Bronzed CD

You're lucky. My UK Last Night in Sodom went that way about 15 years ago.

 

There were quite a few albums on Island that suffered from this problem (all pressed by PDO). I had to replace several of my original Fairport Convention CD releases and Richard & Linda Thoompson's I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. Mother Nature's Kitchen by the Kevin McDermott Orchestra was an early casualty.

I recently bought an Ian Matthews twofer from Discogs on Vertigo only to see instantly on opening that it was bronzed and the last track had gone. I should have known better as my copy of Bonny Bunch of Roses/Tipplers Tales by Fairport from the same series was another one where the final track got eaten quickly.

 

Just as an aside that is a great album.

 

Usually damage to the label side. The occasionally come from the maker that way, but usually post-sale damage.

 

. . . also notorious for tarnishing on exposure to air.

 

If you look at old Virgin CDs you'll notice they're all covered in pinholes. It doesn't seem to effect play but they're there.

 

Were they? I don't think I've seen one apart from the first CD of The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come.

 

October and War are still my favourite U2 albums.
Sorry you had an issue mate

 

Here's Genesis Foxtrot (image courtesy of forum member Ben C.). Quite often they were painted blue, so only the edge would show the gold tint. Note that the mastering is Polygram's.

 

That looks similar to The Smiths one. I thought that was a one off but obviously not. It looks good and hasn't rotted. These will be from well before I started buying CDs.

 

I believe only the PDO discs manufactured in the UK between 1988-1993 had disc rot problems, which was due to an error in manufacturing.

I had some World Serpent releases by Shock-Headed Peters and Karl Blake that had bronzing and they all developed glitching problems, so I tossed them out. There was also a Disco Inferno CD single on Che which had the same bronzing and glitching.

 

Are you sure The Smiths one is an UK PDO issue. The one on discogs is made in France by PDO.

The earliest UK PDO don't give their country of origin (see Foxtrot above). They added made in UK later (the CDs were still gold tinted though).

 

I'm almost certain you're right!

 

I thought it strange that there would be an UK PDO issue as my Smiths CDs are pressed in France by MPO. There's also a Nimbus version of Strangeways, Here We Come. Most small labels will use one or two different plants, which is why the UK PDO was so distressing for certain artists and genres. U2? Well they made their discs in so many different plants, it is easy to avoid the UK PDO ones.

 

My gold tinted copy of Strangeways is by MPO in France.

However, I did have a CD single of "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" by UK PDO which had a gold tint. More like a pale yellow, really. It eventually bronzed, but it took a LONG LONG time to do so. Almost 20 years. I had been convinced it was safe because there had been no signs of deterioration for so long.

 

Tough to say the years beginning to end
Both UK PDO's
Killing Jar-1988 no issues, looks hazy due to the surface coating.
Shadowtime-1991, is affected. You can see some degradation on the outer rim

 

Xymox-Phoenix of My Heart, 1991
UK PDO
No Issues.

 

Non-bronzed UK PDOs from the "Danger Zone Time Zone" (yes, I just made that up) do exist. I have 2 or 3 of them myself. But I get the feeling that they're outliers. What I really wonder is WHY they haven't bronzed when so many others (possibly MOST) from the infected time period HAVE.

 

Wonder if one's location has anything to do with it (humidity, salt air etc...)
It is an interesting topic. (as long as my discs keep playing)

 

I wouldn't think so (at least not as an exclusive factor), because I've had many more which succumbed. A mystery.

 

Interesting. Must be one of the earliest releases to be affected by the problem.

 

There were many World Serpent releases that were affected by this issue.

 

This has posted before by me:

CDs are laminates of two high tech polycarbonate plastic discs and an aluminum metallization on the inner surfaces with edge sealing to prevent air intrusion and reasonable rough handling.

Pinholes are caused by contaminates (dust particles usually) on the surface during metallization during manufacturing prior to sealing the edges. The metallization layer does not adhere at that given spot. Hence the appearance of a pinhole. However, despite appearing to be clear at that spot, there is still a lot of material around the pinhole that reflects the laser, combined with the error correction robustness, that 99+% of the time has no effect on sound or data reading.

Pinholes are also sealed in at manufacturing and do not or cannot grow. Nothing to worry about. It either plays from new or doesn't. That is it.

CD rot is caused by exposure to air corroding the metallization by either using the wrong materials (very rare and what this issue is with PDO UK CDs) and causing delamination or not sealing the edges properly. The latter is usually the cause of CD rot (which is still very, very rare) and why the rot always starts from the edges. Both are manufacturing defects that the cause of certain plants during certain manufacturing times. These are well known who made them and the rough time period of manufacturing are as a percentage of the total number of CDs ever made, an incredibly small number. Almost all are from the late 80s or early 90s by a select few plants.

CD rot is not caused by pinholes or vice versa.

 

Absolutely. One of my favourites of the era. Fortunately kevin reissued it independently a few years later so I have been able to replace my copy.

 

I don't believe that this is true. Laser discs are laminated - basically 2 large CDs glued together. CDs are not laminated. A CD's pits & landings are pressed into a polycarbonate disc using a pressing process similar to LPs (using a metal "mother" stamper). This substrate is then plated with the reflective metal and lastly, a lacquer coating is laid over that metal followed by the disc label art paintjob. I have never read any documents stating that there is another substrate laid on top of the metalized layer, just a coating of lacquer.