How do you effectively reduce static?

I use a cork platter mat and a carbon brush, yet much static builds up even playing one side of one record. The mat is often hard to separate from the vinyl. A felt mat was worse. What are some tips for keeping static at a minimum?

 

Water. Just keep a perfume spritzer type bottle of purified water next to your table. Spritz the brush lightly before using with a fine spray. The water gives the static a path to dissipate as it vaporizes. That's why wet cleaning your records can remove the static charge.

 

I zap with a Milty Zero Stat and use a carbon fiber brush before playing and have no problems with static whatsoever. Oh, I also have a cork mat on my TT.

 

I suggest a rubber mat for better static dissipation. The suggestion tyinkc to mist the carbon brush is a good one, just slightly damp. The brush should leave no more than a slight wisp of moisture on the record which evaporates by approx 1/4 revolution of the record. More than that will be too much moisture and the risk of making the record noisy. I recommend washing and drying the carbon fiber brush after doing several records. A dirty brush just cross-contaminates to another record. (we assume the dust adheres to the brush... no! not all of it does)

If you invest in a record cleaning machine, or a spin clean, and store the cleaned vinyl in a static free inner, plus use a rubber mat (not cork) your static problem will be gone.

 

Furutech Destat2- works great.

 

Acrylic Platter. Air dry your records, don't dry them with a cloth anything. Solved the problem for me. The solution from my spin clean added a bit of surface noise, which went away the 2nd time through an LP. So I use only distilled water now.

 

Nothing is going to keep a record surface or platter surface from ever occasionally picking up a static charge, it can always become charged again from friction going in an out of a sleeve or whatever. Wet cleaning, room humidity, changing inner sleeves, different platter mats, all can help reduce the occasions of a record becoming charged, but they can't prevent it from ever possibly happening again. But the Milty, used properly (or, if you want to invest, a benchtop ionizer), is great at eliminating charges when they do occur.

 

Diskeeper sleeves work magic for me. New albums will arrive with crazy amounts of static, but after storing in the Diskeeper for a day or so they'll be static-free.