Monarch Pressing Plant

[Kris Holmes]

Maybe a dumb question but..... Was Monarch pressing Vinyl & Styrene at the same time?

[45cellar]

That is a good question, not sure I'll have to check a few.

[Benji]

from my understanding Monarch was styrene only.

[45cellar]

Yes, thinking about it, they must have been according to this one.

Not sure what period of time they did though, I'll keep looking.

-Vinyl-Monarch Stamped Delta # 56960X

-STYRENE-Monarch Stamped Delta # 56960X

[Kris Holmes]

from my understanding Monarch was styrene only.

how likely is it that the vinyl ones were pressed elsewhere using metal parts processed at Monarch?

yesterday I received an upgrade on a Ronettes 45 on Philles where my previous copy was styrene but this replacement is vinyl with the exact same deadwax markings.

Did other places use the delta number or is that strictly a Monarch thing? Because these Ronettes 45s don't have the MR stamp but do have the delta number.

[Ian Dewhirst]

They did both to my knowledge. I was involved in a load of re-presses in the mid 1970's and would often go down to Monarch to pick up stuff which included vinyl 7"-ers. However, I always associated Monarch with styrene pressings mainly because of the Highland, Vault, Canterbury and tons of other West Coast labels which tended to be in that format and were pressed @ Monarch. Styrene was probably cheaper.

They delivered one bunch of vinyl records to me which had to be rejected due to ridiculously bad quality, but after that they got it right. But I don't know if they sub-contracted vinyl pressings to another plant.

My Gloria Jones is a vinyl issue - the same as the one in Roger's scan.

It's a good question though. Also I'm wondering if all the Brice Coefields on Omen were Monarch pressings? I don't think I've ever seen a vinyl copy.

Ian D

[George G]

I did have some info regarding this operation told to me, both by people who did business with them in the 1960s and from more recent researchers. Ian D is pretty much on the mark here. Monarch did work with styrene and vinyl, and there was a mild cost premium for the vinyl. The main office would send work to either plant (there were two seperate plants) depending on what the customer chose. I think that Monarch may have operated one of the pressing plants and the other was under contract. All the plating and metalwork was done by the same people which is why the markings look consistent across the two materials. Ditto for the labels. A couple of people who had records pressed there in the 60s recall having to make the choice between the two materials. The difference probably wasn't a lot, but enough to tip the balance.

The 'delta' numbers were assigned by the main office per order so they were used for both materials.

- George

[Robbk]

They did use both materials in the '60s and '70s. But, to my knowledge, they used a LOT more styrene than vinyl (at least in the many thousands of Monarch-pressed 45s I've seen.

[Chalky]

Monarch did use both as said. There are Highland releases in vinyl from Monarch. Styrene stampers lasted lot longer than vinyl ones so cut down the cost.

[Rotherham Soul]

Just dug out 2 monarch vinyl pressings out

Wendy Rene Bar-B-Q Stax issue "delta" 54824

Ben Zine Villiage of Tears Parkway (West Coast Demo) "delta" 62670- Bell Sound Stamp

Both have "MR" stamp

ATB

Edited September 18, 2011 by rotherham soul

[Guest Paul]

It isn't unusual for one plant to sub-contract work to other plants for various reasons (capacity problems etc) and in most cases the positives (or duplicate positives) would be sent to the other plants who would make new stampers from them.

So in those cases the positives would usually bear stampings or inscriptions from the original cutting room and / or plating plant so it's most likely that when you see a vinyl pressing with Monarch matrix IDs it will have been pressed elsewhere. It may also have additional info stamped or inscribed.

I've seen discs pressed on vinyl at Plastic Products in Memphis, for example, but using metalwork with Monarch inscriptions.

For the avoidance of doubt, the difference between vinyl and styrene pressings isn't just the material, it's a different manufacturing process - injection moulding rather than compression pressing. Vinyl compound wasn't suitable material for injection moulding.

Styrene mouldings worked out cheaper than vinyl pressings for higher runs but the set-up costs were higher (especially in the earlier days of injection moulding when it wasn't cost-effective to do small quantities of styrene discs).

Since 1961, Monarch was owned by Cosnat (owners of Jubilee, Jay-Gee etc) and later by ElectroSound and eventually by Viewlex. Several other plating and pressing plants were in the same ownership so it's likely a lot of work was shared.

We've had other threads about styrene and I'm sure there's some info about Monarch there.