Title Leo Kottke 6 and 12 String Guitar 1973 Takoma C-1024 Play Tested

Description: Leo Kottke. 6 AND 12 STRING GUITAR. Large Pressing Ring. Glossy Gold "Dragon" Labels. Tiny "33.3" At Bottom Of Rim Text. Scroll Work Below "STEREO" Does Not Go Up Each Side Of Label (1972 has that). Item Details Manufactured in: USA Recorded At: Empire Photo-Sound, Minneapolis, MN Original Issue: December 1969 This Issue: 1973 (based on label design) Label: Takoma Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers: Side 1: (etch:) C-1024-1 Side 2: (etch:) C-1024-2 Was bought new by this seller many years ago and now offered from his private collection (you have absolutely known provenance). 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 brand) to prevent warpage. All vinyl sides are cleaned on a VPI HW-16.5 record cleaner. I use the Audio Intelligent "One-Step" formula that requires no rinsing and leaves no residue. It is alcohol free and uses enzyme agents to remove pressing mold-release compounds, fungi & bacteria, finger oils, and many other environmental contaminants. Made with laboratory-grade pure water(50X purer than distilled water). I neutralize residual static charge from both vinyl and new inner sleeve with a Milty Zerostat. 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 post "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket in my listings. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to show the true vinyl condition/grade from any photograph. After cleaning I use very bright light and close visual inspection on each side to assign "visual-only" grades. However, I always perform play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment to assign play grades. 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. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are separately graded and described in detail for your complete assessment. Outer Jacket Inspection/grading: VG+/VG+ Front face has light ring wear that is not 360 degrees around but only along the top and bottom edges. There is also some very light rub wear (dulling spots of satin finish) only in the top 1/4th. There is a 1-1/4" seam split at the top left edge but nowhere else. Minor blunting at the two bottom corners. The jacket is still very strong and sturdy. The rear jacket face only has some dark color transfer in the form of partial ring curves at top and bottom easily seen in my photo. Otherwise more like VG++. The inner paper sleeve is still bright white. Vinyl Visual Inspection/Grading: VG+/VG++ S1 has some surface "mottling" from paper sleeve imprinting over years. There is one thin reflective hairline that runs from T1 through T2,T3, and into T4. There is a thinner and fainter hairline running from T3 into T5. Both of these will be covered during play test. S2 has the same kind of "mottling" as S1 but no noticeable reflective hairlines. There are some limited spots of swirly "polishing" sheen from paper sleeve sliding. Play Testing/Grading: VG++/VG++ 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 T1 had about 4 separate non-distracting HF ticks during the first half but no noticeable noise after that. T2 had some low volume pressing crackle audible under the music during startup but was not evident once the music got going and stayed pretty quiet even into the soft ending. T3 Was played almost all the way through and had just a few low volume HF ticks. T4 had a pretty clean startup and only had a few LF ticks in the middle of the song. T5 is a great slide tune that played just about perfect. No vinyl noise detected on any play sample. T6 had a few non-distracting LF ticks in the first few seconds but then quieted down. T7 played perfectly with no noise detected. Side 2 Play T1 had aggressive play volume so no vinyl noise was detected. T2 is a gentle instrumental (Jesu). The pressing's noise floor could be heard in the beginning as intermittent bits of LF crackle for the first few seconds. Then, in about the 1/3rd point of the track I heard 2 LF ticks back to back (this was in the virgin pressing on my first play). No more noise afterward on subsequent play samples. T3 played with no detected noise. T4 had some LF crackle during the soft level startup but otherwise fairly free of pressing noise. T5 was aggressive playing and no noise detected. T6 had pauses in the song during which I could assess the noise floor of the pressing. It consists of barely audible low frequency crackle that was usually masked by music levels. T7 had aggressive play levels so the vinyl was quiet from start to finish. I felt this side was somewhere between VG+ and NM- so split the difference at VG++. When Leo plays aggressively the vinyl was nicely quiet but during pauses or some softer playing parts the pressing noise floor limitations made themselves known but not in much of a distracting way. Over all there is a lot of music here that can be enjoyed very much by fans of Kottke. Packaging Records are placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting. Original inner sleeves (if still present) are included separately. All records will be placed into new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeves. Any original sleeves may be holding onto some dust and if paper lined could even be abrasive. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean and well protected during shipping and ultimately during 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 $4.75 per single album sale. eBay keeps raising the rates for Media Mail but I still don't pass all of that or any costs for shipping materials on to the buyer. I do try to reduce additional costs for my customers. A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day ($4.75 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 with the discount applied to your total.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.

Price: 5.95 USD

Location: El Dorado Hills, California

End Time: 2024-12-19T18:43:09.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.75 USD