I had a Duh moment earlier. Actually it was a duh few hours. I was listening to the David Gilmoure's About Face and noticed a noise throughout the first side. Sort of a ka-thum, ka-thum, ka-thum. Constant and about every revolution. It sounded like the needle was stuck in the very last lead-out groove, only much more muted. When the music was playing you could hardly notice it, but in the dead wax between songs it was noticable. So WTF is that? I didn't notice it the other day. Boy, it was driving me nuts. To make matters worse, it wasn't in the lead-in grooves. Only when it got into the music. SO I figured maybe my cartridge wasn't set properly as I was playing around with different cartridges the other day. So I proceed with the tedious task of setting up my cartridge even though I had just done it a few days ago. Confident that I had solved the problem, I played the album again. It only took a few seconds to realize the noise was still there. Son of a b****. SO, I get another cartridge and set it up and darned if it ain't still making the ka-thum, and like before, it's hardly noticeable but it's there. Well, it's been a few hours that I'm trying to figure out what's wrong and to say I'm getting pissed off would be an understatement. I'm starting to think my turntable is going south. I'm not even sure what could be causing this type of noise because it's just not common. Anyhow, somewhere around the 3 1/2 hour mark I decide to try another album, so I get out a Fleetwood Mac and hoping for the best, but fearing the worst, I cue it up and let it play. First song...nothing...dead wax...nothing and so forth. Dead quiet in the dead wax, just as it should be. SO I'm still pissed, but relieved that there wasn't an issue with my cartridge's or turntable. I'm not sure what the moral of the story is, but I felt pretty foolish for not trying a different album before I started tearing things apart. I just can't figure why I never noticed this before in the 30+ years I've had this album. Anyhow, all is good now!
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