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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

Vintage Mono Pressings...1 mil or .7 mil...

I wish the answer could be easy and universal. Stereo LPs become "standardized" in 1958. Stereo 45s do not become standardized until mid-1960s or later, depending on label ! Consider the record labels you are concerned with and any others. Financially, another or more record cutter machine(s) would be quite an investment. They already had the 1 mil microgroove mono cutters, tweaked and updated, ready to use.

Many record labels were guilty of "joining in later" due to a number of reasons. Competition, One-upmanship, speculation, market gains or losses were considerable factors. Each company used unique marketing and the soon to evolve A&R departments. Some managements were very cost concerned.

If you have the ability to "recognize" the wider 1 mil grooves, having the various stylus sized pickup cartridges available is our best "arsenal."

1960s Mono LPs, well into the mid '60s were still 1 mil microgroove size. If the label offered stereo and mono pressings during the early stereo era, they wanted their loyal mono record collectors to still be able to thoroughly enjoy all their discs. Many record labels did not offer .7 mil mono grooves until the very late 1960s.

Remember, a .7 or .8 mil wide stylus can play stereo and mono discs. However, the non-vertical responding, very vintage 1 mil stylus equipped mono pickups should not be used to playback stereo discs. If your record collection contains very good or better condition mono discs, keep in mind that there were many "width oversized"(slightly wider than .7 mil) elliptical stylus stereo cartridges available which can be beneficial sounding, compared with a 1 mil conical mono size stylus.

I will now try and add the link to a cool outlook about stereo 45 rpm evolution...very informative reading...: http://www.bsnpubs.com/stereoproject/stereo1968.html

There are four parts to this essay, which you should be able to link from any part...ENJOY !



Edits: 03/26/17

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