The Beatles - So my UK BC-13 set came today and...

Kipper, you are hopelessly addicted, isn't it great!!!

 

I've got the Dutch set and absolutely love it!

But there are a couple of gripes:

Abbey Road - "Her Majesty" is not on the record.

Sgt Pepper - Maybe it's just me, but it sounds like "A Day In The Life" is faded out abruptly. It has the dog whistle, but no inner grove gibberish.

The White Album - Maybe someone could clear this up for me. The first side souns a tad bit faster than the first side of Capitol pressing. I have the French White vinyl White Album and it also sounds faster. I also noticed on Side Four of the French pressing, it too sounds a tad bit faster. The Dutch side four is consistent with the Capitol pressing.

Other than that, it's the best sounding Beatles I've ever heard. IMHO, of course!

Craig

 

I hate to be an I told you so, but....

 

You got it in one. Not sure my bank manager would agree though

 

Glad you like the Dutch BC13 Craig...mine sure looks nice, it's just a shame I can't play mine yet

I have a few questions re your Dutch box set:

Firstly, about the box itself. Does your box housing the LPs look like mine, i.e. more green than blue and without the textured finish?

Are your album cat #'s prefixed with 5C or 1A? And are any of those LPs in your box stated as 'Made In Sweden' on the labels, like the majority of LPs in my set?

When you say Abbey Road is missing "Her Majesty" is the track actually missing off the record itself, or is it just not listed on the record label? I must admit I haven't checked the label on my copy and I can't play it at the moment so I can't confirm either way.

I'll need to check Sgt Pepper and the White Album in my set to see if there are the differences you mention, and compare vs. UK other pressings. Incidentally, is your White Album in a numbered GERMAN sleeve like mine?

Can't wait to play this lot when I get the amp back


Cheers,

 

How right you were...I AM addicted to Beatles vinyl. No denying it now

 

Kipper.

The box is blue, has a textured finish. The catalog number on the side is BC-13 and directly underneath: OC[162-53163/53176]

As for the individual vinyl prefix/catalog numbers:

All the vinyl starts with 1A and were "Made In Holland." Conversely, "Let It Be" has a 1A and 5C number, but was still made in Holland.

"Her Majesty" is not on the record. The records ends with "The End" right into the runout groove. Also on "I Want You," the feedback is slowly faded out right to the abrupt cut. I've heard that this is the way the German "Abbey Road" was released.

That's a check on the German numbered White Album sleeve! It should have the poster too! I heard the Pepper cutouts were hit or miss on the BC-13 sets.

A question back to you Kipper, does your "Please Please Me" cover have a header stating "100 years of recorded sound?"

I absolutely love the set, I don't think I've heard the Beatles this clearly. Even my wife, skeptical at the initial purchase heard it and said it was a great buy.

Any help on the White Album speed issue is appreciated. If my work schedule wasn't the pits, I'd try to upload a sample of the two versions.

Hopes this helps!

Craig

 

2nd dumb question of the night: What does BC-13 mean??

 

Beatles Collection

 

Beatles Collection with 13 LPs

 

Craig

Thanks for the info...I always like to compare stuff if there are differences, which in this case there are.

My Dutch BC13 is obviously an earlier edition, the giveaway being the 5C prefix on the catalogue numbers. The 1A prefix came later (early 80s).

Been looking at the box again this morning and comparing it with the UK one...it does have a texture but it's not as 'rough' looking as the UK box. Looking at it in a natural light, it is blue (although it does seem to have a hint of green) but it is definitely lighter in colour than the UK equivalent. The UK box also has the OC cat # reference on the side but also has "MADE IN ENGLAND" which of course the Dutch version doesn't.

The Please Please Me LP cover does have the "100 Years Of Recorded Sound" header - or, more accurately, "100 Jaar Geluids Opname" It makes a reference to the years 1877-1977. The header also says "Speciale Jubileum..." something or other (!), which I guess is referring to the British Queen's Silver Jubilee year of 1977. It would seem they kept this custom sleeve design for later pressings.

As for the White Album not having any inserts, I do not mind this too much as I have a spare set to use. The Sgt Pepper cutout is there but I think this should have been included as standard anyway...some UK editions of the box included a poster (basically a blow-up of the 4 White Album photos) but this was included at random and most UK BC13s I've come across didn't have them included from day one.

What's interesting as well is that the Swedish-pressed LP's, although carrying Dutch cat no's, all have a single EMI box black and silver Parlophone label very similar in appearance to that found on 1969 UK re-pressings. That label went out of circulation in the UK c.1971/2. The Swedish-made albums also have, in the dead wax, YEX matrix no's (the same as the UK LPs) and British catalogue numbers! I think at the time was first made there must have been a shortage of vinyl pressing capabilities at EMI Holland or something like that...this might explain why only 3 titles in the box are pressed in Holland!

Got my amp back today...I'm listening to With The Beatles at the moment from this box set. This is the first LP from the set I've played...sounds pretty good to me.

Cheers

 

Kipper,

Okay, my turn to ask the stupid question!

I will admit since I'm on the other side of the pond, I'm rather stupid when it comes to Parlophone matrixes and pressings (or any EMI pressing for that matter that doesn't come from the US). Is having the 1A set a bad thing? Or is it pretty much like you said, a later pressing.

I would love to learn more about these so I can determine what pressings I have. Most of my Parlophone vinyls are the two box EMI editions. If anyone would care to help me out via email or perhaps guide me to a link on here (I'm sure it's been discussed ), I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm glad you got your amp and spinning away, it's great stuff!

Craig

 

Craig

I presume we're talking specifically about the Dutch pressings in your set.

To be honest, I'm no expert on the dates of the Dutch versions, but I do know the 1A pressings came about in Holland in the early 1980s.

The 5C pressings in my set are from a little earlier (mid-late 70s) but I wouldn't have thought there's much (if any) difference between them - the Dutch and German pressings were pretty consistent in terms of sound quality throughout the 70s and 80s.

There is a wealth of reference information about UK and German pressings (label variations, matrix info, etc) but this doesn't seem to be the case with the Dutch pressings...it just seems to be widely acknowledged that they are generally very good pressings. And of course, it's the sound that counts!



Cheers

 

I was 16 years old when my mother bought my set on vacation, in Sweden in 1979. That was in July and I didn't get to have it in my possession until Christmas of that year. I did get to carry it with me in a paper bag on the plane back to Seattle. Man, that was a tough five months to wait. I still have it and it's absolutely in mint condition. That was a very memorable vacation.