Prince Buster: Judge Dread Hush Up Blue Beat NM vinyl

	£		150
	$		199

This is not the scarcest of the Blue Beat LPs by Prince Buster, but when did you last see the actual record within the sleeve in a Near Mint condition, played perhaps 5-6 times during all these years? Well, you have one such before you now.

This has been in my possession since circa 1974 when I found it stuffed away among some calypso records in a record shop in Stockholm otherwise specializing in Classic music. No wonder this 1967 LP had not been sold during all those years!

There is a small number of spindle marks to the very revealing matte Blue Beat labels while there is only one tiny and light scuff mark - inaudible of course - to one of the vinyl surfaces. It was there from the beginning as the vinyl surfaces have some of that look of a record having been stored tightly packed with others. Just the slightest of surface things and of course entirely inaudible. No crackle or groove wear on this (naturally!) and my only objection to it is regarding the horrible loudspeakers that must have used during mastering. This album has a rather metallic, midrangish sound!!!

Vinyl being incredibly well-preserved is one thing, sleeve however, is a slightly different matter. The back has some discolouration to the upper right from some fluid once dropped by a careless friend and the cover got a sprinkling of that. It doesn't look too bad though and paper has regained almost all of its former flatness.

On the front, to the lower left, a piece of the laminate has come off but been glued back in place - if you pull the detailed image to your PC desktop and open it in your favourite viewer and zoom in, you will see how it looks. Not too bad at all. But what we have here is, then, an NM vinyl in a sleeve which should perhaps only be graded VG or even less. You will have to decide. But I must stress it still looks good to the eye since it has not been worn out by frequent handling during these years; its general appearance is still, in my rather strict opinion, VG+.

The item is part of my collection purchased new between circa 1974-83. Recorded to cassette tape at the time, I now possess a number of original records in an enviable condition! NONE HAS SEEN ANY "PARTY" or "DJ" USE WHATSOEVER !!!

The occasional spin throughout the years has always been using very good cartridges & turntables. Products like Empire 4000 - a serious cartridge in the 70s - an AKG (that made very little impression on me), a Goldring Eroica leading on a powerful Clearaudio Aurum Alpha and most recently a Dynavector D17 Karat Mk II should give you an idea. The players too have certainly not been hard on the vinyl: a legendary belt-driven Micro-Seiki, a Pro-ject during the 90s when my interest in vinyl was low, but recently a serious piece of British engineering from Nottingham Analogue Studios.

I follow the modified Goldmine definitions (inserting the useful EX midway between NM and VG+) and try to be conservative, carefully describing any peculiarities to the record. Even if groove wear is not an issue with any of my records I will honestly tell you if the pressing is not the sharpest one.

By this I want to point out that what has not been picked up by my audiophile gear is probably not there at all. In the unlikely event there will be a question of returning items, this will therefore be carefully considered on a per item basis. I am not a professional seller and I therefore know what I am selling by route. Hope you take that as an assurance of accurate descriptions. I have myself grown rather tired of buying EX and NM records on eBay only to find an alarming percentage of even top graded material to suffer from clearly audible groove wear.

When auctioning my several collectable items I address collectors with a feel for vinyl reproduction. I expect only serious bidders to participate; people willing to honour their bids and and able to pay for their purchases within 7 days. Items will be shipped immediately upon receipt of payment. If you want a valuable record insured, write me and say so before you make the payment.

Swedish postal fees are somewhat less attractive than those of the UK but as most of my items are collectables, I hope this won't detract from the appeal of the auctioned objects.

As a last general remark I must stress these are scans of the actual object being auctioned. Full cover image is pieced together from partial scans.