Thanks for the contributions folks, except for Dave Hanson's of course. When I checked thread 118142, I found he'd cracked exactly the same joke there. Is that a groovy sense of humour or a one track sense of humour?

In point of fact, I started thread 118142 because a large number of the LPs I was trying to digitise then had minute pieces of what looked like paper wedged in the grooves. I solved the problem when I took my turntable back to the store where I bought it and had them put another stylus in. Obviously, the one which came with the machine was defective.

The problem of coagulated gunge is different and isn't going to be solved by fitting another stylus. In fact this stuff looks like it would ruin every stylus on earth.

The first recourse, I think, is to buy a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol, thanks michaelr, from Maplin and see how I get on with it.