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Coloured Vinyl

R

rod

beach bum
Stupid question perhaps...but;

Does coloured vinyl (colored, for our over-the-pond friends) exist for any reason other than as a gimmick? I ask this question for a number of reasons -

1) Many bands (or, at least, their record companies) use coloured vinyl as a way of extorting cash from the collectors / die-hards. Porcupine Tree come to mind at the moment. There are many others.
2) Back in the day, coloured vinyl issues may have attracted the "ooh! look at that, I must have it" brigade. A chart-position enhancing device.
3) I have various coloured vinyl albums and singles and not many of them sound great, although admittedly most of them are from the cd-is-coming era. There is quite often a degree of surface noise.

I have not bought one for donkeys years. Do recent issues sound ok? Do you give a sh*t? Who knows...
 
My red vinyl copy of Television's Adventure sounds and looks great. Can't say I know much more about the subject.....

Cheers

Rich
 
Theoretically it should make no difference as vinyl is naturally clear, i.e. black records are coloured vinyl. The quality of the pressing is far more important.

Tony.
 
I knew it was a stupid question! Ta.

Mind you, one I recall as sounding ok is Motorhead's s/t album on white (line fever) vinyl. For a Motorhead album, that is.
 
As Tony says, poly(vinyl acetate-vinyl chloride) is naturally clear. Carbon black is added as a filler, to reduce the amount of vinyl used per record, and to act as a reinforcing agent. Carbon black has the advantages of being very cheap and relatively easy to disperse.
 
Tones / TonyL

Does that mean that clear vinyl LP's have a higher vinyl content? Just got RT's Old Kit Bag on clear vinyl.

ss
 
I dunno, but my clear copies of "The last live gig" by the Electro Hippies and "Dirty love" (12 incher) by Thunder (sssssh - don't laugh!) sound brilliant.

...as does my pink copy of "Under the pink" by Tori Amos.

As for my Def Leppard picture disc of "Hysteria" - the amount of surface noise sounds like driving a mini down a concrete road with the windows down, with Def's tunes playing at a whisper level on the transistor car radio ;)
 
Setting Son said:
Tones / TonyL

Does that mean that clear vinyl LP's have a higher vinyl content? Just got RT's Old Kit Bag on clear vinyl.

ss
Click to expand...
Given the same dimensions of record, yes. However, this is not necessarily a good thing. Fillers often act as reinforcing agents as well, meaning better strength and dimensional stability. In addition, carbon black, IIRC (and I readily confess not to being sure about this), contributes to records not building up static charge as much as they otherwise would.
 
Also you can't tell the quality of a colour vinyl, you can't see scratches etc.

The few colour ones Ihave are all excellent, Bowies Stage (yellow) Pink Floyds Division Bell (clear blue) The Killers (opaque blue) and quite a few electronica records.

The only issues I have had was with picture disks which can't be Vinyl as they are in general unplayable.
 
I have a copy of Hounds of Love on lavender marbled vinyl, and I could swear it is more fragile (i.e. prone to picking up permanent nicks and pops) than the regular ol' black stuff.

Haven't noticed this with any of my other non-black lps.
 
I think the thing that made me ask in the first place was my 7" copy of Deep Purple's "New, Live, and Rare" on purple (what else?) vinyl. What a surface noise racket! That and "Wonderous Stories" on 12". I'm sure I must have a few coloured vinyl singles / albums that are ok, but I will need to have listen. Picture discs, hmm, there's another subject altogether.

...maybe they need an Okki Nokki, or somesuch...
 
Using black vinyl makes it difficult to detect the amound of contaminants and regrind
( reworked vinyl, often including the ground up labels of the junked pressing)
Acetyl copolymer ( Dupont Delrin or similar) would probably make a superb medium for pressings because of it's rigidity and very high intrinsic lubication. I AM SURPRISED NO MENTION HAS EVER BEEN MADE OF IT'S TRIAL.
Polycarbonate would appear a good choice but would wear the stampers( and stylus) very quickly.
New Zealand record pressings were probably the worst in the world for high levels of regrind, and damp vinyl causing steam venting marks on the disc surface. No quality control whatsoever.I did have one yellow pressing of an album, and it contrasted the diffused contamination of black regrind beautifully!
 
I think good old vinyl still wins out on cheapness. Acetal and polycarbonate are engineering plastics, and rather more expensive.
 
Has anybody heard any of the coloured vinyl versions of Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks. There seems to be a rash of them at the moment, i'm not sure whether they are bootlegs , or official releases, any idea's ??

I have owned many different copies of this album over the years since i bought my first one new in 1978, but now only have a late 1980's re-issue (OVED 136), which has been abused and sounds a bit rough.
I'm on the look out for an original mint example of this album to listen to, enjoy & look after (this time). These coloured re-issues look interesting though...
 
Has anybody heard any of the coloured vinyl versions of Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks. There seems to be a rash of them at the moment, i'm not sure whether they are bootlegs , or official releases, any idea's ??
Click to expand...

I’ve seen quite a few on eBay (several there now), I strongly suspect that they are pirates – I’ve not heard of Virgin releasing a coloured vinyl reissue, and they are definitely not original late 70s releases. Judging from the eBay pics the label is almost right for an original, but seems to printed in the wrong colour – it should be a blue to white fill, but looks grey in all the pics. The blue / white Virgin label with red lettering changed to the solid red / green (as your OVED copy) in about 1980 and Virgin changed pressing plants about the same time (earlier ones sound better).

There is currently a ‘pink back’ original copy of Bollocks on eBay with no bids at 4.99 – that is a bloody bargain if it’s in usable condition – it is a really rare issue (IIRC only 2000 pressed) and tends to be strangely undervalued by eBay punters for some reason, probably lack of knowledge. I’ve got one and it’s a great sounding copy (mine has a -5 matrix so is pretty early). I’ve also got a 1 sided Submission 7”, but it’s not the right copy for that!

Tony.
 
Cheers for that Tony, I've been doing a bit of digging myself and now believe the coloured vinyls to be pirates/bootlegs. I still might get one for a novelty value see/hear.
I have owned the plain pink back NMTB, I've also had the Pic disc, a German one, portuguese one ( The pink and yellow aren't 'solid' colours - looks pretty neat), and the pink/green US warner Bros copy. Not all of them where in good nick though as i was at school at the time of ownership and these types of LP's changed hands many times, cigarrettes usually playing a major part of the trade negotiations :) .

As far as collectorbility goes I wouldn't really be bothered in this records scarcity ( an origial Blue/white with the Poster and 1 sides 7" went for £76 the other day ). I'd settle for a 'mint', early record in a trashed , non original sleeve.
I find these days that i just don't get any pleasure out of records that have cost me a lot of money and I'm too scared to play, looking and hording just don't do it for me anymore, however it has in the past. My curent state of thinking on this matter is probably more down to the fact that i just couldn't afford to buy expensive records just to own and not use.

Thanks again for the info, I'm keeping my eyes and ears peeled...
 
I couldn't resist it, and luckily it sounds great too. The cover was a bit tatty , but the vinyl is mint, i can't see, hear or detect under sunlight the slightest scratch. It is a late re-issue made to celebrate the 21st Anniversary or something like that. It is an official release too, not a pirate or bootleg. and it kinda looks like this : Pink NMTB looking and sounding loud

You can some details regarding Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks variations and releases here, where my 1998 Virgin Re-Issue is listed , just click on the NMTB-Guide button: http://www.sex-pistols.net/main.html
 
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