Better Records vs MoFi

Most of the old LP’s I’m looking for these days have not been reissued by any audiophile company, and aren’t likely to be. And the ones I’m looking for can sometimes be found for peanuts, sometimes not.

I went into one of my used records stores last week, and was surprised to see a Mint copy (still in shrink wrap!) of Church Street Blues by Tony Rice (Art Dudley’s favorite guitarist, an opinion shared by many pro players) on the collectibles wall, priced at $75 (Tony’s records have gone up in value since his passing in 2020). And two more of his albums (also still in shrink) in the small (about a hundred LP’s) Bluegrass section for half that.

I have a Mint copy (played only once. It’s not very good ;-) UK 1st pressing of The Sex Pistols only "real" studio album (with the blank rear cover), which I recently learned has become worth some serious money (over $300). I had been considering selling it, but thought the store owner (we’re on a first name basis) might be interested in doing a trade (I am leery of dealing with buyers of rare collectible LP’s ;-). He looks up everything on Discogs, and if he knows you are aware of the value of any particular LP will tell you what he’s going to price it at, and how much he’ll give you for it in cash or trade (more in trade of course). If he knows you are not aware he will of course take advantage of your ignorance ;-) .

Sure enough, I guess he realized he’d resell The Pistols album far quicker than he would the three Tony Rice albums. I walked out of the shop the next day with the three Rice LP’s and a few more: a Clarence White & The Kentucky Colonels album (Clarence was Tony Rice’s favorite guitarist), the 2-LP live album by Ry Cooder, Best Of Hank Thompson Vol. 2 in mono, Cheap Trick’s s/t debut, and Feelin’ Groovy by Harper’s Bizarre.

Feelin’ Groovy was produced by Lenny Waronker, engineered by Lee Herschberg, with musical arrangements by Leon Russell and Randy Newman. Randy and Van Dyke Parks play piano on one song each. That’s a lotta talent on one album! Harper’s Bizarre were originally an instrumental Surf Band outta Santa Cruz (the Central California beach community named in "Surfin’ U.S.A.") named The Tikis, and were the very first band I saw and heard live when they opened for The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Summer of ’64. They wore matching black suits, the pants of which were cut off at the knee! Harper’s Bizarre drummer John Petersen had earlier been in The Beau Brummels. Also a member of The Tikis/Harper’s Bizarre was Ted Templeman, later of course gaining renown as a record producer (Van Morrison,The Doobie Brothers, Van Halen).

At the other end of the scale, at my local Antiques Mall I just yesterday found a Mint mono 1st pressing (with the beautiful gold Warner Brothers center paper label) of the Harper’s Bizarre album for $12 (the stereo one above was only $4.99). And for $10 a Mint mono pressing of Just Like Us! by Paul Revere & The Raiders (Columbia "2-eye" label). The song "Just Like Me" contains one of my favorite guitar solos, double-tracked by Drake Levin. Other songs include great versions of "I’m Cryin’" (the equal imo of the version by The Animals), the instrumental "Night Train" (every USA Garage Band played that song in 1962-5), "Baby Please Don’t Go" (not as good as the version by Them---featuring Van Morrison of course, but that’s an awfully high bar to reach), and the other hit single on the album, "Steppin’ Out".

So many records, so little time (left ;-) .

@minkwelder: Oh, a UK copy of Music From Big Pink! I still have the one I bought in 1970, having given up on finding a quiet USA pressing.

One thing to be aware of is that any foreign pressing is going to have its’ lacquer cut from a tape another generation down from the tape used by the country of origin (in this case the USA). Record companies would never send an original master tape to another country! If a record sells enough copies to warrant it, multiple safety/production tapes are made from the master mix tape, at least one for each pressing plant, which are spread throughout the US (one reason why copies of LP’s sound different from one another). MFPB sold enough to earn a Gold Record award.

Another consideration is the condition of the original multi-track master tape (recorded in 1968, MFPB was most likely made on a 4-track). I frequently see people claiming tapes that old have probably deteriorated due to just age. In a long interview, mastering engineer Bernie Grundman stated that the tape used in the late-60’s is very stable (the binder that holds the oxide onto the plastic tape does not dry out), the only deterioration coming from the playing of the tape. Playtime = wear (just like miles = wear with automobile tires). Chad Kassem (owner of QRP) goes to extreme lengths to acquire first generation master tapes, from which he has Grundman (or any other engineer working with him) make a production tape.

This has got me thinking. Being made and released in 1968, I wonder if there was a mono version of MFPB? Discogs here I come!

Good one (The Band) wolf_garcia. Even the original pressing is pretty good (I have a U.S. and a U.K.), as is the MoFi. The 45RPM format allowed Robert Ludwig (mastering) and Chris Bellman (lacquer cutting) to maximize the potential of the simple recordings John Simon made back in 1969. Plus the album is one of the greatest Rock ’n’ Roll records ever made (imo of course).

Though LP pressings are too variable copy-to-copy to say definitively, @minkwelder’s praise for an original Capitol pressing of Music From Big Pink surprised me. It is well known that the original mix and mastering severely rolled off the bass frequencies contained in the master tapes, greatly emasculating Rick Danko’s Fender bass and Levon Helm’s Gretsch kick drum. That’s true no matter how "hot" your pressing is. Another problem with original Capitol pressings is the vinyl they were using: some of the noisiest of the time (late-60’s). For some reason MFBP is generally noisier than is the brown album.

I hope @minkwelder knows MoFi did two versions of MFBP. The first (MFSL 1-039) is not good, though the vinyl is excellent (JVC’s Super Vinyl). The second (1-346, pressed at RTI)) is better. He mentions half-speed mastering, which leads me to believe it was 1-039 he heard. It was mastered at half-speed, 1-346 wasn’t. Again, a fantastic album of music, though to some people less accessible than the brown album.

By the way ya'll, the boxset containing all The Band albums on LP was pressed at QRP (Quality Record Pressing), the manufacturing arm of Analogue Productions. The box is a great value.

For those who care, not all MoFi titles have gone through digital conversion. But as @slaw correctly pointed out, just as with almost all original pressings and reissues, the lacquers of the all-analogue MoFi LP’s are cut not from the master tape, but from a "safety" (aka "production") copy. One notable exception is the Analogue Productions Kind Of Blue album, for which Bernie Grundman used the original 3-track master tape to cut his lacquer, way back in 1997 (for Classic Records). Numerous guys have compared original 1950’s pressings of KOB with the versions of MoFi, Classic Records, and Analogue Productions. Guess which version came out on top? ;-)

MoFi is of the opinion that their digital step produces a better sounding product than does using an analogue safety tape as the source. But there are other considerations. Just as with the making of all lacquers, equalization may or may not be used. Some of the dissatisfaction with MoFi LP’s---even by those who like many of their titles---is due to equalization choices made by the MoFi engineers.

Why versus only MoFi? Analogue Productions has reissued far more titles than has MoFi. And better titles, too. There are many other reissue labels doing better work than MoFi.