In the first place, that stereo Atco LP from 1959 bore label copy typesetting from Queens Litho in Long Island City, NY, and thus would have most likely been pressed by MGM Record Mfg. Division in Bloomfield, NJ (which pressed LP's and 45's for them up to early 1965, except for a brief period in late 1968 when they did some LP pressings with an "MG" suffix). The code system began to take hold around 1967, but did not become wholly widespread until after 1968. Based on the label fonts of Disraeli Gears, it'd be obvious that Presswell put that one out.
Great thread as always tlmusic I myself was wondering about Monarch pressings that have he -MO suffix at the end of catalog numbers on the labels, but have PR in the dead wax. Either PR written in "fancy script" (looks like George Piros's writing) with the P having a bubble on the straight part or PR written in a similar style as the deadwax. Not all my -MO labeled vinyl has the MR circled in the dead wax. And yet the copies I have compared with just the -MO suffix in the label sound very similar (not necessarily having the MR in the deadwax). For example the Led Zeppelin I -MO AT/GP later 70s pressing sounds so unique and better than any other copy, I would have no problem identifying it blind. But I don't think it has the MR in the deadwax. Another example is my copies of Allman Brothers Fillmore East. I have a copies with -MO on all 4 sides. But only one of them has the MR circled. Another has PR. Both of these copies sound very, very close and I attribute the extremely small differences to different stampers (ie CCC vs DDD). All the -MO copies do sound distinctly different from -RI pressings. Both sound awesome, but it just depends on my mood whether I want the more musical or detailed presentation. All of them are George Piros pressings on every side. I think if you had several copies to compare you could make an educated guess. At least I think I would be able to do this after listening to so many different Monarch pressings.
Awesome! W.B., you could write a book on this stuff. I had noticed a subtle difference between East Coast/Midwest label fonts and West Coast fonts. Perhaps the East Coast fonts are more elongated, and the West Coast fonts "squarer"? Is there any resource that shows a visual breakdown of the label fonts used by Atlantic/ATCO?
He has. The Columbia Records (U.S.) 35000/40000 series popular singles discography, 1939-1974 over 10,000 entries : includes 100 series popular releases, 1949-1950, and S7 30000 series releases, 1959-1964 compiled by William Brown. Published 1996 by William Brown Productions in New York. http://isbndb.com/d/publisher/william_brown_productions.html
http://www.anorakscorner.com/PressingPlantInfo.html I found this neat site with tons of info about pressing plants, etc. There's even a chart that shows the dates associated with the mysterious Monarch "delta" number. However, the info is specific to 45s, not LPs. From the site I was able to deduce that the number after the two digit date is the tape master number. It makes total sense that the numbers are consecutive from side one to side two. So here's the updated Led Zeppelin I label code: ST-A-681461-MO translates to... ST = stereo A = Atlantic Records label 68 = last two digits of the year of release (1968) 1461 = tape master number (for side one in this example) MO = Monarch Records pressing plant
DEADWAX QUESTIONS What does "PR" in the deadwax mean? It shows up on records from various pressing plants. What does "REPL" mean?
"PR: on most non-Atlantic records means Philips Recording Corp, Richmond, Indiana. REPL= Replacement stamper?
What about the hand etched lower case m or w in 1970 era Atlantic presses? Small all away from the rest of the scrawl. Thanks for the thread Tom. Plenty of good stuff in here.
I think this is correct. I have many of the same 70's Atlantic Lps from diff. plants and Presswell (or later Specialty) had -A matrix, MO would have -AA and AR would have -AAA, all from the same cutting though. Also, the matrix numbers following the year of release is simply the Atlantic reference number of the 1/4" mix-down tape used for mastering, which is different from the Lp cat. number of course.
What did Philips do? Did they make the metal parts (mothers, stampers) for manufacturing? (just a guess)
In the end, yes. This code dated back to the 1950's, when they used a pressing plant out on the East Coast (don't know which at this point) that wrote the initials of their label clients on the deadwax (i.e. "AMP" for ABC-Paramount, "M" for Mercury, and - on some contract pressings of Elvis' 1956 smash hits - "RCA" for RCA Victor).
"LW" vs. "PR" I've wondered about these deadwax codes for a while. Looking at a bunch of records, it appears that an Atlantic/Atco deadwax will contain a handwritten "LW" or "PR". However, I've yet to see both on the same LP. There are some variations: "PR" becomes "PRC" or may have parenthesis, like this "(PR)" "LW" appear as "LWP" instead. So I deduced this must signify the company that made the metal parts from the lacquer. "PR" is Philips Recording Co., and "LW" is LongWear Plating. It appears that the sometime around 1970 there was a switch from Longwear to Philips. I've yet to see a cutting from the mid 70s that had "LW" in the deadwax. So, to compare the side one deadwax of three different copies of Led Zeppelin I: First copy with 1841 Broadway labels with "PR" ST-A-681461 - A LWP AT RG W Labels say record was pressed by Presswell no later than 1973 Deadwax says ST =Stereo A =Atlantic 68 =Released 1968 1461 =Master tape #1461 A =First lacquer cutting LWP =Metal parts made by Longwear AT = Mastered at Atlantic RG =? (could be the cutting engineer's initials?) W =? (or could this be an upside down letter M?) Second copy with 1841 Broadway labels with "MO" ST-A-681461 - AA MR[in a circle) LWP AT [Delta symbol]12703 RG W Labels say record was pressed by Monarch no later than 1973 Deadwax says ST =Stereo A =Atlantic 68 =Released 1968 1461 =Master tape #1461 AA =additional metal parts made from first lacquer cutting MR[in a circle) =Monarch Records stamp LWP =Metal parts made by Longwear AT = Mastered at Atlantic [Delta symbol]12703 =metal parts code exclusive to Monach pressings RG =? (could be the cutting engineer's initials?) W =? (or could this be an upside down letter M?) Third copy with 75 Rockefeller Plaza Warner logo labels with "MO" ST-A-681461 - CC - REPL AT/GP MR[in a circle) [Delta symbol]18257(2) PR Labels say record was pressed by Monarch sometime in the mid to late 70s. Deadwax says ST =Stereo A =Atlantic 68 =Released 1968 1461 =Master tape #1461 CC =additional metal parts made from third lacquer cutting REPL =??? AT/GP =mastered at Atlantic by George Piros MR[in a circle) =Monarch Records stamp [Delta symbol]18257(2) =metal parts code exclusive to Monach pressings(notice the code number is higher than on the earlier two records) PR =metal parts made by Philips Recording Co. Any additions or corrections would be greatly appreciated!
Updated codes Record label codes (the letters after "ST") A = Atlantic Records C = Atco CAP = Capricorn CT = Cotillion FC = Famous Charisma SS = Swan Song AS = Asylum MC = Manticore Pressing plant codes for LPs: PR = Presswell Records Mfg. Co., Ancora, NJ (they handled most of Atlantic's LP's during much of this period) LY = Shelley Products, Huntington Station, NY SP = Specialty Records Corp., Olyphant, PA MO = Monarch Record Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, CA PL = Plastic Products, Inc., Memphis, TN RI = PRC Recording Corp., Richmond, IN AR = Allied Record Co., Inc., Los Angeles, CA CT or CTH = Columbia, Terra Haute, IN CP = Columbia (Pitman, NJ) CS or CSM = Columbia (Santa Maria, CA; very infrequently)
I always thought it came out of RCA's pressing plant. My copy has a RCA matrix stamp on the dead wax complete with a 1S/2S.
Did they do the metal parts processing of the lacquers like Longwear and Philips? Or did they do any record pressing? And if so, is there a label code for them?
Regarding that unusual LZ I RCA pressing with the purple brown labels, W.B. explained that one earlier in this thread. The "PR" on the label in that unique case is apparently meaningless. edit: what Blackie said...
