We were cleaning out the attic and I found a box of my husband's old vinyl records. I took a nostalgic trip to my teen years looking at the old rock albums like KISS, Van Halen, Cheap Trick. I must have stuck in a couple of my mother's Doris Day albums in there too. I think I will dig out my turntable and put some music on.
gofar99 Messages: 1939 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
It is amazing what is hiding in attics. We don't have attics here but the big barn style shed is the next best thing. There is stuff in mine from decades ago.
We found a lot of junk that we threw out. We wanted to clean it out since we rarely even think about it. We put stuff in there when we first moved in and haven't used it since. It's like a closet you never go into unless you're looking for something specific.
That's pretty cool. I don't tend to keep things in storage unless I have to, so I rarely find anything like that. My parents still have their album collection though. I need to nab it and grab a turntable.
We were cleaning out the attic and I found a box of my husband's old vinyl records. I took a nostalgic trip to my teen years looking at the old rock albums like KISS, Van Halen, Cheap Trick. I must have stuck in a couple of my mother's Doris Day albums in there too. I think I will dig out my turntable and put some music on.
I wish we had a turntable! I was going through my parents' attic a couple of years ago, right after my dad died. I came across several boxes of vinyls and it broke my heart getting rid of them. Now I really wish I hadn't.
AFreed52 Messages: 10 Registered: September 2014 Location: New York
Chancellor
I assume they were in a place that was reasonably temperature-controlled. I say that because many attics can get extremely hot or cold, depending on the time of year--which can warp the records.
I assume they were in a place that was reasonably temperature-controlled. I say that because many attics can get extremely hot or cold, depending on the time of year--which can warp the records.
That's a good point, and one I didn't think of. However, it seems like more and more people are making their storage spaces climate-controlled so they don't run into issues like that.
gofar99 Messages: 1939 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
LPs are actually surprisingly durable. Heat is not the enemy, it is flatness. Laying flat they will put up with a lot of heat. Set on an angle...nope. I have several hundred. Generally if you can stand the temperature so can they. A bigger issue is the quality of what they were played on. Many were spun on inexpensive players with needles that were badly worn. Fortunately there is some hope even for them. I find that a good cartridge with a "micro ridge" stylus (google it for details) will often reach into parts of the groove that have not be worn out. Most other more common stylus shapes don't seem to do quite as well. Right now I'm listening to a jazz LP from 1964 that was $1 in a bargain bin. It didn't look all that great, but is playing almost like new.
While on the subject (slightly OT)do not be lured into buying any of the cute cheap phonographs out there now. There are at least a dozen brands that try to tell you that you can copy your LPs to digits and others that are just cheap. Don't do it. They are better used as door stops. If you need to learn why just visit vinyengine.com there are many threads on it. That still doesn't mean you need to get a second mortgage to get something that will do a good job. Same site is full of lower cost ideas.