✚ A Vinyl Is My Zen practice
Records don't die — they get neglected. Bring me the garage-sale rescue, the inherited crate, the album you loved a little too hard in 1987. I'll tell you honestly what can be saved, and then I'll save it.
The operating room · Austin, TX
01Every record gets examined under raking light before anything touches it. Scuffs, scratches, groove wear, warps, seam splits — I chart what's cosmetic, what's audible, and what's terminal. You get an honest verdict before any work starts. Some records I'll tell you not to spend money on. That honesty is the whole practice.
02Ultrasonic bath, enzyme pre-treatment for the garage-sale cases, then a machine vacuum dry. Most 'scratched' records are actually just forty years of dust pressed into the grooves — a proper clean resurrects more records than any other step. New inner sleeve, always.
03Warps get slow, low-heat flattening — never an oven, never a rush job. Seam splits and jacket wounds get archival repair that respects the original printing. Stubborn pops get spot treatment under magnification. The rule: nothing irreversible, nothing that lies about what the record is.
04Every patient gets a full play-through on a calibrated table before it goes home, with an honest Goldmine grade and notes on anything that remains. You'll know exactly what you're getting back — and it'll come in a fresh sleeve, cleaner than the day you found it.
Pricing depends on the patient — send photos and an honest description and you'll get an honest quote back. Some records I'll tell you not to spend money on. That honesty is the practice.
