope you hold up in front of the camera at the beginning of the video? 20X, 40X, 60X 120X? Trying to get an handle on the optimum magnification of the grooves to coordinate a toothpick or needle in my hand.

Funny you should mention that. Luckily/or unluckily, depending on how you see it, my cat thought it might be fun to attack this spinning black thing which was on the turntable. He only mangled the first 1/2" but that's enough to ruin it's pleasure and value. Because of that I am going to watch your video. However I should say at the start, if there is no way of doing it I shall not blame you or curse the cat. He was a good rub-header, and a good purrer...long deceased, and now in a shoe box in the garden, may The-Great-Fairy-in-the-Sky bless his whiskers.

I've tried it with a match that I snapped to leave a jagged edge. Must have done more grooves than I needed to, but it worked.

Thank You.

Thats such a tune!

Thanks oh, you definitely are the final Yoda!

Would be helpful to know what magnifying glass you used. I looked online and did not see one that looked like the one you showed briefly.

That record sounds amazing. Never heard of Sam Cook, will check it out! I totally want to try this, any suggestions on what magnifier to buy? I have a $5ish record that gets stuck in one spot, figured it's a good one to try and fix. Seen lots of copies local too in case I mess it up lol

what type of magnifier with light do you use?

For long scratches like that I use ice. A DJ told me once about it (urban legend goes it was an easier way to fix in the club with an ice cube from a cocktail lol). I've created a cheap silicon mold which I can make pointy pieces of ice. I just place the (CLEAN) record in an old turntable and I press firmly the ice about 1/8" away from the scratch and I move the record back and forth so slightly (like a DJ holding the track queue). You do need to work fast because it's ice (duh) and melts fast under friction. It doesn't work for certain harder vinyl records but when it does it's pretty amazing because it doesn't leave any extras marks at the scratched area. I'd say give a try in a cheap record and see if that works for you.

Great information. Does anyone know if this will work with a scratch that is not transverse/across the grooves but more of a “slightly angled”/parallel to the groove type of scratch? I have a record that has about a inch long scratch on one song that is causing a skip-back. The scratch goes mostly parallel to the grooves.

VERY cool illustration with the cardboard! Subscribed after one video. By the way, I watched this video backward and Sam Cooke became a ...pop... artist BA-DUM---ugh ;)

After the scratch is repaired can you polish the scratch so it doesn't look like crap? Or, is that a waste of time?

I used to use this method in the beginning, which is great for viewing record damage (although I've damaged more than I've fixed), but I later found out that lightly rubbing a wooden toothpick along the grooves near the skip can achieve the same results without using a sharp tool.

I have the most annoying mini skip on an original mono sgt pepper but I'm going to try what you said with the magnifying glass cause I tried the toothpick and no luck. It almost looks and feels like a manufacturer defect tbh next time I will for sure use a needle.

Can you share some details about your magnifier? How strong is it? Where did you get it? Where can I find one like it?

Thanks, I'll try that.

Is there anything you can do to fix static on the lead in of an album? I try to avoid albums that are scuffed on the lead in but, I have a couple albums that this kind of damage.

Hey, I'm new in the record collecting game. I have a skip on my record in one song and I'm afraid to fix it my self. It's a newly printed record from Guardias of the galaxy and it has 6 songs per side. Can it be fixed? Or do I have to suffer the rest of my life with a scratched record? Please help. I need advise.

Mind blown!

So how do you do it? Run a needle or toothpick along the groove to scratch out the scratch, because the recording is encoded in the sides of the groove?

Thank you for this video I have a few record that pop in one place. Can you do a flatting slightly warped records video please?

Innerspace, represent!

What kind of needles do you recommend.... is gauge relevant? And does this work for 180 gram records? I'm thinking it's more robust so maybe it's a better surface??

I take it you watched Weird Al's UHF. It's a favorite of mine!

Hey man, I must say you really seem to know your shit. I thought I heard you say you use an ultrasonic record cleaner. May I ask what kind? I can’t justify the $3k for the Degritter. Looking at the Kirmuss. Any thoughts? Thanks and keep the informative vids coming!

8:03 You can find scratches at 33 rpm easy Replay the section you heard the pop This time watch the label as it spins take note of which orientation the label is at when you hear the pop stop the turntable manually reverse the record back to approximately where heard the pop based on the label orientation listen closely & you'll be able to pinpoint precisely

I have a NM copy of a U.K first pressing of Black Sabbaths Master Of Reality, a vertigo swirl. I just paid a fortune for it. However.......It does have a 7-8 second tick at the end of "Solitude" , the quietest track on the album. Its right on the groove that separates the tracks. I live in south Oc...Would you be able to help? :) I can drive to your shop...Much appreciated, Rich...

Does this method work on old gramophone records? All of the records seem to skip as they are so old. Could use some advice on that.

Where do you get the magnifying glass light ?

Can you tell us more about the tool that you use the make the repair other that a toothpick?

What about records from the late 2000s? I have one that I'm trying to fix. It's a favorite of mine.

Hello .. (sorry for my english) personally I use a pointed toothpick, less aggressive .. I noticed that the more the scratch is parallel to the microgrooves, the more difficult it is to have a result ..

Question: I have a record that I love that has a scratch that redirects the needle to skip to a few tracks later, is that fixable?

RCA Victor Dynaflex have, in my opinion, have aged really well over the past 60 odd years. I just bought a Connie Haines LP from budget label TOPS from 1957. Since I think it's styrene, not vinyl, so I'm feeling that I won't be able to fix the skip. It's also really noisy which I can handle.

I loved the cardboard diagram explanation, but I wish you would show the actual needle fixing it portion