Virgin hole

Virgin hole describes the condition of the center hole of a vinyl record. When someone has a hard time putting the record onto the center spindle of a turntable, the record is said to have 'virgin hole'.

Surprisingly, only some brand new records suffer from virgin hole. After the record is placed on the center spindle a few times it will usually go on with ease. Origins of this phrase come from techno DJs but may have been taken from another group of people.

The opposite of 'virgin hole' is 'sloppy hole'. When a record suffers from the sloppy hole condition, the center hole is too big for the record to be played properly. The record's pitch may vary and/or skip during playback. The needle can slide right across the surface of the record if it comes out of the record groove. There is no known fix for sloppy hole.

TRIVIA! The great Ashley Pomeroy says 'virgin hole' might originate from Virgin Records. Apparently back in the 1970s, their original label logo had a naked woman with the record's hole in a sensitive location. (Stavr0 would like photographic proof of this). Ashley Pomeroy suspects the term is as old as time itself.