Off center vinyl pressing

Still pressed on better vinyl than Jamaica's best, even though off centre. Jamaican vinyl tends to be one of the reasons why heavy duty DJ cartridges can be a good thing. Jamaican 45 singles sometimes have weird QC, depending on the level of Ganja smoke at the pressing plant.

 

And all the above turntables are also the ones you pray won't develop electronic faults, as most repair technicians won't go near one of those servo arms with a fault. They're awesome performers, but way complex. And today virtually unrepairable.

 

Older turntables had removable spindles, which allowed for some correction. Those were the days...

 

I have a spindle with a smaller diameter, works perfectly.

 

That's what she said.

 

I'll be here all week, two shows a night!

 

I do not have many disc's like this and when wishing to play i keep making little minor adjustments until I get it pretty right.
Tip: Do not buy a Hendrix 71' French 7" of No Such Animal,.......mine could not even finish plaging through much like the odd Thai release.

 

One problem with a smaller diameter spindle, though, is then you have to manually center all records, right? I think just being able to easily remove the spindle is more practical, either with or without a second, smaller diameter spindle available (if you’re dealing with an off-center record manually centered, you don’t really need the spindle there anyway, do you?).

 

I find that a good many new discs are slightly off on one side but perfect on the other side. In those kinds of cases, the remedy can be very easy and does not result in the 'mutilation' of the spindle hole, at all. I am very comfortable with that and to all intents and purposes, the spindle hole looks untouched afterwards. If the eccentricity is more severe, it may take a bit more work. You have to be methodical and careful when doing this though. The last thing you want is to make a mess of the spindle hole and it is very easy to do this, believe me. Strangely, at least in my experience, GZ Vinyl in the Czech Republic is often criticized for a multitude of pressing/surface defects, but that plant seems to be able to able to press concentric spindle holes/vinyl consistently? The only Japan LP that I have ever had to correct was a Warner Pioneer copy of DAVID LINDLEY EL RAYO X LP from 1982. In that case, it was part of the paper label extending slightly over the spindle hole that caused the problem. The Japanese plants have a different work ethic altogether, of course. I think that things have improved lately though but you will still find the odd release that has been 'botched up' by a careless or inexperienced press operator. If the vinyl pressing plants could eliminate non fill and off centre pressing, buying vinyl would be a far more pleasurable experience. Generally speaking, most of the good plants can press very quiet vinyl these days.

 

It´s mostly fingerspitzengefuehl.

 

Not much ganja but still lacking QC

 

Want QC, buy Japanese.

 

Yeah, but most of the great reggae albums never were issued in Japan, only Jamaica.

I'd kill for a Japanese pressing of this



and this



The Skatalites

 

Just got a copy of Stevie Ray Vaughn's Texas Flood - AP 45rpm. BADLY off center. I'm surprised given my success with Analogue Productions.
This is going straight back for a replacement....

 

I'm actually surprised when I get a new record that's not off center on at least one side. I now just wrap a small piece of 80 grit sandpaper around a 1/4" drill bit and sand hole in direction needed to fix. Works, but a pain.

 

Yikes. Those are expensive ones, too... hopefully you got the one bad copy and the replacement is right on.

 

It really seems to me like this has gotten better over the last year or so, or maybe I’m just getting lucky and buying the right records. It’s actually been a while now since I had one that was noticeably off, but I used to feel like it was a problem on a majority of new records I got. So maybe, maybe there’s hope?

 

I bought an 2x LP from Amazon recently. Disc 1 was fine but disc 2 was off center. It sounded fine but my tone arm wobbled a good 3/8” back and forth. I returned it and received a replacement. Now, while disc 2 is now perfect, disc 1 has a weird problem where it appears one side is thicker than the other, resulting in the tonearm rising and lowering almost as if the record was warped. Sometimes you can’t win.

 

That is why it's better to wait for replacement, and after ship your return. You can get one good set out of two

 

Yep, and it’s one of the best arguments in favor of buying records from Amazon, despite the reasons not to. I wait for the replacement with single LPs, too, because I have sometimes found the replacement (and even the “third time’s a charm” replacement after that) is not any better, and the original may be the best one to deal with, after all. Amazon’s return policy and procedure is the best for record buying, by a good mile.

 

The only thing- after 2-3 returns they refund you instead of replacement. At least in Canada.

 

There doesn’t seem to be any set standard for this in the US, IME. There are times the first return request only offers refund as an option (in which case I just order a second one, then return one for refund). I think this may have more to do with pricing fluctuations vs. what I paid the first time, or sometimes whether it’s even in stock anymore. I have, on the other hand, done well over 3 exchanges on some records (I’ve stopped bothering with that just for the sake of my own energy expenditure, though... it’s usually a three strikes situation on my end these days).

 

When you have a 2LP set and only one record has a problem, that's why it is great dealing with Amazon. They give you ample time to return the problem record, so you can wait until you receive the replacement and if you receive a good copy of the problem record, but the other one is messed up this time, then you send back the 2 bad records and keep the good ones.

 

Being in the U.S. and dealing with Amazon, it has been my experience that after the 3rd record they sent, they won't send a 4th. Refunds and exchanges for defective items are usually replaced or refunded normally with no questions asked. When Amazon sees a return pattern with a certain record, they pull it from inventory and won't sell it again until the manufacturing problems are sorted out.