Shocking
It's that time of year, when we're fielding questions about static build-up on turntables ... well, non-Galibier turntables that is.
On our Galibiers, static is a non-problem as you'll see below, but with other turntables the solution may not be "built in".
We have 2 approaches to solving this.
In this post, we addressed a possible work-around to adapt our static draining solution to turntables from some other manufacturers.
A humidifier. If you can reach an indoor humidity of 35 to 40%, your problem should be solved.
Here in Colorado, the indoor Winter humidity can drop to 10-15% during cold snaps, but since we began humidifying, we no longer generate static sparks when touching the ground screw on a light switch.
Try it. Your sinuses will thank you.
The short story is that our bearings are grounded which forms a static drain.
With the ground wire terminated to your phono stage (or the ground screw on a wall outlet), the static jumps the capacitive barrier (the oil) between the bearing spindle and body and this prevents build-up.
The above blog post documents a work-around we developed to implement this completely reversable solution for some other turntables.
It's not always possible to find a spot on many bearings, but don't blame us ;-)
If your problem occurs only during the dry, cold, Winter months, then there's a solution that's not only good for your turntable, also for your sinus passages: a humidifier.
Bearing Ground Wire Attachment
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