Hi,

At Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:31:52 -0500,
Aaron Levinson wrote:
> 
> Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street
> Mercury MG-36070 (Black and Silver "Drummer" Label)

I once had this - Black and Silver "Drummer" label version of
MG-36070 which sounded so terrible (at least on my copy).
According to the dead-wax info and the vinyl disc itself,
this type is apparently not the regular issue (Blue and Silver
"Drummer" label, RCA Victor Indianapolis pressing) but from
other pressing plant somewhere. The disc itself looks like a
styrene record - some Mercury and EmArcy LPs from the middle-late
1950s to early 1960s, most of which were not their early pressings,
seems to suffer these problems too - styrene (or other) records,
terrible sounds, gray haze "on some tracks". These "budget-looking"
records often come with beautiful covers, with a sign like bold "III"
printed either (or both) on back covers and labels. My bad-sounding
MG-36070 was one of the exception whose labels and cover didn't have
the "III" sign.

The gray stuff (Tom Fine-san mentioned) might be a different type, I guess.
In my own collection, some early EmArcy LPs, 10-inch and 12-inch, have
these "gray" issues. These are all very early pressings on 1954 to early 1955
(before the pressing plant for EmArcy LPs was changed to RCA Victor
Indianapolis) - these "gray" stuffs don't look like damages by
worn stylus at all - almost all parts on the record surface
(including music grooves as well as dead-wax) are covered with these
"gray" stuffs. The sound itself is mostly great, but surface noise
on such "gray" discs is louder than that on clean copies in many cases.
I guess this "gray" would have something to do with damp and moist condition.

Interestingly, most Mercury LPs from the same era don't suffer the
"gray" issues, at least on my collection.

Kohji


> While the overall condition is quite nice the A side of the record has 
> what appears to be a grey haze (when viewed from an angle) that covers 
> all of the first track and two thirds of the second track, the rest has 
> a typical bright gloss. The hazed portion plays terribly with a lot of 
> background noise, when the haze ends the record instantly sounds 
> beautiful. What is this, what caused this and can it be cured? My guess 
> is that It cannot which is a shame. Luckily, I have another very clean 
> Japanese pressing to listen to. Has anyone else encountered this before 
> and if so what were your conclusions?
> 
> Thanks in advance and I hope everyone in the US had a restful holiday 
> weekend,
> 
> AA

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 MATSUBAYASHI, 'Shaolin' Kohji                  [log in to unmask]
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