The Beatles, Abbey Road. Rare No 'Her Majesty'. 1969 First Press. Excellent.

	£		27
	$		36

  PCS 7088 

  SIDE ONE  YEX 749 - 2    SIDE TWO YEX 750 - 2

Abbey Road, by The Beatles. PCS 7088 - STEREO. This LP is rare for two reasons; one giving full credence to the other. Firstly this is a rare 'First Pressing Error Copy', with the omission of the credit ''Her Majesty'' from the last track on Side Two. The credit reads, ''The End (Lennon-McArtney) Northern Songs NCB'', when it should read, ''The End Her Majesty (Lennon-McArtney) Northern Songs NCB". See labels below, first with and second, as with this LP and RARE, without.

Whilst all records have the audio track itself, none, oddly, have the credit on the sleeve and only a rare number omit it on the label, with some having a misaligned Apple logo on the sleeve, too. There were, actually, many more with the Apple & Omission, than with just the omission. The errors were rectified very shortly during the First Pressing. The ‘rumour’ machine surrounding The Beatles, during this release, began and it was called ‘’The Secret Track’’, but on a few ‘’Secret Records’’!  

So... the second rare issue is just that; this is a First Pressing, for obvious reasons, as stated. It is a 1969 First Pressing, in Excellent Plus Condition. And... it has the Dark Green Apple on the label on Side One, which in later pressings became a lighter colour, plus it has no ‘Sold in the UK’ on the label; other, later pressings did.

Both the vinyl and cover and indeed the inner, plain white sleeve are original and prestine, with just the odd surface marks, but otherwise a beautiful example of an LP that appears to have been played very little. The spindle holes on both sides show no wear at all and they do not have any marks of the metal spindle, with that tell tale 'new' look to the labels. This must be an Excellent Plus grading.

As a final note on its rarity, this LP, like its First Press others, has the unique 'Sharp Spine', which is unusual and was altered for later pressings. If you look at the photo you will see that it is clean, un-marked and very sharp in definition. Later spines were much fuller.

As usual with EMI it has Matrix Codes within the run-off areas of the vinyl on both sides and these codes translate its provenance, with Matrix No (Side 1) YEX 749-2, with  Mother or Positive ID being '3' and Stamper or Dye being 'GOD' or '150' and the Matrix (Side Two) YEX 750-1 and Mother '8', with Stamper 'GGL' or '118'.There is a lot of nonsense spoken about ‘Mother' &  'Stampers’ and the reality was that every LP had one master tape, being the final mix and from which a number of Positive Dyes were made, in stainless steel. These are the 'Mothers', from  which copper 'Stampers' were cast and being copper would only last for a thousand or so presses, hence the fact there many hundreds of 'Stampers; for any one LP, but all would be from the same 'Mothers', based on the same Master. You can see an example in the photos of a Positive or Mother above. This is a genuine EMI Mother or Positive from EMI Hayes Pressing Plant.

 What also sets this desirable record apart from hundreds of thousands of others is that it was purchased in 1969 and has obviously not been over-played or written on! The vinyl has a nice sheen and the fully laminated sleeve, both front and rear and including its spine, is in marvellous condition, with nice un-faded colour and no creasing or rippling or bubbling of the laminate at all. The inner plain white sleeve is crisp and white.

Of course, the proof of the vinyl is in the playing and this plays wonderfully well and is a very nice example of this iconic Beatles LP, which really does reflect the late 1960's in its sound, but also its manufacture.

I am not a a trader, dealer or collector, but I do know about vinyl and there is far too much nonsense talked about it on Ebay, with 'arm-chair' experts, whose knowledge comes from internet sites and The Record Collector, but little else. This is a prviate sale and I am selling records that I have owned and wish to pass on. I base my knowledge on personal interest, having worked in the audio industry myself, but any grading is done honestly and subjectively, both visually and of course in listening, too. The Record Collector's Guide is useful for a 'guide', but often it is too 'kind', however, what I base my actual gradings on can be seen below.

Finally, I keep having to point this out, but please READ THIS:

I am based in the UK. Postage is quoted for the UK and is only quoted at Ebay's maximum allowance, which changes depending on whether there are more than the one record or if the person buying lives in Europe or anywhere else in the World. Please check BEFORE bidding to make sure I will post to your country, this saves us all time and inconvenience. Thanks.

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

EXCELLENT: The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and / or creasing.

VERY GOOD: 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: 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, discolouration, etc.

FAIR: The record is still just playable but has not been cared for properly and displays considerable surface noise; it may even jump. The cover and contents will be torn, stained and / or defaced.

POOR: The record will not play properly due to scratches, bad surface noise, etc. The cover and contents will be badly damaged or partly missing.

BAD: The record is unplayable or might even be broken, and is only of use as a collection filler."

As well as the above grades, Near Mint is often used as well; this is really for a record that appears new but is known to have been played because the label has light spindle marks or because it has come from a previous owner and is assumed to have been played by them. For records which appear to fall between the accepted grades, + and - are also often added to the grading.

In addition to the basic grading, any individual faults should be noted separately such as if an otherwise Excellent cover has a name written on it, or a 7" single is missing its original centre etc.

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