At 02:33 AM 9/3/2003 +0300, nick voukoutis wrote:
>Hello,
>I am searching for an answer to a problem, that has occured with a couple
>of my collectible records. They are mostly from the 60s and stored
>properly (or so I thought) in my living room. I recently realised that the
>surface of some 20-30 records has become dim, when looked at bright light,
>while I am 100% sure I have not bought them in this condition. There is no
>sign of any problem on the covers. The problem is in some cases
>geometrically random, in a lot of cases you can see a "clean"(shiny)
>streight line among damaged parts, there are some with stronger damaged
>milky dots and one is damaged in an almost rectangular part. All damaged
>records are damaged on only one side. In most cases you cannot hear the
>problem, but in 2-3 there is a light hiss/ which also has not been there
>when bought. I do not know if it can be mould, funghi or anything else. I
>have tried cleaning on the VPI, ethanol, soap/water, vinegar and
>petrolether. None has worked. In case you think that you can help, if not
>restore the damaged ones, then at least understand the problem and save
>the rest of my collection I will be grateful and will write a longer email
>about storage conditions.
>Thanks for your time reading this
>best regards from Greece
>Nick

I have had a similar result on a very few discs and fear that you may have
the same problem. Some plastic sleeves 'leak' plasticizer onto the vinyl
where it permanently bonds to the surface. The result is a 'grainy' noise
and a dull finish. The clear stripes you see are likely to be areas where
the plastic sleeve had a fold or otherwise was kept far enough from the
surface for the transfer to be avoided.

If that is the problem, there is no known cure. You cannot recover the
plastic surface which has been destroyed. The only major source I have
experienced is Odeon, Pathé and other French EMI labels from the 1950s.


Mike
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http://www.mrichter.com/