Now call me stupid, but why in most case's is styreen presses more 'valuable' than Vinyl presses its one thats always bugged me, Rarity? surley the collector would much prefer the vinyl press as they last longer and you have less trouble with them, hence the vinyl more disirable. I know a few west cost collectors, i might be wrong here but quite a few west cost are styreen right??

Example

Sam & Kitty i've got something good Four brothers (going by JM's book)

DJ £100

DJ vinyl £75

DJ styreen £150

Styreen £100

Now i know what one out of that lot i would rather have or is it a case of oh look i have it on the DJ styreen much rarer

i might be stupid here but i never notice any different with records when brought so anyone know what it is with this styreen. I know of accetes etc but is styreen something pressed different to vinyl. All i seem to do is just buy a record when i see it

Hi paul,

Pull a few records out of your box. Any with a 'stuck on label' i.e. one you could peel off with your fingernail, is styrene. Vinyl labels are moulded on. Vinyl labels are placed in the mould when the hot wax is pressed between the two halves, styrene stuck on afterwards. Styrene is brittle, cracks easily, dont try to flex 'em!! Vinyl will flex. Know you know all there is to know, basicaly!!

Edited June 9, 200618 yr by Trevski

  Trevski said:

Hi paul,

Pull a few records out of your box. Any with a 'stuck on label' i.e. one you could peel off with your fingernail, is styrene. Vinyl labels are moulded on. Vinyl labels are placed in the mould when the hot wax is pressed between the two halves, styrene stuck on afterwards. Styrene is brittle, cracks easily, dont try to flex 'em!! Vinyl will flex. Know you know all there is to know, basicaly!!

Are all Vinyl labels moulded, thought you got a few that were stuck on too?

I find the easyest way is to run your fingers over the run in, the styrene usually expands out and the edge is usually bigger than vinyl which usually beviels to more of a 'point'

  Baz said:

Now call me stupid, but why in most case's is styreen presses more 'valuable' than Vinyl presses its one thats always bugged me, Rarity? surley the collector would much prefer the vinyl press as they last longer and you have less trouble with them, hence the vinyl more disirable. I know a few west cost collectors, i might be wrong here but quite a few west cost are styreen right??

Example

Sam & Kitty i've got something good Four brothers (going by JM's book)

DJ £100

DJ vinyl £75

DJ styreen £150

Styreen £100

Now i know what one out of that lot i would rather have or is it a case of oh look i have it on the DJ styreen much rarer

They aren't more expensive just because they are styrene, there's usually a reason! With the Sam & Kitty, it's a Chicago recording so logically they are likely to sell more copies on the East Coast, served by vinyl pressings. They would have probably done a limited run of styrene pressings at Monarch over on the West Coast. The Sam & Kitty West Coast demo is nice looking though

  Baz said:

Are all Vinyl labels moulded, thought you got a few that were stuck on too?

I find the easyest way is to run your fingers over the run in, the styrene usually expands out and the edge is usually bigger than vinyl which usually beviels to more of a 'point'

Never seen a 'stuck on' vinyl label. Syrene always stuck on, or painted on.

Even without looking at the labels, once you know, you can tell at a glace, really.

Edited June 9, 200618 yr by Trevski

  Pete-S said:

They aren't more expensive just because they are styrene, there's usually a reason! With the Sam & Kitty, it's a Chicago recording so logically they are likely to sell more copies on the East Coast, served by vinyl pressings. They would have probably done a limited run of styrene pressings at Monarch over on the West Coast. The Sam & Kitty West Coast demo is nice looking though

Didn't mean it like that Pete proberly explained it wrong on my behalf, for it to be only say £50 differnce between the two of the sam and kitty, there cant be that many less copys of the styrene than the vinyl can there we all know rarity dont often constitute price, what i was more getting at, IMO i would have thought the vinyl would be more disireable due to the better 'qualitys' you get from it, hence bringing the price of the vinyl up more, if you see where im coming from

  Baz said:

Didn't mean it like that Pete proberly explained it wrong on my behalf, for it to be only say £50 differnce between the two of the sam and kitty, there cant be that many less copys of the styrene than the vinyl can there we all know rarity dont often constitute price, what i was more getting at, IMO i would have thought the vinyl would be more disireable due to the better 'qualitys' you get from it, hence bringing the price of the vinyl up more, if you see where im coming from

The one in the photo - which is the one I'm selling on ebay - is the only one I've ever seen!

Styrene cue-burn gets right on my wick - that lovely 3 second "SSSSSSsssssssshhhhhHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRR" you get once it's been back-cued for DJing ONCE...

  cover-up said:

Styrene cue-burn gets right on my wick - that lovely 3 second "SSSSSSsssssssshhhhhHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRR" you get once it's been back-cued for DJing ONCE...

Know the feeling. I ruined a £400 styrene record in the very same way.

  cover-up said:

Styrene cue-burn gets right on my wick - that lovely 3 second "SSSSSSsssssssshhhhhHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRR" you get once it's been back-cued for DJing ONCE...

  Gene-R said:

Know the feeling. I ruined a £400 styrene record in the very same way.

simple answer is don't wind and rewind when cueing the records, just put the needle on and play.

  chalky said:

simple answer is don't wind and rewind when cueing the records, just put the needle on and play.

Thanks Chalky - DOH! Why didn't I think of that myself???

  chalky said:

simple answer is don't wind and rewind when cueing the records, just put the needle on and play.

I never backwind records,like chalky said just put the needle on the record if thers a slight delay..thats what the mics for,i bought a September Jones with a 2sec 'backwind' hiss dont do it folks,save your styrene from the dredded hisssssss.

sep jones on canadian is vinyl which sort of ties in

any other vinyl canadians only?

Styrene (properly, Polystyrene).

Hard, relatively inflexible plastic used to press records, mainly 7-inch

singles, mainly using the Injection Moulding process. The material is heated

to a liquid form and is then squirted or injected into the closed stampers

in the press. This requires that the labels be either glued or painted on

after the record leaves the press. The cost savings to the manufacturer

comes from the extended life of the stampers because of the lack of a

heating cycle to the stampers. The material can also be reused without

noticeable change to its moulding properties. Styrene records will therefore

usually have very quiet surfaces when found in an UNPLAYED Mint condition,

but unfortunately they will wear to a noisy condition rapidly, especially if

played with a bad stylus or an improperly tracking tone arm. They also are

more prone to Cue Burn. The Columbia Records Pittman, New Jersey pressing

plant was once the major source of Injection Moulded Styrene pressings, and

pressings from this plant are found on MANY small labels. Look for the

glued-on labels. Painted-on labels can be found on records from the

Amy/Bell/Mala group.

Vinyl (properly Polyvinyl Chloride).

Relatively flexible material used since the early 1930s to make

non-breakable records. Its fumes are an acknowledged carcinogen, so don't

breathe in deeply when you have your next holy burning of Beatles or

back-masked devil-worship records. :-) Usually pressed by Compression

Moulding which allows the label to be an integral part of the pressing

itself. This process also requires that there be extra material which spills

out the sides of the press, therefore this extra material is routinely

ground up and re-used. Because vinyl does not re-heat and re-cool to a

smooth, glossy surface, the excessive use of re-grind mixed in with Virgin

Vinyl can account for the inherently noisy surface of even unplayed Mint

examples of the cheap pressings that some record companies used. Noise can

be seen AND HEARD by looking at and/or playing the un-grooved surface of the

lead-in and lead-out areas. If this area looks or sounds grainy, then the

grooves will also have some of this grainy background sound. The stampers

used for the compression moulding process will start to break down after

only 1,000 pressings because they are forced to expand and contract when

heated by steam at the start of the pressing cycle and then cooled to

solidify the record. Some companies routinely overused their stampers for

their pop record series.

I may be wrong but I should imagine some venues will compensate bounce caused by vibration from the floor by increasing the weight on the tone arm maybe even the headshell! anything over 2 grams is going to wear your styrene very quickly especially so when back cuing, be gentle with your styrene , on a personal note I always thought styrene in good nick has a cleaner sound than vinyl

Derek

on a personal note I always thought styrene in good nick has a cleaner sound than vinyl

Derek

Edited June 15, 200618 yr by Russ Vickers