Care For Old 78's

[Gingerella72]

I recently acquired a 1949/50 Philco radio with turntable, along with some very old, beat up 78's.

These records are without any kind of sleeves or covers, just the discs themselves that have been sitting on a basement shelf collecting dust and cobwebs over the years. Some of them have had water dripped on them, and some are homemade discs that are starting to flake and peel (you can see the steel disc underneath).

Anyone know the proper way to clean and care for these, and if there is a resource for perhaps buying blank record sleeves to protect/store them? As beat up as they are, some of them were made by my dad and I want to preserve what is left of them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Nauck's Vintage Records is a good source for 78rpm-size record sleeves. Kurt Nauck is a good guy and a square dealer.

Keep liquid away from the discs that are peeling -- any more moisture under the coating will cause it to flake off. Don't use any modern record-cleaning solution on regular 78s -- these products contain alcohol, which dissolves shellac. 78s can be cleaned with a degreasing dish soap and water, applied with a soft paint pad, but don't play them until they're completely dry.

Any home-recorded disc with a hazy, greasy white layer appearing on the coated surface can be cleaned with a solution containing ammonia -- ordinary blue Windex works well -- but be sure there aren't any cracks or splits in the coating before cleaning. Don't get any disc with a cardboard core wet, ever.

 

[Gingerella72]

What a great site, and thanks so much for the cleaning tips!

 

[Dexter'sDame]

I would also add, never stack 78's horizontally flat in a big pile as you're going through them. The collective weight of 78's can crush the ones on the bottom of the stack to smithereens. From sad experience I've found that the book-style record albums of 78's are especially vulnerable to this.

The edges of 78's are extremely vulnerable to chips, so I would not store them vertically if I was using paper sleeves. The lightweight cardboard sleeves offer a bit more protection. If I did store them vertically, I'd put them in the cardboard sleeves in a 78's box with a padding of bubble wrap on the bottom. Since my 78s collection is relatively small, I just stack them horizontally, in very short stacks no more than 2-3 inches high. (The stacks line up across a bookshielf.) Call me silly, but if I haven't played them for a long time, periodically I flip each stack so that what was the bottom is now on top.

I'm always open to better suggestions.