3 of 8

Write now Article Tools

For the record, no pun intended, there is not much minus a little surgery that you can do. But with some experimentation, it is possible.
Whatever caused the gouge in the record to cause it to skip left the grooves with a small valley and a part of the groove walls to peel into the same direction of whatever it was that caused it.
So now you need to pinpoint the exact location of the skip so as to push back the peel using a utility blade or something like the point of a safety pin. This may stop the skip, but you'll still hear the pop every time it passes over the gouged area, as sever groves may be damaged.

If the record is that important to you, then you'll go through the task of the second phase that may correct the skip and soften the pop to a much lessor level.

This is only a temporary three or four plays, but gives enough time to transfer the song to your CD or to tape for archiving if its the song you want to save.
What you have is a valley that was caused by what did the scraping on the vinyl. If careful, you can fill the gouge with soft wax. Then carefully clean off the excess wax so that its down to the grooves, not the inside, but to the top of the grooves.

Using a magnifying glass that's got some power, carefully take a pointed toothpick, not the square type, but the round as it has a nice point.
Drag the pick along each groove taking extreme care not to press too hard or you'll remove some from the gouge you just filled in. You only want to scrape enough wax out of the groove till you get to the bottom, and with a steady hand slide it over the filled gouge so its level with the bottom of the groove.

Being careful, wipe off the little scarping that amounted due to you removing the wax, and when your satisfied the gouge is filled properly, then put the record in the freezer for a while till the wax is frozen hard.
Have your player ready and plugged into what ever your going to use to copy the song, and then quickly take out the record and start the playback.

The wax will keep the needle from skipping and the pop will hardly be audible.
It works like a charm if you do it exactly and perfect.
Not easy, but do-able.
The wax not only fills the gouge, but the groove walls as well. Wax such as it is is almost like a hard lubricant, so the needle passes over it and it hardly makes a sound.
Good luck, and good listening.

Learn more about this author, Richard Serra.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Record collecting: What to do when a record skips?
We want to hear your view. Write now!