Vince Guaraldi Trio Jazz Impressions Of A Boy Named Charlie Brown 1964 1st Press

$

208

• Vince Guaraldi Trio.
• "Jazz Impressions Of A Boy Named Charlie Brown".
• Original US Stereo Release With Dark Blue Labels.
• 1964 Fantasy 85017.
• Gatefold Jacket.
• Includes The 12 Originally Inserted 8"x10" Schultz Color Prints In Mint Condition (see photo samples).

Item Details
Manufactured in: USA
Recorded: October, 1864 At Fantasy Recording Studios, San Francisco, CA
Pressing By: RCA Records Pressing Plant Hollywood, CA ("H" in matrix)
Original Issue: December, 1964
This Issue: Believed To Be 1964, based on Jacket, Labels, Matrix, Inserts
Label: Fantasy 85017
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
Side 1: (stamp:) F-2413 H
Side 2: (stamp:) F-2414 H
This LP contains music from a television documentary on the comic strip and it's creator (Schultz) produced by Lee Mendelson. Each track was intended to introduce specific characters in the "Peanuts" comic strip. That 30-minute documentary never aired because Lee failed to get sponsorship for it. However, it garnered support for creation of the 1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and a separate soundtrack LP from it (Fantasy 85019).
Was bought used by this seller many years ago when filling in his missing Guaraldi vinyl, and now offered from his private collection. Has had just a few plays only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I neutralize residual static charge with a Zerostat immediately after cleaning. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.

Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with NOS Soviet Voskhod matched tubes (see last photo).

Track list
For track listings, please see my attached record label photographs.

I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
Grading Details
Note: Grading LPs by text characters is subjective and at best are only a guide as no two used records are of exactly the same quality. I do not use "EX" grades as my VG+ is right below "NM-." I never sell a "G" play grade and very rarely ever sell a "VG" play grade. Please, refer to both my photo evidence and detailed descriptions to judge by YOUR OWN grading standards. Questions are always welcome. eBay no longer allows me to enter separate grades for each side of the sleeve or record so you may not see any in the box above but are listed below. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are graded and described in detail separately for your complete assessment.

Outer Jacket Inspection/grading:
NM-/VG/NM/NM-
The jacket is preserved in beautiful condition. Edges don't have a single crease, the corners have only the tiniest bits of wear, and colors are still bright and white. The front face would be fully NM except for a narrow vertical line of surface "polishing" along the right side sleeve edge. My photograph shows that as a very light shadow. In person it is harder very hard to see unless one tilts the cover to a specific angle under bright reflective light. The left inside of the gatefold has all the track names written in red ball pen ink, so that face has to get a "VG". The rest of that side is smooth bright white without a bit of wear. The right side gatefold face looks near-perfect. The jacket rear only has some very faint darker color transfer from adjacent LP contact but is otherwise near-perfect.

Vinyl visual inspection/grading:
NM-/VG++ to NM-
Side 1 looked near perfect. All I could find were a few very thin and barely reflective traces. None of them looked like they could have any effect on play quality as they seemed to be only on the very top of the vinyl surface. Side 2 looked similar, but it's ultra-thin traces were a bit longer. Still, nothing that could even approach a "scratch."

Play Testing:
NM-/NM-- to NM
Extensive play testing was performed after visual inspection (continuous written notes were taken). I listened to the beginning, middle, and end of each track for a few minutes on each needle drop. When the track width was noticeably greater I took more play samples to get good coverage. I also listened to all lead-in, lead-out and transition grooves between each track. Some tracks were played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 96k/24-bit WAV files. This allowed me to go back and re-check some of my notes on digital playback in ProTools. Here is rundown of each side from those notes.

Side 1 Play
First, I observed that the record sat very flat on my TT (I do use a record clamp, but even mild warps always show if present). T1 sounded very clean with only the tiniest high-frequency impulse noise that I occasionally detected at the lowest threshold of audibility. Going through the transition grooves I got an assessment of the vinyl noise floor characteristics. The best I could describe it is "smooth high frequency noise 'sputter'." Just made up of very tiny high frequency "micro-ticks" way down in volume relative to the music and non-distracting from the music. T2 was cut louder than T1 and had no detectable vinyl noise while I did multiple needle drops to cover that longer track. T4 was only Vince on the piano without his trio mates and that created a few sub-seconds of dead-airspace allowing bits of barely audible vinyl noise to get through to my headphones. But, those did not distract from the music. T5 was a long track so I took many samples. It was very quiet and clean. The recording of drums was very realistic and faithfully accurate. Because I did not hear anything I would describe as a tick or click I rated the side NM-.

Side 2 Play
T1 is the most recognized track from the Christmas special and it was very clean and quiet. The vinyl sounded like it was brand-new to me because of the very high audio quality. Listening to the first transition groove I found that the background vinyl noise floor had different characteristics than Side 1. Here it was tilted  toward mid to low frequency energy. It was like tiny soft-edged "thumps" barely at the threshold of audibility. T2 was a long track that that took many needle drops to get good coverage. It was constantly quiet. All I could detect from the pressing was a single mid-volume "tick." T3 has a much higher average volume level. It was clean, quiet, and dynamic. The drums had excellent audio reproduction. The transition grooves into T4 were smooth and quiet so T4 was also. May notes indicated that track-to-track the grading varied from MN-- to NM.  

This is a very highly preserved copy that is rare to find in this shape. Physically the jacket and vinyl looks excellent and the vinyl provides very enjoyable play quality. Essential for any Guaraldi collector.

Packaging

• Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
• Original inner sleeve is included separately.
• Record has been placed into a new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeve, as the original is a thin half-round plastic pouch that was full of static electricity. So it probably retains dust. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean and well protected during shipping and ultimate buyer usage.
• Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
• Sent in high quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners and all corners double-taped.

Shipping

• Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
• A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP).
• If you do buy more than one LP on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined invoice.eBay does give you the option to "Request an invoice from the buyer," but this option is not available on the eBay mobile app. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.