Styrene LPs...........

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Tetrack, Feb 7, 2005.

  1. OK. I'm sorry to hear that. Being that Harmony was a budget label, maybe CBS farmed it out. I have a small collection of 10" LP's, one is Columbia's first LP ever, by Frank Sinatra, and all are vinyl with molded labels. I have a few 12" LP's on the Harmony imprint with one pre-dating yours, and all those are definitely vinyl.
    It would be nice if you could send a picture of your styrene LP to Discogs and give them an update. It all comes from us.
     
  2. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    I don't believe styrene was used in the UK, even for singles.
     
  3. Bob J

    Bob J Forum Resident

    My mono "Beau Brummels, Vol 2" is on vinyl. One thing I found odd when I checked it was that it is a Monarch pressing but I bought it upon release in New York. If my collection is any kind of indication, I don't think that many Monarch pressings made it to the east coast.
    My original "Here's Little Richard" on Specialty is definitely on styrene. My original "The Chirping Crickets" on Brunswick is a strange one. It seems more vinyl than styrene but it's a relatively thick disc that is more rigid than normal vinyl and has smooth edges.
     
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  4. Bob J

    Bob J Forum Resident

    I have purchased some used styrene 45's that did sound terrible but I have many styrene singles from the 50's, 60's and 70's (and beyond) that play beautifully with no sign of wear & tear.
     
  5. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    There are a ton of Harmony LPs on styrene.
    I have a Duke Ellington somewhere pressed on it. I could probably find a dozen more in my collection.
     
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  6. On the East Coast, the king of styrene records would be Bestway Products. Bell Records put a BW at the end of the matrix number. BW might have even been the one who made those records with the labels actually inked on the record. On the 45's,, with the inked on labels, they also had a thin black ridge inside the center hole. Very poor quality of records.
    Monarch record pressings were sent all over the U.S., spreading like cancer!
     
  7. Some of the styrene 45's are not too bad at all. In commercial use, they didn't hold up, but in home use, played on phonos which were maintained well, they can last indefinitely. I also have many styrene 45's dating back to the 50's which still look and play like new. It depends who made them. The only advantage that a styrene record has is that it won't warp. I put a couple of raunched out in 100+ degree Cailfornia sun for a couple of days and they didn't warp.
     
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  8. WMTC

    WMTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    I've a few styrene 45s in my collection that are definitely warped. It does seem to be pretty rare to find warped styrene 45s - I almost never see them out in the wild, but as I said, there are a few of them in my collection. They tend to warp very gradually, unlike vinyl which warps into a bunch of little hills, or "ski slopes" for the stylus to traverse. The styrene warps are always more gentle and long.
     
  9. WMTC

    WMTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    I've got a few Harmony LPs in the collection here that are on styrene.
     
  10. MrSka57

    MrSka57 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse, New York
    I have an E original Tony Bennett 'Rags to Riches' 45 pressed on vinyl that sounds great. The label looks great too - it's on shinier/smoother paper stock.
     
  11. WMTC

    WMTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    Can't believe Kapp LPs haven't been mentioned anywhere in this thread. I really enjoy Roger Williams' piano albums, but most of the stuff I come across by him is styrene. If they're in the $1.00 bin, I get 'em to stack up on my 70s Panasonic stereo to listen to while falling asleep (I figure they're just worn styrene pressings, from a pretty common artist; what's the harm in having some fun with them). Not sure if they are styrene or "Deccalite," but they are certainly not vinyl! I have It's a Big Wide Wonderful World, Till, and The Fabulous 40s (2 LP gatefold) by him on styrene.
     
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  12. MrSka57

    MrSka57 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse, New York
    I have a NM Peggy Lee/Benny Goodman HL-7005 -1A styrene; it's very nicely pressed (deep groove) with an attractive label.
     
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  13. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    So going back to the middle to later 60's...

    How and why did it happen to be that 45's were make of styrene and albums were made of flexible vinyl?
     
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  14. WMTC

    WMTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    I've a feeling that cost was a lot of it: styrene records were cheaper to manufacture than their vinyl counterparts. 45s were considered a "throwaway" by many labels, the mindset being that they were just going to be beat up on crappy record players by teenagers at parties, etc. LPs, on the other hand, were taken much more seriously, so labels mostly stuck to vinyl - as vinyl is more resistant to wear than styrene.
     
  15. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I can understand that, but as long as they were not abused, styrene is quite durable. The radio stations played 45 RPM styrene records.

    I'm wondering if being hard, made them easier to handle.

    Radio D.J.'s handled them like sandwich plates.

    They would have stacks of them all over the place.
     
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  16. WMTC

    WMTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    They can be quite durable. It's really pretty hit-and-miss. However, there's no doubt about it that vinyl would've held up better than the average styrene 45 played on a typical late 60s console, especially on a portable unit like a lot of teenagers of the day would've had.
    For instance, I've got 3 or 4 copies of "Poor Side Of Town" by Johnny Rivers, all but one of which sound terrible. The one that sounds nice has noticeably gotten more distorted over only a few plays (Technics SL-Q2 turntable with a not worn stylus). Those Imperial/Liberty styrene 45s were pretty bad. On the other hand, my copy of Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me," also styrene, has survived hundreds of spins on my early 70s Panasonic stereo, tracking at 5 grams. So it's really pretty hit & miss with styrene singles. Again, though, vinyl is pretty much always more durable.
    One other thing: yes, stations did play styrene, but it was avoided when possible. Many labels that pressed exclusively styrene 45s would press vinyl for promos because the vinyl would withstand the back-cueing better. I believe the Kinks singles are one such example, exclusively styrene on store shelves, but vinyl for promos...
     
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  17. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Not exclusively vinyl. Until December 1968 and again after late 1976, CSM also pressed 45's in styrene, as well as vinyl. There was a promo 7" 33⅓ record on Warners' from 1967 relating to an LP Rod McKuen did with The San Sebastian Strings and Anita Kerr, which was styrene; its die-cut center hole was 0.375" (usually associated with PRC pressings - another headache in terms of styrene 45 pressings), rather than 0.344" which was the prescribed die-cut center hole diameter for styrene labels (and what would be on another styrene CSM pressing, of an Andy Williams Christmas sampler issued in late 1967). Vinyl labels' die cut center holes on CSM pressings were 0.289" by that time.

    Up to December 1968, the only vinyl 45's turned out by CSM were on Columbia, Epic, Date and OKeh, probably also on distributed labels like Ode and Immediate. It was after January 1969 that custom clients had all vinyl 45 pressings made by CSM. However, the last five years of CSM's existence, they alternated between pressing vinyl and styrene 45's. I have a styrene CBS Santa Maria pressing of Air Supply's "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)," on Arista, from a few months before the plant closed.
     
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  18. geo50000

    geo50000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canon City, CO.
    Same here, my mono 'Vol.2' is on vinyl, while the stereo copy is on styrene. Wish it was the other way around!
     
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  19. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Harmony LP's, up to about 1960, were indeed styrene. The labels, while they held better than on other styrene pressings from other companies, had a die-cut center hole of 0.344" rather than 0.281" for vinyl labels. There was also a different sheen and texture to the paper stock used for styrene labels than for vinyl labels. One plus was that the styrene labels retained their original size, as opposed to the 0.5% - 0.7% shrinkage of vinyl labels when pressed onto the records. Only two plants of Columbia's I know of turned out styrene LP's: Bridgeport and Terre Haute. Pitman would not have had styrene LP presses.
     
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  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Again, it's who pressed them. Columbia was better, relatively speaking, in terms of styrene pressings than, say, Shelley (which pressed Liberty/Imperial styrene 45's), definitely better than Mercury / Philips / PRC in Richmond, IN. To say nothing of Bestway or Monarch.
     
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  21. I can attest from being in the radio DJ field that the styrene 45's didn't hold up that well. I have many examples of those styrene DJ promo 45's that are cue-burned, while if they have vinyl counterparts, the vinyl held up much better. It was common practice for DJ's to snap records in half if they were noticeable worn, skipped or stuck. The styrene 45's were easier to snap in half. Many of the survivors made it to the throw-away pile to be given away or trashed.
     
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  22. As I said, I put a few out in the 100+ degree California sun, all day, and they didn't warp. I have seen some with a definite wave in them, which I suspect happened when they were manufactured. One common trait was hairline cracks which ran straight across the records, from trail-off to lead-in. I have been told that this was because they were cooled off too quickly.
     
  23. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    My father would travel by car, all over the south, calling on his customer's. He used to advertise on little radio stations. He would bring me records that they did not need, when I was in upper elementary school. I used to have hundred's and hundred's of promo 45's and as best as I can remember, they were all hard styrene.

    I used to travel with him in the summer's back when I was 13, 14 and 15. And all I ever saw, while I was hanging out with the D.J.'s were 45's. They would have albums, but very few by comparison.

    Also, back then were the jukeboxes in restaurant's and they all played the styrene 45's.
     
  24. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Very familiar with the "give away piles" (see above). But even then, radio stations were always receiving promo record's, most of which never made their play lists.

    Back in the mid to late 60's, we all used to listen to top-40 AM radio, which was all singles. So we were used to a pretty eclectic bunch of music.

    But, one thing that I will say, was that that 98% of the records that I inherited from the radio stations were terrible! Not so much as to SQ, as we had really bad record player's back then anyway, but musically speaking.

    I was always so amazed about how many lousy records were pressed by band's who were hoping to make it big. And, most of these were so, so awful!

    The did serve a purpose, because we had our BB guns! They made for excellent target practice.

    What about 45's that you keep for your jukeboxes? How well do those hold up?
     
  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Wasn't as much a problem at radio stations where the music was put onto tape carts.
     
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