Thanks Apollo...

[mossboss]

Yeah Right Pigs fly as well If you look outside and up in the air you will be able to see them with little curly tails and pink snouts Cheers

[fraggle]

hehe

[piaptk]

Everytime you make a reference to pigs flying I want to quote it and make
It my signature. This one is especially good. Your writing is the literary equivalent of free jazz. I think you could really run with the flying pig motif and make a whole "thing" out of it. Really good stuff! Edit: just to clarify, since the Internet hath no tone, I am being sincere. I'm not just taking a piss as they say. I know we have our moments, you and i, but You really do crack me up sometimes... Please don't interpret this in any way other than what it is intended. With a big grin and a drunken guffaw!

[flozki]

Hmm a laquer production line in europe.still a dream
2nd source is needed in all industries..
So maybee we should invite for a roundtable for interesed parties...

What about a conspirative but creative weekend in the swiss mountains?

I was hoping market will organize itself.if i just look back how many pressing plants started frm nothing and are quite sucessfully..so producing laquers cant be more complicate...
If you have any idea of machinery...let us know...
Still not too much time..but can get top analysis for comparing formulas..
We may need a big kick in the a...

Or is apollo on stock market? I prefer buying neumann gear instead of shares..but maybe gc will sell.haha.apollo owned by its customers.
Any direct number to GC ceo?

[emidisc]

surely the re sharpening steel styli could be done easily with a simple setup, obviously the sharpening of steel would be required at shorter intervals of time but a fixture similar to the ones available for sharpening drill bits
ie. the styli is first mounted in a holder item A. then the holder is inserted into a second fixture item B that contains the sharpening element.
then by reinserting item A into different holes on the fixture you change the surface that is polished......easy! [/b]

[bancho]

emidisc... of course!
but I think re-inventig the lacquer formula just isn't the same as re-sharpening steel styli

[mossboss]

Back in the days of real bootlegs when stuff was put out on vinyl that was just not available anywhere The days when bootleggers where "heroes" to certain people there was a Trade Mark of Quality bootleg range of records that depicted a pig smoking a cigar sunnie's a hat etc
This pig was made famous by a cover art artist by the name of Stout who depicted famous musicians and artist in the disguise of this pig
Not to be outdone the Germans copied the pig motto in another bootleg pirate outfit that called themselves swinging pig and another US based bootlegger used a similar Pig motto on his booties with a slight twist on the theme Cant remember exact now
There was a real funny sketch of the pig replacing HMV's famous dog looking in the horn of the phonograph in one instance
In another instance the pig was puking in the horn quite funny indeed taking the piss out of the majors
So pigs and records have a long association, it was and it is still common to say "Pigs ass" when not believing or refusing to accept a statement or an action on something this statement has always been a factor with anything related in the record game Mike, Slight??? off topic but here we are
Cheers

[piaptk]

I had a trademark of quality bootleg once. I don't remember it being particularly quality, though.

Has anyone put together a bootleg paper label site? I've got a csny bootleg that has a stop sign shaped label, and had a Beatles bootleg that said "Great Groups of the 70s and the bside said Another Great Group. Be interesting to read something on the various bootleg companies.

[fraggle]

@ emidisc to sharpen a stylus is not easy believe me!

[mossboss]

It is not that hard either Boris
And by the way why do you take the Adamant specifications verbatim or assume that you do get a 0.0001 or such accuracy on the finished product? Have you or any one else measured them with an optical projector or such device?
Hey a cutter of 12 years was installing the styli on his SX 74 for a VMS aligning them with the aluminium shank!!!!
When I quizzed him about it he was quite adamant that it was the way
Now you are talking about one thou and this guy cut about 3000 or 4000 sides with anything up to 30-40 thou off and he is a well respected and supported cutter still in the game today with lost of kudos attributed to his cuts
Any way how many lathes remain within the specification required so as to take advantage of these very "accurate" styli?
Do you think that this is missed by the makers of those things? Pigs ass
Cheers

[d]

hey

everything is possible. nothing extraterrestrial. Humans created lathes and stylus. You just need some equipment which is expensive and of course some knowledge and working skills and you are good to go.

There are too few specialists and manufacturers of record cutting equipment and accessories. Thats why the prices are high ... Of course there is a need of competition in the market because they can rise the prices every year or so.
So if there will be a bigger demand in these products then there will be a competitor in the market

best wishes to all!

[jjgolden]

Wow, Just realized that Pyral owns RMG International (tape manufacturer).
Maybe with enough votes we can get them to start up a production line on the Pyral lacquer blanks again.

http://www.pyral.fr/englishversion/news.html

JJG

[Aussie0zborn]

Wow, Just realized that Pyral owns RMG International (tape manufacturer).
Maybe with enough votes we can get them to start up a production line on the Pyral lacquer blanks again.
http://www.pyral.fr/englishversion/news.html

Already tried. The official reply was that they do not have the lacquer formulations or any information on the company's old products.

I visted Transco back in the day and got the plant tour. It was a small operation compred to the pics you see of the former Capitol Apollo plant or the current GC Apollo plant. The whole essence of the business was taking the lacquer out of the 44-gallon drum that was custom made for them and coating aluminium discs which were also custom made for them. The cutting lathe for test cuts was an old Neuamnn with a Grampian mono head and no amp rack - simply to cut unmodulated grooves. Reject lacquers were tossed in a pot of boiling water for the lacquer to peel off and the aluminium disc was re-coated.

I'm sure there was more to it but the factory was quite small.

[Aussie0zborn]

I had a trademark of quality bootleg once....... Be interesting to read something on the various bootleg companies.

There is a blog here : http://theamazingkornyfonelabel.wordpress.com/

Read the story as Ken, co-founder of Trademark Of Quality and founder of The Amazaing Kornyfone Record Label, remembers it : http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=23532

Bear in mind that there were two TMOQ labels operating after the two co-founders split. Dub retained the original TMOQ with the farm pig logo and Ken used the TMOQ smokin' pig logo. Ken's TMOQ label was pressed from Dub's original TMOQ stampers at the same plant before he went on to establish TAKRL and produce his own titles.

Back to the topic.....

[jjgolden]

Ah, thanks for the info.

[mossboss]

And by the way the Chinese guy who owned the pressing plant who was a drunk and wanted cash cash and more cash all the time so he can buy grog, would press for both of them from whichever stamper was available to him, regardless which of the two gave the stampers to him, he knew they where both crooks and he did not give a continental
It was unlikely that any of these two guys would go to the authorities and where else would thy go?..
In for a penny in for a dollar, did they really cared past making a killing while the going was good all of them?
The pressing guy knew the rules.
Put simply there is no honesty amongst thieves
So respectfully if one wants to differentiate of who what when where amongst these bootleggers as well as a drunk pressing plant operator it is a rather difficult task Under these circumstances
And has anything changed in the pirating bootlegging scene? Not much at all
It is just a little more discreet with the emphasis on obscure or hard to get re cords being counterfeit or popular records in the few thousand so again pirates jump on board
Here is a good one as well
A guy sends me an email asking me about his pressing plant eating up supplied labels more than what was used for his pressed records
He than tells me that he finds his records getting sold in places he never supplied, so he asks my take on it
By the way upon query he also tells me that this plant is the cheapest he has ever found by far. He hey great
How hard is it to work out than?
They press his order plus 50-100 odd for them which they sell at full eBay prices as well as a few outlets far apart via they little network
Every one is happy!!!!!
Cheers

[powerstrip]

I think if they are raising their prices, it is all in due survival of the company. They are making profits, i'm sure, but it's not verizon wireless we are talking about here. They are in very small demand and if the prices rise, I'm sure it's essential to keep the market going.

Please don't give them a hard time. I am grateful for their service as always. They would not stick it to us just to get more cash in their pockets, im sure it is an essential increase.

I just ordered a box of the new dubs as well as a stylus. I don't even ask what the price is. I just pay it and understand that is the cost.

Helium is getting expensive too if you didn't notice !

[opcode66]

They've raised their prices before. They will again in the future. It represents their increased costs of doing business, mostly from increased raw material costs I would imagine. It is unavoidable and we all know this. Most things have gone up in price over the past 10 years.

Helium is not only expensive, it is hard to even purchase. Airgas likes me for some reason, so they keep servicing me. I'll thank my lucky stars for that.

[concretecowboy71]

Not sure why people keep posting to this thread.

It is almost 2 years old!

[piaptk]

Well, it is an ongoing concern, BUT, Kris D found a 1950s audiodisc price guide and, just for giggles, applied the prices to an inflation calculator, and all of the prices came out less than a dollar above or below.

Ive toured Apollo a couple times and talked to them at length. They make almost no profit on styli, only manufacture them to keep the lacquer business's going. And that is no easy business. The lacquers are manufactured in a clean room and ride around the entire warehouse on a hermetically sealed conveyor belt twice to dry.

Lacquers are expensive, and it sucks. But so is the equipment to make them, the chemists to mix to the lacquer, the aluminum, etc etc.

If somebody complained about the $300 you charge them to master the record, you would say the same thing as Apollo would. Everybody does specialized jobs and tKes a well deserved markup for their labor and expertise.