SH Forums experts, HELP! What pressing plant is this?

Just an update on this thread question:

I worked with Steve McParland for some months trying to track down various leads on the deadwax symbol. We never could make a specific ID but we narrowed it down quite a bit.

The deadwax symbol of a hand drawn diamond with a rough circle or oval inside and crossed by a line appears only on records pressed in 1961 and 1962 in Southern California. They appeared first as far as we can tell in early 1961 on the last singles pressed by Christy Records of Los Gatos. Their records were generally pressed by Alco/Monarch and have delta symbols. However one of the Christy 45s with the symbol does not have a delta and is pressed on vinyl. The Candix Records 45s with the symbol do not have deltas either nor does a bootleg record with the symbol on Vibrant records using Candix plates.

In the first half of 1960 a Christy Records 45 by James Powell (CTY 137) had a deadwax symbol of a circle between two angle brackets. Although different looking than the symbol in question notice that if you put two angle brackets together touching each other you have a diamond shape.

Christy CTY 137 ~April-June 1960


Christy 61-150


On the Candix records with the symbol there was also a circled number 1 on side 1 and a circled number 2 on side 2. The only person currently known to have used circled numbers to indicate lacquer sides is Lanky Linstrot. But his known examples occur later in the 1960s. Lanky Linstrot's whereabouts between 1960 and 62 (prior to his appearance at United Western in 1963) could not be determined. He was in Tulsa OK in the late 50s and moved to LA obviously but the date of the move and where he was working before 1963 could not be found.

There was a mastering facility near United Western in the early 60s run by Richard Friesen and he had an associated label Neophon Records. The studios were located at 6369 De Longpre and 1313 North Vine. I have been searching unsuccessfully for Neophon 45s pressed between 1961 and 62. Does anyone have them? I think there is a slight possibility that the deadwax symbols were used here.

In summary, the mystery deadwax symbol AFAIK is:

1. Found only on some 45s issued by Christy Records, Candix Records and a bootleg record on the Vibrant label
2. Only seen between early 1961 and Sept of 1962.
3. Found on records pressed at different pressing plants , which indicates that the symbol was associated with a mastering engineer.
4. All these records seem to have been pressed in Southern California.
5. The Candix Records with the symbol have a circled number appearing to be a lacquer number. This symbol is only known in association with Lanky Linstrot.
6. A potential early version of the symbol is found on a 1960 45 issued by Christy Records.