Nitty Gritty was started in 1981 by three partners; Ken Erickson, Mike Baskin and Elliott Buckler. They were joined by Gayle Van Syckle the same year. Gayle became CEO when Ken Erickson passed away in 1994.

They felt that none of the cleaners, currently available, addressed the needs of the analogue audiophile or, if they did, were too expensive. They wanted to offer a reasonably priced machine that was more compact, more effective, more user friendly and better looking than those then available. This led to a number of innovations in a range of models, at popular price points, that were affordable to the majority of potential purchasers.

Nitty Gritty have several claims to design fame including the original venturi-effect vacuum slot, still used today.

An important feature, in their view, is that the dirty side of the record does not contaminate the cleaned side. This is achieved as follows. The turntable, on which the record sits, is about the size of the record label and never comes into contact with the playing surface. In addition, their machines scrub and vacuum from the underside which means that the dirty side never comes into contact with the cleaning machine turntable surface risking contamination of the ‘just cleaned’ side when flipped over. A further innovation is that, instead of driving the record by means of the turntable, risking slippage especially while vacuuming, they rim drive the record with a capstan wheel eliminating this potential problem.

A further feature is the small size of the cabinet resulting in their taking up little space. Their top model, the Mini PRO, scrubs and vacuums both sides simultaneously.