Pressing Plants


Frank Zappa/The Mothers Of Invention & singles with Frank Zappa's contribution
Verve Records · Bizarre/Reprise Records/Straight/United Artists Records · Discreet/Warner Bros. Records · Zappa Records · Barking Pumpkin Records
Cucamonga/Pal Studio · 66/67 Recordings · Bizarre/Straight · 70's Productions

Bizarre/Reprise Records/Straight/United Artists Records
· US pressing plants
· UK pressing plants
References


US pressing plants

Allied Record Co., Los Angeles, California.
1971: Frank Zappa's 200 Motels Radio Spots (two spots) (promo)
1971: Magic Fingers/Magic Fingers (version 2, matrix variation 1)
1971: Magic Fingers/Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (version 1)

Columbia Records, Pitman, New Jersey.
1971: Magic Fingers/Magic Fingers (version 1)

Columbia Records, Santa Maria, California.
1969: Uncle Meat Radio Spots (four spots) (promo)
1969: My Guitar/Dog Breath (matrix variation 1)
1969: Hot Rats Radio Spots (two spots) (promo)
1969: Hot Rats Radio Spots (four spots) (promo)
1970: WPLJ/My Guitar (matrix variation 1)
1970: WPLJ/My Guitar (mono promo)
1970: WPLJ/My Guitar (stereo promo)
1970: Weasels Ripped My Flesh Radio Spots (four spots) (promo)
1970: Chunga's Revenge Radio Spots (two spots) (promo)
1970: Tell Me You Love Me/Will You Go All The Way For The U.S.A.?
1970: Tell Me You Love Me/Will You Go All The Way For The U.S.A.? (promo)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Tears Began To Fall (Straight/Reprise Records promo)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Tears Began To Fall (Bizarre promo)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Junier Mintz Boogie (Straight/Reprise Records)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Junier Mintz Boogie (Bizarre)
1972: Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus/Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus (promo)
1972: Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus/Eat That Question

Columbia Records, Terre Haute, Indiana.
1969: My Guitar/Dog Breath (matrix variation 2)
1970: WPLJ/My Guitar (matrix variation 2)

PRC Recording Corp., Richmond, Indiana.
1971: Magic Fingers/Magic Fingers (version 2, matrix variation 2)
1971: Magic Fingers/Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (version 2)


UK pressing plants

CBS Records, Aston Clinton, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire.
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Junier Mintz Boogie (solid center)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Junier Mintz Boogie (push out center)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Junier Mintz Boogie (promo)
1971: Tears Began To Fall/Junier Mintz Boogie (test pressing)

E.M.I Records Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex.
1971: What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning/Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (solid center)
1971: What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning/Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (push out center)
1971: What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning/Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (promo)


References

From William Brown:

The Columbia plants pressed copies of Zappa's Bizarre/Straight/DiscReet era product, and into his early years with Warners' (pre-1976); such plants were in Pitman, NJ; Terre Haute, IN; and Santa Maria, CA. (Label copy typesetting came generally came from Santa Maria.)

Looking at the pressings on Bizarre, etc., I can ID pressing origins thus:
http://www.zappafrenzy.com/singles/1...og_Breath.html (matrix variation 1 pressed by Columbia Records, Santa Maria, CA, as was the copy shown; matrix variation 2 by Columbia Records, Terre Haute, IN; promo copies of this and all other singles pressed in Santa Maria; Santa Maria copies had "1A," "1B" and higher etched onto the deadwax after the matrix number; Terre Haute usually had a "-1" or "-2" or higher suffix)
http://www.zappafrenzy.com/singles/1...My_Guitar.html (label pics from Santa Maria pressing, deadwax info from Terre Haute pressing)
http://www.zappafrenzy.com/singles/1...c_Fingers.html (pressing by Columbia Records, Pitman, NJ)
http://www.zappafrenzy.com/singles/1...ddy,Daddy.html (Version 1 with K-xxx in deadwax by Allied Record Corp., Los Angeles, CA; Version 2 with PR probably from PRC Recording Corp., Richmond, IN

Santa Maria pressings were usually vinyl, on top of there being hand-etched "S's" of varying thickness within the dead wax (I have some copies pressed by plant which either put on "SSSSSS" or "SI," "SII," etc.); plus labels (of 3.625" diameter) pressed onto the records. (Certainly, by the time Zappa first set up business with Bizarre/Reprise, all Santa Maria-pressed 45's were vinyl, with the characteristics I just mentioned.) The other two plants - Pitman and Terre Haute - pressed in styrene, with the labels (of 3.5" diameter) glued on.

The "T" or "TII" etc. does indeed signify Terre Haute; each I represented the stamper number (meaning this would have been the second stamper used).

Meanwhile, a small stamped "P" to the right of machine-stamped lacquer numbers does indeed indicate Pitman, NJ; such pressings have small stamped numbers ("1," "2," "3" etc.) at 6 o'clock, indicating the stamper number. They are to Pitman what the "TII" was to Terre Haute and "SSS" would have been to Santa Maria. The "P's" often were faint, and did tend to look like a half-circle at times, sometimes with a vertical line below the half-circle.

Pitman and Terre Haute pressings were the ones that, for the most part, had machine stamped lacquer numbers on the deadwax (i.e. RCA3843-S-1C); this signified lacquers cut at Columbia Recording Studios in New York, and for the most part, such lacquers also had fast-moving (approx. 2 lpi) lead-out grooves, per SOP of Columbia lacquer mastering. As I saw on, say, "I'm the Slime." Santa Maria pressings used lacquers from whatever studio Mr. Zappa used at a given moment to cut his records.


From Robert Lyons (Seventies Sevens)

There were not many pressing plants here in the 1970s. The Verve singles, VS-545 and VS-557 would have been pressed at the EMI Records plant in Hayes, Middlesex, as would 'What Will This Evening Bring' (UP-35319) and the two Grand Funk singles, INT-523 and INT-528. 'Tears Began To Fall' (K-14100), 'Cosmik Debris' (K-19201), 'Yellow Snow' (K-19202), 'Dancin' Fool' (CBS-7261) and 'Joe's Garage' (CBS-7950) would all have been pressed at the CBS Records plant at Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.