Pittsburgh Record Fest

[Jim Pittsburgh]

https://www.facebook.com/pittsburgh.fest/photos/a.276000455857469.1073741825.276000429190805/289711551153026/?type=1&theater

This Saturday   at the newly opened Spirit  51st St Lawrenceville   

Anyone going?  Might be a nice location to do a little record " looking" and catch a beer? I don't know Lawrenceville that well... open to suggestions?

Jim

[OldiesButGoodies]

I may be in - need to check w the missus.  How far is Lawrenceville?

[scorpio333]

It's 2-3 miles up 28 from downtown. Never been to one of these, might have to check it out.

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

I may make an appearance.

[Kingman]

11 hours, 12 minutes for me....doubt I'll make it! 

[OldiesButGoodies]

Kingman don't be a wimp,  just leave at 5 am.

 

[Jim Pittsburgh]

A really nice event...... lots of dealers and albums to buy. Loved the crowd! Had to be 25 - 30 years older than most....  weirdest part though was that other than one or two other people, including Pepe and my neighbor, people were not examining album condition before buying... they'd just look at the covers and buy them... Totally beyond me how / why anyone would do that... Don't they know that albums aren't suppose to sound like your listening with crinkling cellophane next to your ears.... or maybe it's they love the rhythm  of the ticks every revolution?

[scorpio333]

I had to open my wife's aunt's pool and missed it. I love records and hate pools so I'm bitter.

Could internet purchasing be the cause of people buying without looking? I know there are times, albeit very few, where I see a cover and the price and it's just going to come home with me regardless of condition. Like a $2 Muddy Waters record.

Beyond checking the condition of the record is making sure it's the matching record for the jacket. Found a mismatch at HPB awhile back.

I know a very limited amount of deadwax knowledge, so I don't check that very often. I wish I knew better how to visually predict the sound quality, at least get in the right ballpark. Too many times a record looks great and then it sounds like a bacon frying fest.

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

I'll give you a good deadwax rule of thumb.   Hand written almost always trumps machine stamped.   Also, the more info, the better.

Past that, this link should make your head spin for a while...

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=314200&highlight=deadwax

[scorpio333]

Thanks for the link. To date most of my deadwax looking has been for RL, PECKO, PORKY, etc on Zeppelin records. and a few choice other records. A yr or so ago, a good friend who is a LZ nut and was telling about rare pressings and what not and how he could never find them except way over priced copies on eBay. Within a couple weeks I found multiple IV's and a couple Houses of Holy at Half Price Books. A couple of them were $1 and the most expensive was 3.99. He's listened to all of them and has says he has notes on them all. FWIW, the Pecko Duck IV sounds insanely better than the recent reissues.

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Lots of RL IVs.   It is RL IIs that are scarce.

[OldiesButGoodies]

TML in the dead wax means it was mastered by Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab,  as Anders pointed out to me recently.  TML-M means it came from the master lathe,  s=slave.  After Anders pointed this out I found a few  TML records in my collection and they do tend to sound better than average.

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

TML just means The Mastering Lab.   There were a few cutters there.  It has to also say "Doug" to know for sure it was Doug Sax.   Besides the TML - M & S, you may also occasionally see an "X", if there were three cutters chained together.

[OldiesButGoodies]

At least two of the records I bought at Recordfest are in crappy shape,  I am going to set up a separate table for LPs that have led a rough life (but have good tunes on them) so I do not wear out the good needle on them.  I need to buy 3X reading glasses for recordfests so I can really examine the media before buying - the flashligh helped but was not enough (obviously).

The Mingus Me Myself An Eye is in amazing shape - that one I will spin often, as I am now:



Ian - the live Take Five by Brubeck was great!  A bit worn out but still very good!

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Was the flashlight LED or filament?   I use the 9 led lights that Harbor Freight gives away and my only issue with it is that it makes every little scuff too obvious.

Tip: the darker the area you use it in, the better it makes scuffs/scratches stand out.   White light or other colored light lowers it's effectiveness.