Is a Test Pressing on vinyl worth buying or is it just another way to make money?

So if I've got an LP with an incomplete proof-sleeve and white label, do you think it's a test pressing if the matrix and signature (Jonz: John Dent) are the same as the first commercial press? Or I guess it's maybe a promo in a test sleeve? Just seems weird..

 

every UK test press I've seen (100s) has the same deadwax info as a commercial pressing.

 

I have two test pressings. A Dory Previn album from 74' and Doobie Bros. "Takin it to the Streets". The Previn album is just like Kwadguy described. mimeographed sheet and plain label Columbia pressing. The Doobie Bros test pressing is by Capitol records and it is the quietest Capitol pressing I have ever heard. It is as quiet as a classic Mofi vinyl pressing.

 

Thanks

 

I've seen some test pressings offered on eBay with blank white labels.
Would these be the same as the standard pressings?
How can you tell if they are real Test Pressings?

Darryl

 

I don't think you can to be honest. I believe most commercial pressings have a white label underneath the printed version.

 

No, the label is pressed directly on the vinyl, nothing underneath.

 

I've got a large number of test pressings, some times more than one for the
same LP. A few have matrix numbers I've not seen released.

 

I don't necessarily believe in "hot stampers" (mostly because there's no way to verify when a record actually came off the line) but I've always heard that the quality "peak" of a pressing is around the 100th off the stamper.

(Obviously certain cuts of a record sound better than others but that's a concrete fact, some of the claims I've heard made about "hot stampers" are unverifiable outside of a "this is a really great copy of this record" way.)

 

these new test presings of reissues are a complete con for grade a suckers.

 

The T Rex Test Pressings I have been seeing on eBay lately are for later 80s compilations. I didn't think they were very valuable.

Darryl

 

I have a test pressing for the Canadian band Stonebolt. It's their self titled debut album from 1978. I got it for 25 cents.

 

Well, maybe companies that crank out a lot of releases and are just looking for artist/management approval don't put much effort into test pressings, but I have a test pressing LP of MFSL's Eric Clapton "461 Ocean Blvd." that blows away any and all other versions of that album I've heard (vinyl or digital) -- and I've heard a ton of 'em.
.

 

I know of or own several test pressings from MFSL of titles that they cut, and pressed to tests, and then did not release. These can go for some some serious change when they are on the market.

 

I don't know if this one is the rarest, but I've read online in several places that only 25 of these were ever pressed!!

Here's part of a blurb from a sale of the LP that had supposedly been played only twice, that sold for $500 on eBay this past Spring:


"Up for sale is an unreleased Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) half-speed test pressing of Steve Winwood Arc of a Diver.

In 1993 MFSL had gotten out of the LP pressing business but was considering re-entering the record pressing business.

One of these was Steve Winwood's Arc of a Diver, a very popular release in 1980 that included the hit While You See a Chance. You can see from the pictures that the test pressing was done on April 12, 1993 and the MFSL catalog number is MFSL-1-198.

Both sides A and B were pressed and you can see the record label indicating that. Unfortunately, this title was never officially released, most likely because it was a couple of years prior to MFSL re-entering the LP reissue business as the Anadisq series.

Anyway, this is, as you can imagine, a very rare and valuable title.

If you want to see all MFSL titles including unreleased test pressings, go to the link http://www.bsnpubs.com/la/mofi/mofi.html. You can see the unreleased Winwood title under MFSL-1-198."



I searched for details and sale prices for that Test Pressing because I just might have an unplayed copy of that one...

 

Mine were fetching double that, and over.

Much more desirable titles than a late 80s Winwood.

There is a Journey, Janis Joplin, and a Hall and Oats as well cut but unissued.

 

you are the only person on this forum who can get away with such an untrue blanket statement.

 

$1,700 each is what I was getting for unissued MFSL Tests three years ago. Prices may have come donw, no way to tell, as the ones I had have not been offered for sale again.

 

Were they limited to 25 pressings each, as is supposedly the case with my Steve Winwood "Arc of a Diver"?
.

 

The ressurect

I just came across a test pressing of Devo's first album "Are We Not Men" $75. What do you think. Need I say, too, I love that album. I think Eno's production is amazing (as are all his productions).

 

One of the more rarer McCartney promo vinyls might be the DJ only Party Party Bob Forest extended mix.
I think it was limited to 300-500 copies in the UK only.
I had seen scans before so when a copy showed up at an online shop (Australia I think? Can't remember) I went for it.
When it arrived it was a pink label, handwritten test pressing and I timed it at well over 8 minutes.
I was a bit surprised when an MP3 of the mix finally made the rounds (the mix has yet to be released on factory bootleg) that it was only in the 6-7 minute range
Will have to get a drop done one of these days as I might have a unique mix (or a really slow belt on my now tossed player ).

maccacollector

 

Once cleaned, fingerprints are common, the test pressings i have sound great. This one is John Cale's "Sabotage Live", recorded in June 1979 it has a 1978 A&M label!

 

True Sound - pressed LP's only, I.I.N.M - was actually owned by ABC/Dunhill. Did their pressings have "sawtooth" outer record edges?

 

My own take on test pressings - LP or 45 - is this: Center labels with mention of pressing plant on label. This has been of aid for me in I.D.'ing pressing plant origin of "stock" records.

 

is it safe to assume the stock copies are pressed at the same plant as the test pressings? Most of mine (uk test pressings) have blank labels and the info sheets rarely give anything away.