I was interested in how heavily modulated vinyl could be, so I popped
an old record (Long Hot Summer Night, Jimi Hendrix, Track Records
1968) under the microscope for a look. And what did I find? Two
adjacent grooves clearly broken into each other:

http://81.174.169.10/odds/grooves.jpg

Was this a really common back then, or is this kind of thing a rarity?

Poor quality control from U.S. record suppliers was a large part of
what led me to pretty much stop buying vinyl back in the 1980s.

I became disgusted with the frequent need to return brand-new albums
to the store (often more than once!) in order to get a copy which did
not have objectionable pressing defects.

My impression was that the causes of problems were several-fold:

- Cutting the master with too much modulation (such as the case
you've noticed). This didn't seem to happen too often, but it
did happen sometimes, and was not limited to U.S. pressings (I got
one from Island U.K. which was cut so hot that it was almost
impossible for even a good cartidge to track).

- Poor-quality vinyl stock. This became a really serious issue
during the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970s, as the price of "virgin"
vinyl soared, and most record-makers started using an increasingly
large amount of "regrind" from recycled-and-shredded LPs in their
vinyl mix. I once got a copy of Mike Oldfield's "Hergest Ridge" LP
which had a chunk of paper sticking up out of the groove... they'd
clearly re-ground at least one record into the vat without removing
the entire label area properly :-)

I don't think that the vinyl quality of U.S. mainstream LPs ever
fully recovered after the embargo ended.

- High levels of noise in the groove, which I suspect was due to a
combination of worn stampers and too-fast pressing cycle times
(inadequate time for the hot vinyl to fill the grooves and solidify
properly).

- Scuffs, dirt, and dust from poor handling during manufacture.

I have a feeling that the high cutting levels of some U.S. pressings
may have been in part an attempt to reduce the impact of the noisy
vinyl.

For quite some time, I bought almost all of the music I liked on
imported pressings. European pressing plants, and (especially!)
Japanese ones, were turning out pressings that were quieter and
sounded much better than the U.S. equivalents. It was worth it to me
to pay an extra dollar or three for an import copy of an album I
really wanted, and I dealt with an importer (Greenworld / Paradox in
Torrance, CA) which carried 'em.

Unfortunately, the RIAA and the U.S. labels made a stink about these
"parallel" imports, claiming that the importing of same was an
infringement of the labels' exclusive U.S. license to distribute many
titles. The U.S. government cracked down (I understand that Customs
started seizing shipments), and it became essentially impossible to to
buy an out-of-country pressing of any title which was licensed to a
U.S. label.

I was quite unhappy with the situation and stopped buying music
almost entirely... didn't start again until several years into the CD
era.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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