+ RL SS LED ZEPPELIN II ROBERT LUDWIG '69 HOT MIX INSANELY RARE FULL BASS VG++

$

945

LED ZEPPELIN II ROBERT LUDWIG 1969 RL SS Side 1/ LH SS Side 2 HOT MIX INSANELY RARE~BEAUTIFUL VG++

Original First Pressing. Less than 200,000 copies exist. Of the 200,000, 95% of them are in horrible shape because they are 52 years old and Led Zeppelin fans were harder on their albums than other albums.

The actual disk is in VG+ to VG++ condition. Physically it shines see the photos. There are a couple of long surface scratches but they are light and don’t affect the playability.

Almost no hiss or crackle or pop.

Between the songs And “Thank You” and in the quite parts of “Thank You are a few small ticks but it’s not overbearing. As soon as the music completely fades on On Thank you there are a couple of loud ticks but then the needle goes into the dead wax area.

Matrix is:

ST-691672-1A

ST-691672-D

Notice that the run-out groove or dead-wax area of side two is very small. It is estimated that less than 20,000 of these exist. *Note: both sides have SS stamped, for Sterling Studios making it even rarer.

SD 8236-MO

Tested.

No skips. A little bit of the usual crackle and pops.

Plays good all the way through.

I want to rate the album cover NM or Near Mint but will good with VG++ instead.

The VG++ album cover Binding has some fading to the color but no seem splits. The bottom is on the verge of getting a small seem split near the opening but does not actually have a seem split. The top and the openings are excellent.

The VG paper inner sleeve is the rare very first version that came out. Led Zeppelin I is not advertised yet on this version (it came out only 9 months earlier) and instead has comedian Flip Wilson’s “Cowboys and Colored People” advertised with the distinctive One-Way street sign. It looks like it was folded once or twice inside the album cover but there are no seem splits.

Only the first few hundred thousand had this Hershey Chocolate color which makes it stick out from the crowd. A majority of the one’s you’ll see have a bit of a purple shade to the brown. The 1841 Broadway address at the bottom of the label shows that it is a first pressing as opposed to the later more common Rockefeller Plaza address.

The sound quality of this Mix has a much louder volume and generally more bass and tones you don’t hear on the later versions.

Many near mint copies have recently sold for $1800. I’ve priced mine at what I think is a low or very fair price, but feel free to send me an offer. Depends on my mood at the time and if I have my eye on something else rare and unusual.

Note* If you have a turntable that does not have the weight control on the back of the arm, the bass and high volume in this mix may cause the needle to jump around. The record is not defective, but this is what caused so many people to return the album first pressing because they had lower end phonographs. This is also why this is so rare, and what caused Peter Grant, Jimmy Page and Atlantic Records to pull the album from the shelves and replace it with a lower volume and lower bass mix.

Tracklist

A1 Whole Lotta Love 5:33

A2 What Is And What Should Never Be 4:47

A3 The Lemon Song 6:20

A4 Thank You 3:50

B1 Heartbreaker 4:15

B2 Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman) 2:40

B3 Ramble On 4:35

B4 Moby Dick 4:25

B5 Bring It On Home 4:1

Recent letter from Robert Ludwig about the rare original Hot Mix of Led Zeppelin and his partner Lee Hulko.

I wrote Robert Ludwig in the last week and he wrote me back. All the versions from sterling are the same hot mix. The subtle variances between them are all simply from the slight differences in making a hand-made analog lacquer disc, at least one of which was sent to all the pressing plants at the time. The CTH plant got a lacquer that was half RL and half LH (Lee Hulko, his partner) but was of the SAME MIX AND MASTER, based on RL's notes. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME, aside from subtle variances and should be valued the SAME no matter who's initials are in the dead wax. They are all the same master from STERLING SOUND! Here is my reply from Robert Ludwig. Let this be the final word in this debate. Thanks!

Hi Jim,

I'm surprised about Lee Hulko's initials being on some of the parts. In all these years I had never come across any copies with his initials before.

When there were big orders of certain titles and there wasn't physically enough time for one person to crank out the lacquers as fast as the record company wanted, sometimes we would help each other out.

For instance, my initials might appear on a Beatles record that Lee mastered.

In every case, compared to now, those titles were relatively easy to master. Once one of us mastered an album and it was approved, we made careful notes, either one of us could cut it and it should come out the same. Back then, Lee and I shared the one room and worked different hours so it is possible one of the plants blew a part and needed a replacement right then with no delay.

So after I mastered the album (which Eddie Kramer & Atlantic approved) it was shipped to all the radio stations and the initial pressing was all from me and Sterling Sound.

Amhet Ertegun at Atlantic heard the album (which Eddie demanded be as hot as possible) and apparently it skipped on his daughters little turntable. Instead of calling us at Sterling and asking us to lower the level a little and telling us where it skipped, they had the disk cutters at Atlantic use my EQ'd cassette file copy and they cut it WAY lower than my original cut plus, in my opinion, it sounded dull and generally not very good sounding in comparison.

So all the disks that were played at the radio stations and all the initial pressings world wide came from me (and apparently Lee cut a part or two) and that was what "sold" the record and made it a hit. A year later, whenever I visited someone I would look at their Zeppelin II album to see if it was my cut or Atlantic's cut. It was easy to see by eye, the Atlantic cut ended much farther from the label and the grooves to the naked eye looked very conservative.

I still got to Master "Houses of the Holy" later on, no skipping problems with that as far as I know!

I hope this clears this up for you.

All my best,

Bob Ludwig

Gateway Mastering Studios Inc

428 Cumberland Ave

Portland Maine 0410