Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean? 2 sets unique Stampers

	£		89
	$		118

Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean? b/w Heroes (Bowie)

Released 1997. Stereo. Creation Records, catalogue numbers; CTP 256, Matrix numbers; CTP 256 A/B-01-1-1. `Mike's The Exchange' written in runoff groove. THESE DETAILS ARE WRITTEN MIRROR BACKWARDS.

+ Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean? b/w Stay Young, Angel Child (demo)

Released 1997. Stereo. Creation Records, catalogue numbers; CRE 256T, Matrix numbers; CRE 256T A/B-01-1-1. `Mike's The Exchange' written in runoff groove. THESE DETAILS ARE WRITTEN MIRROR BACKWARDS.

2 SETS OF UNIQUE 12" METAL STAMPERS

Two pairs of FLEXIBLE aluminium silvered stampers for the A and B sides of the PROMO ONLY VERSION of 12" single and the standard 3 track version of the 12" single above. Included is the original packaging from the plant with the original identification card.

This item is totally unique. No other copy has ever been sold worldwide and it is highly unlikely that any other sets exist BAR THE OTHER, DIFFERENT ONES I HAVE as these stampers are almost always destroyed immeadiately after use. I bought the item direct from the Creation employee who oversaw the pressing of the single. You have one of the rarest and most collectable Oasis items in the world here.

You might want to buy a nice frame.

What is it exactly?

When a vinyl record goes into production, this is the process; First, the music is mastered for vinyl. Second, vinyl mothers are cut, they are a hard waxy material. Third, metal stampers are molded off of the wax mother. It is the metal stampers that press the vinyl into actual records for your listening pleasure...

Stampers are created from the mothers, and are negative - they have ridges where the final disc has grooves - usually a maximum of 6 sets are created from a single mother, before being destroyed, and each stamper has a limited lifespan, sometimes just 1000 copies of a record may be pressed before a new stamper is used.

Further very longwinded explanation here;

http://eil.com/explore/guide/vinyl_making.asp

reproduced in part here;

Producing a metal press that will actually mold records from shellac or vinyl is a multiple plating process.

Depositing metal upon metal by means of an electric current that transfers metal through a plating solution directly to the actual surface being plated. At this point record making is surrounded by tanks. Rows and rows of containers filled with multi coloured liquids, some steaming, some sloshing about, as objects are swished through the depths. To make an actual metal impression the lacquer must either flow on the metal and let it harden or plate it on cold. The first process obviously being impossible (lacquer is a soft, highly inflammable plastic!), some form of plating is the only answer. But how do you plate metal onto a non-metal? A number of methods have been used. The oldest, when master records were cut into wax blocks, was to apply an extremely thin coating of graphite, a form of carbon that we know as pencil lead, which conducts electricity. To this coating, thin enough not to disturb the record groove shape unduly, one could actually plate metal, which would take on the shape of the record grooves. When enough metal had been backed up on the plating, it was an easy matter to strip it from the wax and the graphite, leaving a mold of metal. Three ways are used to get the first microscopic layer of metal onto the lacquer. Silver spray is the newest and trickiest and also the silver pan bath is still used, similar in its chemistry; it takes longer, and is not as accurate . Lacquers are treated in a different way, to give metal coatings at first only a molecule or so thick.

The most dazzling to watch involves silver nitrate and a simple spray gun. The lacquer surface is "sensitized" by being dipped into a solution of stannous chloride which is washed off in a water spray, leaving a very thin coating. Silver nitrate solution is sprayed at the disk and the black becomes a mirror of silver in seconds. Silver has been deposited in an extremely thin layer by chemical (replacement) action, the stannous chloride acting as a catalyst to promote the process. The newly silvered disk is washed and moves on to its next treatment. The next objective is to build up a solid metal backing on the thin silver coat. This may be confusing, since this "backing" is actually being deposited on the front of the original disk. Remember, that we are making a negative mold, its surface now of silver, in direct contact with the lacquer surface and facing away from us as we look at the record. We are really looking at the silver from the rear, and we are about to add more metal to that rear in order to stiffen it. The original record will eventually be stripped away, leaving the other side of the silver, the facing-down side, as the mold. The beginning of the build-up of the metal backing support, a layer of very fine-grained and delicate copper or sometimes nickel, is laid down slowly on the silver surface just produced. It's fine-grained in order so not to disturb the tiny groove patterns and to hold them accurately in place.

After this, a more coarse grained metal can be piled on, although in some plants, another layer of fine grained "pre-plating" is added first. The coarse coating is desirably much faster, since at the slow fine-grain pre plating speed, it may take weeks to build up a strong enough layer of metal. One company used special rotating disk anodes that swish around close to the surface of the metal record and do the plating job to required thickness in a few hours. Other much slower systems use the usual immersion tanks with moving arms to swish the contents about. Enough metal is put on the back of the silver surface to support it rigidly. and with a quick blow of a special hammer and with a shaking of the inserting tool, the entire silver-copper mold breaks free from the lacquer, and we have a negative in metal, the back side or down-surface of the silver a mirror-image the original grooves. The lacquer is usually damaged in this separating process and cannot be used again; so the new metal negative, or "matrix", is now the only form in which the grooves exist. Being a negative, the grooves become sharp ridges with flat valleys between. This metal negative or "matrix" can now be used to stamp out actual records! Since it is now the only existing copy of the original lacquer disc, in most cases it is used to produce a "mother", a positive metal record that can actually be played for testing purposes. Playing is not this mother's destined role and instead, the mother is submitted to another plating operation much like the first, ending in another metal negative which is the desired "stamper". Since the mother, unlike the fragile lacquer original, is made of metal, it can be re-plated many times over, producing negative after negative in metal, all identical with the first.

We now have a source of negative offspring stampers, each of which can press out as many as a thousand or so actual finished records. Multiple mothers can be made from the original metal matrix so multiple identical mothers can be sent to other pressing plants or countries for their production requirements, and thus huge quantities of records can be produced in a very short time if need be, all with exactly the same quality level of the release pressings in the originating country or plant. The first step in preparing for the creation of the mother is to remove the silver that now contains the direct groove Impression.. Removing the silver coating is necessary because it would quickly oxidize and corrode in the air. Fortunately it is a molecule-thin coating, and the underlying harder metal has virtually the same sharp image as the original. A swish or two of chromic acid takes the silver away faster than it was deposited by spray in the first place. With the silver off but the groove image still "metalized" in the negative matrix, the whole plating process is repeated to re-create a new image. Before plating, a separating solution is applied to the surface, so that, though metal will plate on metal, it can be stripped off later on, otherwise the entire thing would become a useless solid metal block. Next, a hard but ultra-thin chrome surface must be plated on and next the hole in the middle, plus the stamper's rear side, which must be shaved to the right thickness to fit the press and the outside edge which must be trimmed to size. The rear surface is machined away in a lathe operation where a precision gouge scrapes a spiral track from the outside of the back, right to the inside, shaving off all the irregularities, leaving a mirror-bright flat backside. The edges trimmed, the stamper then goes to the centering machine. As soon as the master has its hole, it loses it. Another punch knocks out a larger area, usually a couple of inches in circumference from the middle to fit the center of the press. But the disk's position is exactly determined by the small hole, and so the essential information is preserved, the final hole in the record to be made in the actual pressing according to it.

After the previous steps that occur between the original recording and the final metal negative stamper disk comes the final operation of making of the actual record. The basic press structure is precisely what is needed for record making... two similar molds, both heated, mounted face to face with a hinge at the rear so that the machine opens up facing you. Enlarge these two molds to record size; to hold two record stamper disks, one below and one above (fastened in by their centers and around the edges), and you have the beginnings of a record press behind each stamper comes a sudden heat, using super-heated steam at three hundred degrees, then quick cooling by cold water, all of which must be controlled by the opening and shutting of appropriate valves - and automatically, since no human operator could maintain the exact desired cycle of hot and cold that produces the perfect record. The easiest record to make and the most common is the solid disk, of a single material all the way through, though the more complex records, such as Columbia's old laminated disk, go through the same presses. Record and label are bonded together in the pressing. The operator of a pressing machine has beside him a "hot tray" on which is placed a dozen or so rectangular blocks of material, (shellac or vinyl) about half the area and two or three times the thickness of the final record. The biscuits are softened up on the hot plate until they are of the consistency of a soggy piece of fried mush, just about movable in one piece, and no more. With the press open, first a label, then a biscuit, then another label is placed in the press, and the top lowered. The automatic system then takes over unobtrusively; steam heats and flows the plastic material into every tiny groove; at the predetermined moment it is replaced by water, and the record is instantly hardened. The record is lifted out, and the next one is ready to go in.

MINT CONDITION THROUGHOUT

We have bought a superb collection of unplayed, mint condition Oasis items; Vinyl, CDs, Memorabilia and more. These items all came from the personal collection of a Creation Records employee who had specific responsibility for handling Oasis throughout the early part of their career. Consequently this collection contains very special and rare items, many of which were never available retail at the time, and all of which are in perfect condition.

Please keep watching our shop as more fixed price Oasis items are added, or save ratrecords as a favourite seller so you are updated when I add the juicier Oasis items as auctions on Thursday nights. 

Not currently for sale anywhere else worldwide.

99p start.

This item is offered with a money back guarantee, please see below.

Our accurate condition gradings are based on those used in the UK 2008 Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide. Please see below for a complete explanation.

International bidders welcome – Internationales Bewerber Willkommen – Bienvenue Internationale De Soumissionnaires – Recepcion Internacional De los Licitadores

Please read the description and terms of sale carefully and contact me with any questions or further information you may need before you place a bid. Check the website http://www.ratrecordsuk.net Email me- ratrecords@btconnect.com or call me on UK landline 01852 500332, (from Europe, dial 0044 1852 500332, from the United States, dial 01144 1852 500332, from Japan, dial 01044 1852 500332) or UK mobile 07795 424575. I’m usually in the office between 10.00-17.00 GMT. Please see our other OASIS items currently offered. We will be uploading more items every Thursday evening. Thank you for looking. I wish you very good luck bidding. Regards, Tom Fisher.

Payment & Postage terms

Acceptable payment forms are; Pay Pal in £ Sterling or cheques from a UK bank. It takes 5 working days to clear cheques so please allow for this when waiting for delivery.

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Postage Options:

UK, Special Delivery: Costs: £6.00, Delivery time: next working day, Online tracking, Signature required, Insured up to £500.

Europe, airmail, Costs: £5.00, Delivery time: 3 working days.

Japan, USA, rest of world, airmail, Costs: £8.50, Delivery time: 5 working days.

For airmail items we insist buyers pay an additional £5.00 for the International Signed For service which insures the item up to £500 and prioritises delivery.

Multiple Purchase discount; You pay the above price per item minus £1 for each additional purchase made at the time.

Why you should buy from Rat Records:

I GUARANTEE this item to be in the condition as described above. If it is not as described, I offer you a full refund of the sale price and sale postage.

Please check my 1400 plus 99.9% positive feedbacks, from over 1800 separate transactions accrued over 7 years on eBay. Please read what recent buyers have said about the other Oasis items from the same source.

I provide a professional, swift and honest service. I value your custom, aim to treat you well and hope we can do more business in the future.

I have been trading in records and CDs for 19 years in London and have owned 4 shops.

I never describe our records as Mint unless they really are superb. Correspondingly my Excellent (Near Mint) is a very high standard. All my records are play graded. As part of my gradings I listen to each item. I will contact you by the next business day after the auction has finished. Items are despatched the next working day after payment clears. I will keep you informed by email throughout the sale.

I do not set reserve prices. I start all my auctions at 99 pence. I do not end my auctions early. My packaging is excellent, will protect your purchase, and is at cost. Items are sent in a PVC sleeve with the vinyl placed in a separate card sleeve. The package is then wrapped in bubble wrap and sent in a heavy grade cardboard mailer.

If you buy more than 1 item from me at a time, I make a postage discount, please see postage terms above.

Please see our other items and add me to your favourite sellers. I list new items once a week on Thursday evenings finishing 10 days later on Sunday nights.

Please mail me with any specific wants you have as I am always buying and processing fresh stock. If you are passing, drop into the shop – Rat Records, 348 Camberwell New Road (Denmark Hill end), London, SE5 0RW, open 6 days 10.30 -18.30 - where I have thousands of bargain items on sale. For further information please see my About Me page. If you do not reply within 3 days to arrange payment, or payment does not reach me within 7 days without explanation I will relist the item or offer it to the second highest bidder.

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UK Record Collector Grading System:

MINT: The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in the sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition.

EXCELLENT (US version of this term: Near Mint): The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in the sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing.

VERY GOOD (US version of this term: VG++): The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover, or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.

GOOD (US version of this term: VG): The record has been played so much that the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches. The cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits etc.