Styrene West Coast; Vinyl East Coast??

[Ady Croasdell]

In a recent article about his new book Stuart Cosgrove reckoned that this was the general trend. I've not found it that way, i think it's a pretty even split. What do collectors on here think?

[Garethx]

Plenty of Styrene plants on the east coast and the middle of the country: Allentown (ARC) who pressed for London Records in Pennsylvania, Shelley in New York (Shrine and lots of indies plus the Roulette-distributed custom labels), Columbia's Pitman, New Jersey plant (the biggest record pressing plant in the world for a decade), Bestway (the inventors of the Styrene 45!). In the midwest the various Mercury/Philips plants produced what has to be the worst styrene of the lot.

The west coast had many vinyl plants: Alco, Allied, Waddell in Burbank (the MGM west coast operation) etc.

[Ady Croasdell]

2 hours ago, garethx said:

Plenty of Styrene plants on the east coast and the middle of the country: Allentown (ARC) who pressed for London Records in Pennsylvania, Shelley in New York (Shrine and lots of indies plus the Roulette-distributed custom labels), Columbia's Pitman, New Jersey plant (the biggest record pressing plant in the world for a decade), Bestway (the inventors of the Styrene 45!). In the midwest the various Mercury/Philips plants produced what has to be the worst styrene of the lot.

The west coast had many vinyl plants: Alco, Allied, Waddell in Burbank (the MGM west coast operation) etc.

Thanks, I think the West Coast being mainly styrene theory has had its day

[Robbk]

That erronious idea came from the fact that Monarch pressed such a high % of The West's records.  But, as listed above, The East had a large amount of styrene records pressed.  And, Monarch also pressed some records onto vinyl.

[Chalky]

Monarch also used vinyl at times. 

[Chris L]

Aah..........................Monarch now that's a company I'd love an employee to tell me all about it..................bet they have  few tales to tell.

[Henning V Herzen]

Are there any LPs pressed on styrene?

[Sjclement]

11 minutes ago, Henning Börm said:

Are there any LPs pressed on styrene?

Now that's a cracking idea

[Garethx]

Yes. There are styrene albums, which Monarch experimented with briefly.

[Robbk]

1 hour ago, Chris L said:

Aah..........................Monarch now that's a company I'd love an employee to tell me all about it..................bet they have  few tales to tell.

About Simon Soussan and his boot jobs?

[Guest]

7 hours ago, garethx said:

 In the midwest the various Mercury/Philips plants produced what has to be the worst styrene of the lot.

 

I agree with this.  Some Philips and Blue Rock styrene records i dare not play very often, as they can wear out very quickly. 

Monarch styrene is usually good.  A mint Monarch styrene record has great fidelity.  Hardly any background noise compared to a lot of vinyl records.

[George G]

Most of the Mercury family pressings were done by Richmond Plastics (I think that's the name) in Richmond, Indiana. The same place also did custom jobs, the Vondells on Airtown would be one of them, a record that has the same problems as Mercury related records like Kenny Carlton on Blue Rock. The Richmond plant, together with the CBS/Columbia pressing plant in Terre Haute on the other side of the state means Indiana was the Styrene State of record pressings - balanced out by the huge vinyl pressing plant for RCA in Indianapolis.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, George G said:

Most of the Mercury family pressings were done by Richmond Plastics (I think that's the name) in Richmond, Indiana. The same place also did custom jobs, the Vondells on Airtown would be one of them, a record that has the same problems as Mercury related records like Kenny Carlton on Blue Rock. The Richmond plant, together with the CBS/Columbia pressing plant in Terre Haute on the other side of the state means Indiana was the Styrene State of record pressings - balanced out by the huge vinyl pressing plant for RCA in Indianapolis.

Good info.  Unlike Mercury, I have always found the Columbia styrene (ZTSC) from Terre Haute pressing plant, very good quality.  Just as good as Monarch.

Am I right in thinking the RCA vinyl records from the Indianapolis plant have an I stamped in the run out groove, as opposed to the R or H from the other RCA plants?

Edited April 19, 2016 by Guest

[Kris Holmes]

yeah total myth east coast & west coast were both heavy styrene for a minute there 

[George G]

5 hours ago, solidsoul said:

 

Am I right in thinking the RCA vinyl records from the Indianapolis plant have an I stamped in the run out groove, as opposed to the R or H from the other RCA plants?

Yes, I for Indianapolis, H for Hollywood, R for Rockaway, NJ. So RCA was pressing vinyl on both coasts and middle America.