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

I have a Ventures on the Sunset label which I think is a reissue division of Imperial, but must have had a connection to Dolton in the bigger picture. I'll dig it out later. It's the only other 60s styrene LP in my collection.

Just remembered now, early US Decca LPs were also that brittle "breakable" kind of pressings, not sure if they were styrene, but Buddy Holly on Coral would be a part of the MCA Decca family, I had an original Holly on pink label promo US Coral.

 

I have a copy of South Street by the Orlons on Cameo C-1041. (1963) It's styrene.

 

What are the guidelines for the type of stylus one should use on these styrene LPs?

For example the Decca styrene, "Deccalite" (or whatever) seems a lot more robust than most of the cheaper stuff. Could Deccalite LPs be played with a microline or micro ridge stylus, or is damage certain to occur?

 

Yes, microline tips are said to be not the best choice for this type of record. But I have noticed something, I've needle dropped styrene 45s with a microline stylus, as well as that stone mint Shangri-Las LP, with a new tip and absolutely mint record, I had no issues at all.

I've dropped some 45s that had minor wear already, and seen them shred to bits as the microline shaved them out a new groove.

These records wear out fast regardless, a very slightly chipped or worn needle will total them out quickly regardless of the type of tip.
Microline tips are higher risk in general with these records.

 

I have a bunch of Cameo-Parkway LPs,and never found any in styrene.They used three different companies,Monarch,Reco-Art,and Bell.Need to look to see who pressed most of mine.

 

I think the copy of the Gordon Jenkins/Marshall Royal LP on Everest I found recently is styrene, if I remember correctly...

 

One and the same; by the time of Hot Rocks, Shelley was pressing LP's in vinyl.

 

Notice that Red Bird LP has no groove in label, deep or otherwise. The label area is totally flat which is odd even for styrene.

 

I have seen World Artists LP pressings on styrene as well as some Sunset and Harmony pressings. Harmony quit doing styrene pressings by the late 1950's.

 

I think I have a Royal Roost LP on styrene. It was fairly common. Problem was the breakable thing was fairly desirable, so vinylite was important.

45's, different story.

 

A lot of styrene records had the label glued on,real low budget.50+ years later,the glue dries,and the label comes off.Others have the label as part of the record itself,just painted on.

 

If World Artists and Sunset* LP's are styrene, then Shelley pressed them. As for Harmony, the latest styrene LP's I've seen (along with styrene LP pressings by Columbia in general) were from 1960.
* Sunset was actually the budget subsidiary of Liberty at the time, then incorporated in 1969 into United Artists.

 

The other $$$$$ collectible Jazz label Debut was also styrene, good luck with finding them with the labels aheared.

A few other styrene encounters:
Columbia (1953)
Sunset (Liberty)
Mickey Mouse Club (pre-Disneyland)
Autumn
Mercury (early 50's)
Decca
King

 

Yup. Both original Transitions that I have personally owned had either loose labels or they had completely fallen off but were still inside the cover. I recently found a Anna Maria Alberghetti on Mercury from the 50's that appears to be styrene. I have quite a few King titles, all country and haven't come across any styrene, thankfully.

Period and Colonial are also usually styrene. I see a lot of Dixieland and Klezmer on those labels.

 

Also the now collectable classical labels "Allegro" and "Royalle" a/k/a the Record Corporation of America ("RCA") later reissued their product on Ultraphone, Gramophone, Varsity, Allegro/Elite, and Halo on styrene. The reissue styrene pressings actually are better than the originals, the originals were quite hissy and noisy. That budget label was known for issuing 1940's German radio air checks and using pseudonymous names for the orchestras.

(For those who are into this kind of stuff)
The "sources" were recordings of the German broadcast companies of NWDR Cologne, SWF BadenBaden and NWDR Hamburg, material which was issued on the later Allegro/Elite series, deriving from airchecks with all probability. A fourth source was Soviet Russian 78s or LPs. Some part of the material supplied by the "Berlin source" apparently came from the archives of East German Radio, a station which also held a lot of German war-time tape recordings, apart from their own productions made after the war years. Finally, every now and then dubs were used from old German Telefunken shellacs.


http://www.soundfountain.com/allegro-royale/introduction.html

 

Every one of my Bill Doggett and Earl Bostic King albums are styrene presses
And I have quite a lot of them.

 

Most of my King LPs are styrene,and I have lots of them,too,R&B and country.Sometime in the early 60s,they switched over to regular vinyl.Most of the better R&B,blues,and country records that were pressed on styrene were never repressed after they made the switch.The much rarer UK/European pressings on Parlophone,Electrola,and Odeon are the ones to own,but I've only found a couple of those.

I can also tell you the early Jubilee LPs were styrene.Anyone who owns any can tell you as time goes on,they get as brittle as 78s.A few months ago,I discovered my early styrene copy of The Crazy Cadillacs,that I had not played in a few years,was broken in two.

 

This is a very interesting thread. It's making me realize how many styrene LPs are in my collection.

I just checked a bunch of my King records, and indeed they all make that "boing" sound when tapped on the edge. Thing is, I had the perception that the old King records were pretty tough. They seem to play pretty well for me. Over the years I did play them a lot using a Linn Adikt cartridge with a Gyger II type stylus. I have not noticed any appreciable wear or sonic degradation. But isn't Gyger II considered one of the forbidden stylus types when playing styrene?

 

I never seen a styrene Jubilee LP, which label variation?

I seen tons of the Blooper albums, Rusty Warren, Barry Sisters, and albums by one off singers and never a styrene press. I found several original Liberace and Arthur Godfrey red label Columbia LP's pressed on styrene which is odd since that's what they used on the Harmony LP's. What was a bummer is when we put several big $$$ collectable albums on our wall to sell. There was a sign reading "ask for assistance with the LP's on the wall".
The records are in a large frame on the wall made of molding.

This one goof comes by and sees this album...



The next thing, this guy is tugging on it.
We try to stop him before he breaks the LP, before we get to him a loud SNAP is heard.
Then the guy walks away sheepishly (as usual) like nothing had happened, we wanted to kill him.
This was a dead mint copy that came from the owner's own collection that he bought when he worked for Tone Distributors who distributed King. He pulled the two pieces of record out of the cover and looked at the guy and said "I hope you're proud of yourself". Not too cool since the guy split without apologising. Time after time, I see Harmony and Sunset albums that are cracked from the edge to the spindle hole. Fragile suckers.

 

Some of these comments about King have me wondering if I am not mistaken. Mine seem to be vinyl.

 

The Kings pressed after '61 or '62 are vinyl.You will know a styrene when you see it.They look very different.I do not believe I have ever seen a blue label King in styrene,only black labels.Like this one



The styrene label Jubilee Cadillacs I had looked like this

 

my art farmer farmers market blue label/trident logo 2nd issue is styrne. you flick it and its like glass.

 

The super early blue labels were styrene.
I have 2 Earl Bostic stereo LP's with the yellow "stereophonic" stickers on mono jackets.
Those styrene records give a new meaning to IGD.

I have two Jackie McLean albums on Jubilee with that same label and they're pressed on vinyl,
far from quality vinyl, but on vinyl anyway.

I would kill for that 5 Royales album.
Just to put on "The Slummer The Slum", crank it to 10, and bask in the sonic raunch of Lowman Pouling's Gibson.

 

I have several blue label King Earl Bostic albums with the "STEREO" Sticker on the jackets. Based on what I've learned from this thread, they appear to be styrene.