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Washing the record with de-ionised water (or in fact any water) works to reduce static. I use 3mm cork + 3mm rubber on one deck but having washed records reduces static to nearly nothing anyway. The water should be demineralised as well of course. I get mine from the window cleaner but pet shops sell it for fish tanks.
Airhead-
I got one of those anti-static (carbon fibre) brushes as that's what my long-time record collector mate uses, also saw these in all the record shops so thought this must be good.
It's indeed good to carefully brush loose dust away right before playing the record I find.
Now I realize newly bought, never played records can have shit on them from the manufacturing process, and read a lot of people think you should clean / wash new records before you play them.
I have been trying the distilled water plus alcohol plus a drop of rinsing agent and microfiber cloth approach, and while a bit tedious it does work. Records play nicely, and I put them in their poly-lined sleeves afterwards with a content expression on my face.The static (and thus the dust) does return though.
I think it comes from the record player itself, the dry air, invisible cats, I don't know.
Maybe a better mat could improve things I tought.
Read up on the subject and now I'm super confused, frankly, there doesn't seem to be a one-fits-all solution to this.
salad
What is the forum-approved mat to use to help with static issues?
Cork? Rubber? Leather?
None of the above?
Read that a humidifier helps, and consider getting one as the dryness during the heating period pisses me off anyway.