DAVID BOWIE TEST PRESSING LP penny start NO RESERVE
£
111
$
147
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Description
TEST PRESSING .
Young Americans.
WHAT IS A TEST PRESSING ,AND WHY ARE THEY SO RARE ?
The highest clarity one can achieve in terms of sound quality is of course the ACETATE or MASTER RECORDING.
Test pressings are the VERY FIRST records to be pressed off the brand new stampers ,making them the closest to acetate quality that one can achieve. The purpose of the test pressing is to evaluate the quality control of the recorded sound. They are usually listened to by the artist and producer so they can examine and scrutinise exactly how the finished record will sound to the person who buys the record.
Only when the Test Pressing is fully approved will the record company give the "go ahead" for the standard issue copies to be pressed.
Test pressings are nearly always packaged in plain white jackets . More often than not the catalogue numbers are written by hand .This is due chiefly to the fact that at this stage in the record making process , neither the LP sleeve nor the record label will have been made !
Indeed this test pressing was pressed on 18 Feb 1975 .Young Americans was released March 7th 75.
Test Pressings are made in ridiculously small numbers, ie 5 copies would be considered a large amount and many of them are known to be one of a kind .
For this reason they are amoungst the highest prized items in the world of record collecting .
CONDITION :
The plain white sleeve has yellowing around the edges due to it being 32 years old. It has wringwear and a few dirty marks on it. But this is about the record itself !
Let me be very clear about this record description .The vinyl has a lot of scratch marks and hairlines , I have tried to capture this in the pictures below.
HOWEVER , i have test played this record a good handfull of times and it plays through ENTIRELY . Thats ENTIRELY, without any jumps or sticking or skips.
There are a few cracles in the deadwax area but nothing that a serious collector can not live with.
There are 4 loud clicks during the intro to Young Americans (only audible during the intro music,and there is nothing to spoil Bowie`s vocal , but apart from that , nothing else worth mentioning during the whole LP. There are no sounds at all that spoil the listeners enjoyment of this record and it plays really well and still sounds very clear and warm the way a test pressing should.
So the record to me plays VERY GOOD ++.
To me,for a vocal performance Bowie never topped the Young Americans LP.
Vocally , he was on fire.After a while we all bore of the Ziggy , Hunky +Station etc. So if you want to get as close to discovering Bowie again for the very first time (remember that) , dig out Young Americans ,a classic LP that knocked most of us sideways at the time of its release (certainly me ,took me years to access what I now believe to be one of his best LPs).
YOUNG AMERICANS .
TEST PRESSING .
A ridiculously rare David Bowie LP.
When will you ever see another ?
Penny start + No Reserve!
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