ajaxjones Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 First post. I will start by saying I'm brand new to vinyl and this board (in the last 6 months). Man, it's a financially dangerous hobby but I love it! It's right up my alley. Now I have some questions for all the vinyl veterans out there if you wouldn't mind providing some feedback. I've purchased about 10 albums so far in my time (mostly from VC ), and although they have all been purchased new, I've had quality issues with 3 of them. ETID - The Big Dirty skips many times on side A. P.TM - Church Mouth has a loud pop through most of the first track. Most recently my mewithoutYou - Brother, Sister is almost unlistenable because it skips so much. If this was used vinyl I would understand. But is this something that is very common with new vinyl? Can the same skip be common to an entire pressing, or is it normally isolated? And what would people recommend doing in these situations....would you attempt to exchange for a better copy or do you typically just have to live with what you've got? I don't want to sound too disgruntled, cause I have greatly enjoyed collecting my favorites on vinyl so far. It's a blast. I love the entire package. It's just seems that 3/10 isn't a very good ratio, but maybe I should expect that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skumbucket Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 no, you shouldn't. that's a bad ratio. my copies of those albums play perfectly fine, so i'm not sure what advice i can give. i know other albums i've bought new (well, one at least) skips pretty badly. there are some totally ghetto solutions depending on how cheap your turntable is. sometimes even just putting a dime or quarter on the stylus can help, depending on whether it's actually something wrong with the record or just some dust in the groove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counterfiction Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 From the ratio I can only assume that it's a problem with your table. most likely, as said above, it has something to do with the weight being applied to your needle. more than likely it's not enough weight and that will cause the needle to "jump" or "bounce" across the surface of the record. tape a coin on top and see if that changes anything. but, as said above, use a dime as it's the lightest and won't cause the needle to dig into your records. best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counterfiction Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 oh yeah, welcome to the board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monk0nuggets Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Yeah, as the above post also said, it may just be dust that you can't see. That was my first thought. Do you have a dust brush? It makes a huge difference a lot of the time. And Welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilstrombone Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Hopefully this wont continue to happen, or you will have to postpone your record buying and buy a newer/nicer turntable. And as said previously, welcome aboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celebdeath Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 i had some records that used to jump and skip for no apparent reaon. making the weight of the tonearm slightly heavier seemed to solve this. on one of my older turntables, i taped a coin to the cartridge, as was mentioned above. this worked quite well too. an anti-static record brush is a sound purchase. dont bother with the chemicals and stuff you can buy. and sleeve your records in plastic sleeves to help stop electrostatic energy buidling up (this attracts dust and particles to the record surface), help stop scratches from the paper rubbing the particles against the vinyl everytime you pull it out and stops acid from the paper affecting the vinyl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefan Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Like everyone's saying: chances are your turntable arm is weighted incorrectly. If you don't fix it your needle will slowly wreak havoc on your new purchases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faith Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 good luck dude and welcome to the board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajaxjones Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 Thanks for all the advice. I didn't even consider weighting the arm (still new to this). I'll give it a shot whenever I get out of work. I'll also go look for a dust brush and start investing in the plastic sleeves to hopefully prevent any increased skipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxmartinxx Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 First off, get a small level and make sure your turntable is level. This is very important. If it is level, or if you level it and it still skips, try cleaning the records. A lot of records come with a sandy grit to them these days that could effect play. If after doing this and they still skip, you can try to add more weight to your tone arm, but that should be a last resort since adding more weight could damage the grooves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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