Great-sounding Chicago Transit Authority LP

Except for the different matrices used on sides 2, 3 and 4, the stampers look to be the same. The rim text on all my labels says "Manufactured by Columbia Records of Canada Ltd. ..." of course, but I wonder if this necessarily means they were pressed in Canada.

Another interesting difference: your LP1 labels state GP 8 CS 9809; my LP1 labels state CS 9809, with "NON-BREAKABLE" immediately underneath. The typeface is rather small, and the tracks are identified as "Band 1: INTRODUCTION"; "Band 2: DOES ANYBODY ..."; and "Band 3: BEGINNINGS" on side 1.

Whatever that may be, I definitely need another pressing and will start hunting for a mint/NM TML.

Enjoy your new pressing ! This is a truly great record.

 

After reading this thread, I made it a point to look for a 2 eye 'CTA' the next time I was out. Well, yesterday I came across a 2 eye with '1A' on all four sides, and the lables marked 'Printed in USA'.

The vinyl is in beautiful condition, and after one cleaning has almost no surface noise. The cover is another story though. It is very thrashed. I'll continue to look for a better cover, and a 'TML' pressing also.

This 2 eye sounds fantastic to me.

 

You dudes in CA have all the luck, the few used record stores left in NYC are so picked over that there is almost nothing there unless you are into really off beat stuff, sometimes I have some luck finding good blues lp's.

Search the Archieves for album cover cleaning, there was a thread about 2 years ago on cleaning album covers. At a minimum try a damp (not wet) sponge.

 

It sounds like the typesetting on the label was made by a Canadian printing company, with fonts apparently not too dissimilar to what was seen on pressings to the mid-1960's made by Quality. After all, "NONBREAKABLE" disappeared from below the catalogue numbers on U.S. Columbia labels in 1967 - and had no separating hyphen after "NON."

So indeed such a copy was pressed in Canada.

 

If you need more room for LP's get that VPI 16.5 outta your house and send it my way.

 

Are you sure? It comes with two small dogs.

 

Dogs are good people...

 

I like your way thinking there professor!! A used record store is one of the first places I make a beeline for when I'm in a new town!

The matrix numbers on my two-eye pressing of CTA are:

Side 1: XSM139684-1C
Side 2: XSM139685-1C
Side 3: XSM139839-1F
Side 4: XSM139840-1E

 

Your first disc is a long lost brother of mine. Same matrix both sides.

 

Sure. You gotta clean all my LPs first.

 

No doubt pressed at the same plant.

 

Wow. I knew there were time zone differences, but I didn't know Santa came to the left coast four days late. Or maybe he just makes return trips and you were an extra good boy this year. In either case, congratulations!

 

Any specific stampers to look out for, or would any TML pressings do ?

As mentioned earlier, I already have an original Canadian 2-eye with -1A matrices all around and am not happy with the sound.

 

Are you kiddin'?
Santa lives in LA all year 'round. Any record you want. They've got it.

 

I should have gone shopping just a little farther north. I lived in San Diego for two years and don't remember seeing these vinyl emporiums down there. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right spot. And of course this was 92-94, long before I got smart here at the SH Forum!

 

Both LA and SF have tons of records everywhere. Everytime I've gone there I comeback loaded.

 

Just back from some pleasant Saturday moments looking over matrix numbers. (Letting my geek flag fly.) I don't have any TML-mastered Chicago until VI. I've got a copy of a TML VI and a non-TML VI, and the TML version is much, much better than the non-TML version. Everything after that is TML until Hot Streets, which was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling.

Time for a trip to LA or SF, I guess. Or maybe just to Carytown here in Richmond.

 

Gardo, I hope someone on this forum said Happy Birthday to you yesterday. We are all geeks here, I spent the morning helping another SHFM figure out which headphones for under $200 to buy. By the way I see that you have the same cans as I started with the AKG240DF. I can suggest some new and better cans that will make those CTA's sound even better.

 

I know I try to take full advantage of living close to SF. I'm out in the trenches as often as time and money will allow, to scoop up all the cool vinyl I can get my hands on! Last couple of times I've been to LA yielded good results too.

 

The Mastering Lab copies do exist in the original textured cover. I have one, well only side 1. Side 2 (mastered by Columbia somewhere) sounds fine, but the TML side is better.

 

Keep in mind that prior to 1973, all of Chicago's LP's and 45's were mastered by Columbia's New York studios; I haven't seen a release by them with lacquers from the Hollywood studio, or Columbia's other studios (Chicago[!], Nashville or San Francisco). The last Chicago release to my knowledge, with New York lacquers, was "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" (4-45880); their next single, "Just You 'n' Me" (4-45933), was their first Mastering Lab-mastered 45. Furthermore, at that time, the Hollywood ZSP/ZSS block of numbers was lower than the block used in New York then. Consider these matrix numbers:
- "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" - ZSS 158448 (from New York block of numbers)
- "Just You 'n' Me" - ZSS 157684 (from Hollywood block of numbers)

I say "to my knowledge," as I'm not sure whether it was Columbia/NY or TML that did the initial lacquer mastering for the LP Chicago VI.

 

Interesting, my matrix numbers are identical except for Side 3, which is 1F and hand-written. I've always thought the Columbia 2-eye pressing sounded great, though I'll keep my eyes peeled for a TML.

Oh, and a belated Happy Birthday, Gardo!

 

Well, interesting thread. I have orig. UK orange label CBS copies of I, II & III, as well as orig. UK copies of Carnegie Hall, V, VI & VII. VII was the toughest to find. I also have a CDN. 360 sound copy of III. I collect ALL of the Columbia LP's 1970-72 which appeared in CANADA (only) on the 360 sound label.

I have done a-b's (years ago) on I & II. In both cases, my UK Chicago vinyl ate up the US 360 vinyl. Maybe I have never heard a good US 360 LP, but you would think that if such an animal existed, I'd have found one by now. In each and every a-b I have ever done with Columbia vinyl, the UK beat the US. S&G, BS&T, Laura Nyro, Springsteen, Mott, etc.

 

I also have the same Canadian pressings that you have and I am also disappointed.

After reading this thread I was out record shopping yesterday and (just for the fun of it) picked up a Canadian Chicago II.

Guess what? Just as bad as the CTA. Very flat sounding bass and drums and very thin sounding horns. A real disappointment.

Looks like I'm now out hunting down TML's.


How is TML etched in the deadwax? Hand written, machine stamped, etc.

Any other distinguishing marks to look for?

 

First, 'TML' was always machine-stamped, but didn't show up on lacquers mastered by them until towards the end of 1973. (I.I.N.M., early lacquers of their "Just You 'n' Me" single, #4-45933, didn't have the 'TML' stamp while later ones did.) It was around the second half of 1974 that machine-stamped 'TML-M', 'TML-S' and 'TML-X' insignia began turning up on the dead wax. Here are some ways to tell a pre-1973 'TML' lacquer: First, up to fall 1972 the lead-in was 7.625 on 45's and 32.3125 on LP's; after that, both speeds used 14.729167 lead-in; lead-out was always in the neighborhood of 3.92 (though on the particular Scullys used, the lead-in pitches appeared to be 7.7, 32.6 and 14.8, respectively, and the lead-out at 4, for the most part). Second, on 45's, songs over three minutes in length mostly used variable pitch rather than pre-set constant pitches, and were spread closer and thus not as much dead wax. Third, some record companies (namely, ABC/Dunhill, until later in 1973) and producers (Richard Perry and Tom Catalano) were big on TML. As, from 1972 on, were Neil Diamond (on both UNI and Columbia) and Bread (their last Elektra singles, both 1972-73 and 1976), ditto for Earth, Wind & Fire on their post-1975 releases. Fourth, some mastering engineers' writings were present on both pre-1973 and post-1973 TML lacquers (that is, those with and without the machine-stamped 'TML').