GZ Vinyl "Quality Control" (or lack of) see pics!!

me neither. i actually trust records i know to be pressed at GZ

 

Both of these discs are noisy. The Ben Howard LP sounding almost as bad as it looks. It's quite a 'quiet' album being mainly simple folk arrangements, so any surface noise stands out way more clearly.

 

I own three GZ pressed records that were purchased sealed. All were very dirty right out of the plastic. The GZ Nirvana - Nevermind (320 in deadwax) had a big scratch that was bad enough for me to return it to my local shop. They ordered in another one and I was relieved to find no scratches (though there was plenty of dirt marks!).

 

Have you watched some of the uTube videos of pressing plants in Jamaca? they are hilariously bad at pressing LPs..
The Lps coming off the press are like floppy pancakes, and then they cut the excess off with the lp flopping wildly about.. Amazingly bad.

 

I got the Black Sabbath Vinyl Boxset.

No problems so far, only some fingerprints!

 

Really so bad??

Mine has only some fingerprints, the inner sleeves could be better!

 

I've never had any problems with GZ, and it seems a large proportion of the new stuff I buy (mostly electronic/dance-type stuff) is GZ pressed.

 

Yes, I've never had a problem with GZ, they seem very good. The reviews for example of the Stones boxset were all good. Of course you will get some duds from any plant, given the nature of the medium. I have had more problems with the US plants that press the expensive audiophile stuff.

 

After buying some albums with similar marks GZ pressings are a total dealbreaker for me. What annoyed me most was the debut album by Toy. This was clearly cut in the UK by Jonz at Loud mastering and then send to Czech for the pressing. All four sides had marks and fingerprints on them

I totally don't get how a self-respecting label like Heavenly can be so cheap. Universal and Fiction too.

 

only fingerprints ?? the inner sleeves for the Sabbath box was life a soft paper, in a hot/high humidity situation I can only imagine what would happen, if you keep the box change the inner sleeves pronto

 

I only own two GZ pressings and they're fine.

 

Thanks for sharing! As much as they charge for new vinyl these days i find this unacceptable as well. I'll avoid GZ pressings at all cost.

 

I changed the inner sleeves immediately!

The albums have MFSL inner sleeves, since the day they arrived!

 

smart move what do you think of the pressings?

 

I own several GZ Vinyls!

Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Nirvana etc...all are solid pressings!

 

Not the best manufactured vinyl, but i purchased much worse pressings.

Even MFSL pressings suffer sometimes on bad stampers etc.....

I would rate the GZ Vinyls, i own with a solid "2" or "B" (school rating).

 

I think you've nailed it with that question! I have seen this type of 'texturing' on vinyl for the longest time and it happens with these da***d printed inner sleeves. It never happens when the vinyl is packed in regular paper innersleeves or polylined inner sleeves. Is it possible to convince record manufacturers about this? No. They'll give you all sorts of lines about metal work etc. that just does not cut it for me.

I have observed this kind of 'damage' since 1975 when Europe jumped on the U.S. bandwagon and put records in card printed inners. At one time the Germans used printed paper polylined inner sleeves but even they abandoned this latterly. I have seen these type of 'patterns' on U.S. vinyl since the early 1970s also and while the patterns/textures do not usually affect play on U.S. vinyl, it looks terrible. Honestly, record labels are run by numbskulls it seems to me. Why would you put a delicate vinyl record in a card sleeve .. unless you want to damage it? It is my belief that the card somehow reacts with the vinyl producing blotches and dulled areas and there is also the possibility of damage (hairlines, scuffs etc.) when the record is being inserted in the card sleeves whether by man or machine at the manufacturing stage. A friend of mine back in the 70s used to call these marks 'pressure marks' on U.S. vinyl, that was when I was at school mind you! There is nobody will ever convince me otherwise and of course, European vinyl being softer, is ruined by this type of packing.

You won't find the Japanese or Chad Kassem using printed inners on their vinyl releases, God Bless them!

 

CBS Netherlands in the seventies used cardboard inners plus plastic sleeves not unlike the Nagaoka rounded inner sleeves. A perfect example of this is the Dutch pressing of Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan. If you see an old seventies pressing with the heavy cardboard inner sleeve please check for the inner sleeve inside the cardboard.

 

Sorry Satrus but while your assertions may be true in some cases and certainly something that was a regular occurance in my experience in the 70s it is not the cause of most of these recent issues. I don't know if the technical explanations put forward by GZ hold water but most of this type of marking occurs during pressing or certainly during the handling process just post pressing while vinyl is warm. I have observed it on discs in poly lined as well as printed sleeves. I also have a lot of albums that came in printed sleeves that are visually perfect though they are a pain to extract the disc without causing damage.

My best guess is they don't clean the stampers regularly so it's down to GZ not the people supplying lacquers. Fortunately most of the time GZ are pretty good but obviously they have messed up on some pressing runs and need to put their hands up. Unfortunately being sub contractors the responsibility for addressing the poor quality falls firstly on retailers and then the record label. This is like the Rainbo situation in that respect. If they actually did proper SQ and play tested samples you would hope the faulty runs would be binned. That obviously is not happening in the cases highlighted.

 

The only LP I've ever released myself was pressed at GZ (through Pirates Press in San Fran). I had two issues. They mastered both sides of the album with 20 seconds of silence before the first track starts. Drives me nuts. I rejected the first set of test pressings and had them redo it. The second set was the same! I gave up. I've noticed the same thing with other vinyl from GZ, not just mine. The other issue was that over half my press run arrived with visible scuffing on the records from the inner sleeves. The records were shipped separate from the jackets to prevent seam splits. PP blamed the scuffs on this, but that's a load of BS. Records are shipped like this all the time with no problems. PP refused to repress, and instead refunded me a few bucks. I shant deal with either PP or GZ again.

 

Bad experience indeed! Chances are that PP have never communicated your dissatisfaction with the press run to GZ vinyl though, or is my assumption incorrect? In other words, you only dealt with PP directly?

 

Correct, I only dealt with my PP rep. I have no idea if it ever went any further than that. I imagine that the low press run (250) affected their interest in repressing.

 

I am not convinced, sorry! Card Inner sleeves and damage are synonymous. Warners in the U. S. used anti static style sleeves for a while in the States during the early/mid 80s on their releases and loads of their reissue vinyl titles. The results? I have never seen such clean U.S. vinyl in my life, free of scuffs, patterns, texturing call it what you want. You will never see anything like this on a Japan pressed disc no matter who manufactured it. Warners reverted to old habits later and the whole situation was reversed.

Now I don't work in a pressing plant, so I don't know. All I can say to you is what I see and have seen for over forty years. There is at least, as lawyers say, a prima facie case. The only records that I have seen packed in card sleeves that arrive in perfect shape were on the 4AD label which were pressed at MPO in France. There may be one or two other labels who managed the situation better.

How do we explain the same phenomenon with CDs that were held behind counters at shops in Card Sleeves in the 80s? This was mostly the case with smaller shops. I can show you examples. Jimmy Hughes, well known and respected U.K. based audio journalist wrote about this at the time. I had seen and observed this well before he wrote the article and I had stopped buying from these smaller shops by then. In fact, I had a letter printed by Hi-fi Answers during the mid 70s on this entire topic.

I think most people don't even see this damage, don't really care either if my experience counts for anything. As a matter of interest, my DCC issue of the Doors 'L.A. Woman' mastered exquisitely by our host has the same problem, clearly visible and does not play too well either as the damage is audible (usually it isn't audible). What is the common denominator? It came in a card sleeve to replicate the original release. I would love to sell it and would readily do so, but am conscious that I would be cheating a prospective buyer into paying big money for a sub par item? At best I would grade it, VG+, even though it has hardly been played since I bought it. And .. as my buddy says 'there is nobody who looks after their records like you'. I didn't cause the damage.

I wish somebody who actually knows, i.e. is involved in the day to day manufacture of vinyl, would tell us. It is the most annoying thing about paying your hard earned cash for vinyl. I can fix warps, off centre spindle holes etc. but not pre-purchase damage.

 

Sugarbush Records have used DMS in the Uk - who use GZ-twice for album releases. The quality has been ok but the pressings are a little on the polite and undynamic side, probably due to cutting over there. We rejected one test pressing and did have a bit of trouble convinving them to do it again. But they did. Pressing otherwise have been clean and the discs flat. One issue however is that discs slice through the covers in transit, so we now ask for discs & covers to stay seperate. However this Youtube video shows their operation and several details do cause me to worry. It seems very slapdash and fairly unprofessional in some instances, but I've not seen any other plants in action so cannot compare:

 

Vibrations during transport? WTF!