THE BEATLES - WHITE ALBUM 1ST STEREO 1968 PCS 7067/ 8 GOOD+ LP

	£		55
	$		73

THE BEATLES

'WHITE ALBUM'

ORIGINAL STEREO PRESS NUMBERED TOP LOADING SLEEVE

Catalogue no. PCS 7067/ 7068

Master Matrices YEX 709-1/ YEX 710-1/ YEX 711-1/ YEX 712-1

NOVEMBER 1968 PRESSING

The Sleeve: 1st issue Gatefold Top loading sleeve in Good Plus condition, laminated complete on front and rear panels and over most of the edges, however with shelf wear on opening seams, scuffs on the corners and a couple of small edge impacts, feint writing impressions seen under light on part of front & back panel, name signed inside of the right slot in pen.  All title and catalogue text legible on spine top and bottom, with scuffing to most of the plain central part. Overall a clean and glossy sleeve still, holding original colour quite well, with a little light staining on the edges. Inside the gatefold has faired better, it is Very Good Plus; smooth, glossy and clean with clear print and unblemished black & white square pictorials of each band member, no marks or writing imprints, and the fold-over seams are neat.

 'The BEATLES' logo on the front panel is embossed and raised as it was on all first issue sleeves, and the number is in the 7 digit format, embossed and raised. The sleeve is firm and flat and intact, including the inner partition holding both LP's and all inserts together firmly. The blemishes don't detract too much from what is still a sturdy original sleeve at almost 50 years old.

Inner Sleeves: Very Good/ Plus condition. The 1st pressings of the White Album came with plain black Apple inner sleeves with the label window on one side only, and one bottom edge corner having a wider slant than the opposite bottom corner. These rarely surface in anything close to intact, but these are intact just showing a lot of insertion creases.

Poster: Very Good Plus Condition. No marks or writing, and no tears or rips, and has survived well. A little stress to fold lines especially bottom section hard to see also with a creases on the some of the pictorials.

The Four Portrait Photographs: Excellent Condition, no corner creases, clearly rarely removed from the sleeve.

The Vinyl: The vinyl surfaces are in a strong Very Good Condition. There are no deep scratches on either side of either disc, but they do have a light stylus hairlines covering over a lot of the surface area, there is no obvious groove wear apart from side 1 which has a lightly feelable hairline mark, otherwise completely smooth on that side, and all other sides. There are no scuffs or warps or dinks in the vinyl, overall still retains a good sheen. The records have seen an amount plays commensurate with age/ popularity and are in average condition. 

The records lay completely flat on the turntable.

Robust Sixties vinyl's weighing at around 170 grams, very heavy for this period in the Sixties.

Labels vary but are around at least Very Good Plus on the whole. All text is clear and bright, the perimeter area around the spindle location is neat with hardly any wear and any spindle line traces are feint LIMITED and within the central groove ring.

No handwriting or marks.

Mother/ Stampers :-

Side 1: Mother 6 Stamper MP

                              Side 2: Mother  2 Stamper GAD

    Side 3: Mother  5 Stamper GMH

 Side 4: Mother  6 Stamper LH

       KJT Tax code embossed on the Side 4 label.

The Audio: The audio grades at Very Good/ Very Good Plus

Most tracks have a faultless playback, near Excellent but there is a light surface crackle pretty much throughout in the quieter parts, which some tracks have more than others. Intro's and fade-outs, are generally quiet but some have ticks that can be heard. Plays throughout without any major issues to the audio such as pops, skips, clicks, or sticks, however there is a quick crunch type sound on Bungalow Bill ( which is on Side 1 due to stylus hairline). This double LP is on the whole still a very playable example with crisp vocals and deep original bass. The Stereo channeling is perfect with no feedback or hiss and this is the LP of which many critics regard as The Beatles finest masterpiece.

The vinyl sides 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all from the very first stereo master recording and none are from the second master recording. The mother/ stampers are quite low and the the number on the sleeve is about third of the way through way for a Stereo pressing - it is well known that numbers 0000001-0300000 were reserved for Mono and some exports, and that 0300001-0600000 were reserved for Stereo. These factors indicate that this is a first.

This White Album has the rarer KJT tax code embossed on the labels which came during the crossover period between KT and JT tax codes.

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 This LP will be securely delivered in a professional cardboard LP mailer with cardboard stiffeners.

New plain black generic poly-lined inner sleeves will house the records as shown, and the originals will be placed separately.

A new protective PVC 180 gsm gatefold sleeve is included as shown to house the LP.

This White Album will be delivered by recorded delivery in the UK.

Overseas postage will be tracked and a tracking number given.

To grade this record I am using the official grading system for collectable records from the Record Collector Magazine.

Happy to refund on return if not satisfied.