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'Liberty' era 47W63rd Blue Notes


sidewinder

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Sounds like an oxymoron but I've heard that the 47W63rd pressings on the thinner vinyl (without the ear and deepgroove) originate from the 'Liberty' era ie. around 1967 onwards.

Strangely enough, these titles usually have the original laminated sleeves, so it can get a bit confusing. The labels are marked '47W63rd' and there is usually 'RVG' in the runoff.

Titles I have seen in the past (from the 1500 and 4000 series) are:

Freddie Redd 'The Connection'

Donald Byrd 'Byrd In Flight' (I have one of these and it sounds :tup )

Stanley Turrentine 'Up at Mintons Vol 1'.

Thoughts?

:wacko:

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I don't know anymore who gave me this information (Paul A.?) but the following is from a guy called Larry Cohn who runs a BN stamper project. He compared dozens of BN releases/remasterings. Very interesting! Maybe it helps:

In 1957 Blue Note DID NOT remaster its disks, but did THROW AWAY all the existing stampers, gone by the beginning of 1958. This was done to introduce the "new" technology of Safety Lip (raised groove guard lips near the edge of the disk on both sides). So all the ongoing catalog items from 1957 and 1958 were re-pressed with new stampers beginning in 1957, namely the early 1500 and 1200 series.

Similarly, in 1966 when Liberty took over, Liberty THREW AWAY all the existing stampers, all of which had the P=ear inscribed on them (i.e., property of Plastylite, an independent NJ company no longer affiliated with either BN or Liberty). They ordered all new stampers, BUT in 99% of the cases retained the original metal Van Gelder masters. Changes in quality at this point are variable, and I would ascribe them to mainly 2 factors: (1) the lesser quality of the mass-produced Liberty disks compared to the "handmade" previous BN disks, which were always pressed in low quantities; or (2) on the other hand, a potential IMPROVEMENT in sound quality for some given title under Liberty's regime caused by in every case using a brandnew stamper, whereas frugal Blue Note had pressed disks using nearly wornout stampers before the regime change.

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Lor is wrong.

I got some classified files from Area 52 Archive, don't ask me how I got them, that show that the best sounding BN are the records pressed within ten days from a Nuclear Experiment, no matters the address label. It seems that the consequent fall out during pressing process altered the sound in a positive way.

Obviously the records pressed between the first and the third day after the explosion are more sought.

So the only thing you really need is a Geyger Counter. :crazy::g:crazy:

Edited by porcy62
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I think Larry is doing a great job trying to figure out which pressing varieties exist in Blue Note. He is always very helpful in answering questions with regard to the subject. It is a pity certain people, who are perhaps not interested in this kind of elaborate research, only want to make silly jokes about it...

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I think Larry is doing a great job trying to figure out which pressing varieties exist in Blue Note. He is always very helpful in answering questions with regard to the subject. It is a pity certain people, who are perhaps not interested in this kind of elaborate research, only want to make silly jokes about it...

Maybe you have to check the stamper on your sense of humour... :w

Edited by porcy62
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I would guess that the Lexingtons and 47W63rd DGs would be best from a fall-out perspective as the limits set for atmospheric testing were pretty liberal at that time. Things tightened up around the NYUSA and Liberty eras when detonations went underground !

Edited by sidewinder
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I would guess that the Lexingtons and 47W63rd DGs would be best from a fall-out perspective as the limits set for atmospheric testing were pretty liberal at that time. Things tightened up around the NYUSA and Liberty eras when detonations went underground !

Correct, I would add that consequent sismic waves weren't good for records cuttings.

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I remember reading about some similar issue in classical recordings. London "bluebacks" which are highly collectable, apparently sound worse than the later pressings (post 1970) because of the inferior quality of the proces that went into the pressings. They made a change (stampers, or I forget specifically which), and the reissue sound quality improved.

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