The Beatles - Yesterday and Today LP - Rare Bootleg - Butcher cover - 1966

	£		31
	$		41

PRESENTS

The Beatles - "Yesterday"…and Today LP - Rare Bootleg - Butcher cover

HAND WASHED - DEEP CLEANED - BEST AUDIO QUALITY POSSIBLE!!!

• Label : Capitol
• Catalogue Number : ST 2553
• Matrix Numbers : T2553-A-1 / T2553-B1
• Year : 2009 (original release 1966)
• Format : Stereo
• Genre : Pop
• Disc Condition : NM
• Sleeve Condition : NM
• Pricing Tier : Tier 1

TRACKLISTING

Side 1

Side 2

DESCRIPTION

Ultimate bootleg edition of this historic American Beatles compilation album, complete with the infamous 'Butcher' cover. The disc is blue marble coloured with embedded glitter. The bootleggers have done a great job with the audio too; this is a faithful reproduction and very good quality.

Please feel free to ask me any questions, and be sure to read my "About Me" section below, to learn about my unique approach to selling quality vintage vinyl!

About Me - Why Vinyl?

The vinyl market is enjoying a resurgence at the moment, and for good reason. With our lives evermore entwined within the digital space, people are looking for a return to tangibility, to a physical, analogue existence. Also, the quality of art has suffered, in particular, most young people are listening to very compressed forms of audio with reduced audio fidelity. Vinyl is a ‘high definition’ format, in that the entire soundwave is captured within the grooves of a record. No compression is performed, and the result is immediate, with greater separation of soundstage and a boost to frequencies normally clipped as a result of digital compression.

When it comes to vintage vinyl, what many people forget is that each record is also an artefact. It is literally a moment of sound captured in time, sculpted in vinyl. The very nature of the analogue manufacturing process means no two records are exactly the same. How a record sounds will depend on the recording process first and foremost, but also the plating process of the ‘mother’, followed by the ‘stampers’ and then the subsequent formulation of the vinyl used. For example, one particular stamper could have tiny microscopic specs of dust which add additional pits to the vinyl, affecting the sound. Also as a stamper gets worn, this could affect the audio at the end of a stamper’s production run. Part of that lottery is part of the thrill of owning vintage vinyl; you are never quite sure how a record is going to sound until you play it!

Outside of the initial manufacturing, it is important to remember that every record has been on a journey from the beginning right up to the present day. Each record may have had multiple owners and been played on very different turntables. Some will exhibit groove wear, some may not. It is thus exceptionally thrilling to find a record that is 60 years old or more and plays perfectly. But not every record will, and part of the buzz of vintage vinyl is to remember that every crackle, every pop, is a measure of that record’s life story. It is no different to a marble statue being passed down from antiquity to today, every slight chip and graze, a memory.

There are a good number of sellers on eBay who specialise in vintage vinyl. Where I differ is both my outlook towards vinyl, and the addition of a value-added service. Every record I find, I treat as a time capsule. I employ a bespoke, 2-stage ‘deep clean’, using a combination of special, vinyl-friendly and alcohol-free cleaning solutions. Both stages are performed using a Knosti ‘Disco Anti-stat’, a fantastic deep cleaning device which contains goat hair. These tiny fibre hairs are soft enough to ensure no damage is done to the vinyl, and numerous enough to get deep into the grooves, gently flicking out all the dust and grime that has built up, sometimes for over half a century or more. I begin with a warm distilled water and cleaning solution deep clean, which involves at least ten manual turns of the record in both directions. Once a batch of no more than ten records is complete, I then perform the same again with a cold water wash plus cleaning solution. The amount of dirt this process is able to shift is remarkable; I have been able to get hitherto unplayable records playing again, the audio sounding as good as it possibly can. Of course this process cannot physically repair groove wear, however it is able to reveal as much of the original audio as possible. Although laborious, this 2-stage manual and quite physically demanding process leaves no residue and ensures that I have the best possible starting point for the play-testing phase.

I play-test everything I sell, to ensure that accurate descriptions of playability and audio quality can be made. The play-test also gives the stylus the opportunity to remove any final pieces of dust and dirt that have been disrupted by the cleaning process but not yet left the groove. I use a Teac TN-100 for my play-testing; a belt-driven modern turntable with good audio, basic fixed anti-skate and importantly, a very low tracking force of just 1.5g. Why do I test vintage vinyl with such a low tracking force? The reason is so that I can make a valued estimation of how the record will perform on a variety of players. Many people just getting into vinyl will often be starting with basic turntables such as the Crossley machines. They may not have manual anti-skate and counterweight adjustors and as such, might not be able to adjust tracking force to get through the odd position on a vintage vinyl where the needle may stick, for example due to manufacturing, groove wear or sometimes even the underlying audio pits themselves. A low tracking force play-test that results in no needle jumps means playback should be fine on just about anything. One or two jumps or skips, and I can thus advise accordingly. Of course this is still very much a guess; the very nature of vintage vinyl and the number of turntables out there means it is impossible to predict just how well a record may perform on your setup, especially if it is very old and has been through many owners. However this value-added service means that at least there is some basic idea.

Once the play-test is complete, I will have some idea which ‘tier’ this record falls into. I use standard record grading for both the record and sleeve quality (where applicable). However I also use my own tier grading, with flat pricing. This is a direct result of the play-testing process and means every turntable owner has an idea of playability and audio quality. In short, my tiers are constructed as follows:

TIER 1: The premium tier. Generally flawless playback during play-test, with rich audio. Extremely minimal usage, most records will look very un-played, and the outer and inner sleeve will also be in very good quality. These will always be Auction pieces, and will start at £10 for LP’s and £5 for 45’s.

TIER 2: Again, generally flawless playback, with no needle sticking on most play-tests (check description for very occasional exceptions). There may be some crackling audio in parts, also potentially very minor cosmetic defects, perhaps felt pen writing on the labels, minor surface scuffs, some possible deterioration to the inner and/or outer sleeves. These will mostly be Buy It Now prices, usually £10 for LP’s and £5 for 45’s.

TIER 3: Some needle-sticking may have occurred during play-test, and was reproducible during subsequent attempts. Records in this tier are advised to be played on turntables with adjustable anti-skate and counterweights. There may also be advanced degradation to the inner and outer sleeves, and some deterioration of audio fidelity. Records in this category will be Buy It Now and will be £6 for LP’s and £3 for 45’s. Grab yourself a bargain!

This is a general guide and there may be exceptions, for example, a Tier 2 may be of high enough quality to warrant an Auction price should the occasion arise. Please check the description for full details.

All records will be sent using quality mailers (with stiffeners for the LP’s). The 45’s will come in a new white paper sleeve (or the original paper or cardboard sleeve if available and in good enough shape), and an additional polymer jacket for additional protection and archiving (unless stated). I will happily ship to most of the world, please check the postage and packing section for full information.

Many of my records are Mono. These will play fine on modern Stereo turntables. For best results, I recommend ‘summing’ the channels, using your HiFi system’s ‘Mono’ mode, if available. Alternatively, you may purchase Y-cables to achieve the same effect; please feel free to investigate this option on the many vinyl information websites on the Internet.

Due to the nature of vintage vinyl, I cannot guarantee that any of my pieces will perform as expected on your particular setup, and am thus unable to accept returns. If you have a non-adjustable turntable, I would advise only purchasing vintage vinyl from Tiers 1 and 2, for best results.