I have a Masterdisk HW (Howie Weinberg) pressing as well, and it's not dramatically different from the Bernie cut, to be honest. I haven't heard the new re-issue but now that you mention it, I have been thinking about picking one up.
Keeper copies of this are hard to find, I agree. I bought at least three HWs before I found one that wasn't noisy.
And the earlier pressings seem to be uniformly thrashed, I mean really thrashed. And deep ring wear on the jackets, as well.
Definitely pass on the HW CoS. It's not good. I like some of HW's work from the 80's (Slayer, Ozzy) but his Rush cuts are bottom of the barrel to me and most other posters in this thread.
I don't think the copy most often attributed to being the first pressing isn't a GK, but a copy that resembles your WLP. I had one at one time that, to the best of my knowledge had at least one side that looked like your pick and I thought it sounded rather unremarkable. And of course, unlike FBN, no mastering credits on the jackets.
I love the sound of the original. These are not just the WLP though. For US, at least, all of the first pressings appear to be these Bernie* pressings. All of my B1 copies are off-center on side 2 though, and I've never seen an A1. The A2/B2s are fine. I'll try to do a better write up tonight. BTW, I don't have most of the new pressings, which is why this thread never "officially" discussed them. If anyone want to chime in though, please do. * It looks like these are very likely to be cut by Bernie Grundman. All the evidence we have so far points us in that direction. Any other direct evidence is, of course, welcome.
Agreed on the first pressing. It's just a catalog number with no other info, the same cut as the WLP. And I agree, it does appear to be a BG cut, but I too would love confirmation.
My set of 'Archives' includes all GK cuts. While I like the first album and FBN, I find his version of CoS to be rather muddy. Just my opinion.
I too have an all GK archives. It's been a good year or so since I compared maybe, but I don't remember any muddiness on my GK. I thought, in fact, it sounded a bit hot (not that hot doesn't mean muddy) compared to the new reissue. The new reissue had such great smoothness and texture. It really delivered.
GK did excellent work, but it's been discussed here (by our host) that his original cuts on, say, Rod Stewart albums, included compression and EQ boosts in the high mids (if memory serves correctly). I'd say that might have been his go-to method for a lot of records back in the 70s, so it's not a stretch to think that he did the same for other records. That's all speculation on my part.
As I recall my WLP Caress of Steel pressings were GK, but maybe that is not the case? I'll have to check.
So, I have (what I believe) is a 1981 pressing of Rush S/T. The skyline label looks like this one and the upper label printing starts with 53: https://www.discogs.com/Rush-Rush/release/483299 The dead wax is hand etched with SRM-1-1011-A / SRM-1-1011-B. Both sides are also etched with A-1. There is also a sideways triangle, but without a stem as Winchester pressings typically have. It is stamped on both sides MASTERDISK followed by what looks like a small letter "e" with a tick mark or the number 1 inside the loop of the upper section of the "e". Does anyone know what this is or who mastered this?
I found this elsewhere on the web: "53 = Keel Mfg. (prior to ’79); Hauppauge Record Manufacturing, Ltd. (’79 and later)"
I never found out who the lower case "e" stood for. All of my "e" pressings sounds pretty good though.
Yes, it's the best I could explain it even looking with a flashlight under a magnifying glass. My copy does have punchy bass which is quite nice...seems to be mastered well, nice dynamics too. Hard to believe nobody has any knowledge about this symbol.
Figured it out, it is the signature of Dave Crawford, see the last photo in this link: https://www.discogs.com/Lester-Young-Mean-To-Me/release/3475177 Guess it's supposed to be a small sized "D" looping into a larger "C". Makes sense once you look at it with that knowledge.
Nice detective work! Here is a link listing some of his work. https://www.discogs.com/artist/651530-Dave-Crawford-2
That is great work! We have discussed the "MASTERDISK e" cuts a bit here and they both sound good and are rather elusive out in the wild. Looks like this is now "MASTERDISK dc". I just picked up a MASTERDISK dc (formerly e) AFTK last week. I don't have a GK and for a clean pressing for $6, I thought, why not?
While I'm sure the Masterdisk's sound nice, if'n you're on the hunt, seek out the JAMF mastering AFTK. A quick check of your liner notes will let you know that it's the original cut?
