floyd (02/20/83)
Due the failure of the record companies to produce quality products, most of the records I buy are warped. Some of them have been so bad as to cause the stylus to actually jump out of the groove. I have also experienced changing attitudes of record store owners towards the return of defective merchandise. They do suffer from the problem. It's not their fault that their merchandise is defective and they get stuck with the bulk of the handling costs. Their only alternative is to find a new business to get into. Our only alternative is to stop buying records. I remember, as long as eight years ago, going through 4 copies of "Crystal Silence" before getting a copy I could listen to (most of the problems were not warps but "pressing noise"). I still enjoy buying records, but I refuse to pay for any special weights or vaccuum pumps. Whenever I get a record that is badly warped I cook it. The recipe is simple: A "sandwich" with 2 12" pieces of glass (1/8 to 1/4 inch thick) and the record in between, spread about 1 pound of weight over the top glass (I use ash trays, paper weights, etc.) and bake at low temperature for about 15 minutes to half an hour. The wight alone is enough to flatten the record and heating releases the tesion and tendency to spring back. Occasionally, if the heat is too high or the record warp was really bad, the result is still unplayable, in which case, I return the record.