Dinosaur Jr 'Bug' Test Press (or 'How To Fix A Warped Record')

I think this may be the first post that I have made that is actually going to be USEFUL to people. You'll understand why I say that shortly. But this is also a story of ups and downs, of excitement, disappointment, happiness and sadness. Please bear with me. Here goes...

It all started about three weeks ago with an email from my friend Nick Mango. Nick runs Limited Pressing and is an all round stand up dude. We've exchanged a few emails on the subject of eBay theory over the last few months, and generally I would say that he is more on the ball than me. He finds great stuff, gets great bargains, and often emails me links to auctions that he knows I'll be interested in. Which is what happened here. I woke up one day to find an email with a link to a test press of the Dinosaur Jr album 'Bug'. Now, Chuck Dukowski sold a green vinyl copy of this record on eBay a couple of months ago, and it went for over $200. Obviously that went for a bit more because of the person selling it, but still, this kinda price suggests that a test press would go for pretty big money. Yet when I clicked the link to the auction, I was pleasantly surprised - there was less than a day to go, and the record was sitting at only £12!

Now a quick pause to throw down some eBay theory. Generally, I have found the following to be true:

1. Most things listed on eBay UK seem to go for less than they would on eBay.com, except perhaps for older, classic hardcore records, which can still go for big money (presumably to Euro kids).

2. Not many record collectors outside of the world of hardcore actually care about test pressings.

So, with this in mind, it perhaps wasn't so shocking that this record was sitting at an affordable price with a day to go. Still, I was very surprised by how much of a bargain this would turn out to be. It ended at a paltry £12.64 (which, if you're in the States, is $19.51 at today's price). Which is a good deal, right?

Oh yeah, there's one thing I forgot to mention. The auction stated that the the record was warped:

If you can't be bothered to click the picture and read the description, here's the only bit that's relevant:

THERE IS A NOTICEABLE WARP THAT ALTHOUGH VISIBLE DOES NOT AFFECT THE SOUND AT ALL

I'm guessing that this may have also affected the price and influenced the lack of bids. But it didn't bother me, because it said that the warp would not affect play, and because the end price was pretty low. So at this point, I was over the moon. So I paid £12.64 (did I forget to mention that postage was free!) and a couple of days later it turned up.

It was at this point, however, that things started to go a bit wrong...

Sometimes when I get tests I will take a photo of the test with the regular sleeve. I don't know why I do this. It just seems the thing to do. So I did it with this one...

... and whilst I had both records in front of me, I decided to compare the matrix on the test with the matrix on the regular version. And guess what? Yup, they were not the same. This can only mean one thing - that the test press is not a test press of the record I have. Which also means it is not what I thought it was when I bid on it. The matrix is pretty much the same, except the matrix on the test press actually has an extra bit that the regular version does not. The auction stated that this is a test of the US pressing of the LP on SST Records. And yes, the matrix does say 'SST 216'. However, on the opposite side of the record, it also says 'BFFP 31'. This was enough to make me suspect that this was NOT the US pressing as the auction claimed. So I looked it up on the nerd. What I found (HERE) is that BFFP 31 is the catalog number of the UK pressing of this record, on a label called Blast First. I suddenly felt disappointed. I wanted a genuine, original US version of this, not some licensed UK crap. Damnit.

Then the situation got even worse. I decided to play the thing. Or rather, I tried to play it. Unfortunately though, playing it was impossible, because the warp was so bad that it kicked the needed off every time I tried to put it down. I even made a ten second video of it so you could see just how bad it was:

Kinda makes a mockery of the claim made in the auction huh? Warp does not affect the sound? Yeah, right.

At this point, I was more than disappointed. I was pissed off. But I sat there & thought about it & decided that I had a choice. I could email the seller and ask for a refund, or I could try to repair the warp. Obviously this wouldn't change the fact that this was a crappy UK test press rather than an SST version. But it might at least leave me with a record that I could actually play. Having never tried to fix a warped record before, I looked for tips on the nerd of what to do, and since it sounded pretty straight forward I thought I would give it a try...

HOW TO FIX A WARPED RECORD

As you probably know, warping is caused by heat. Essentially, it occurs when the record is exposed to heat so that the vinyl softens, and depending on where it is & how it is stored, it may then bend out of shape (warp). So naturally the way to fix it involves heating it up until it softens a little, then flattening it. Here's the method I used...

Step 1 - Take the record out of its sleeve and sandwich it between two pieces of glass. I'm not sure where the average dude is supposed to find two pieces of glass, but luckily for me I have a few LP sized picture frames knocking about, so I took the glass out of two of those.

Step 2 - heat an oven to a (relatively) low temperature (circa 100-120 degrees Celsius), and put the sandwich in to bake:

Step 3 - add a little weight to the top, to ensure that the thing stays flat, and leave it in the oven for about ten minutes.

Step 4 - remove the sandwich from the oven & place it to cool. Add more weight to the top to ensure it is well and truly flattened!

It should then be left for long enough to cool. I left this one for a couple of hours to be safe.

So, did it work? Well, yes... and no. On the positive side, the record came out flat as a pancake. I gotta say, I was pretty chuffed with the result. I have never tried to fix a warped record before, and my first attempt went pretty well. However, as soon as I put the thing on the turntable, I was again filled with disappointment. Why? Well, because the first song skips! Not only that, but it skips badly. It is unplayable. That's only the first song though. The rest of it is ok. But to make things even worse, it's exactly the same story on side 2. The first track skips, but the rest of the record plays fine. Here's another short video so you can see (and hear) the result:

Obviously I have no way of knowing whether I caused the thing to skip by placing the record in the oven, or whether it was already fucked. I'm guessing it was already scratched, because the warping suggests that the previous owner didn't exactly look after it properly. But I will never know. Overall I'm disappointed that what looked like a great bargain turned into such a disaster. But at least it was only £12.64 I spent on this thing. And hey, looking on the bright side, when else would I have got the opportunity to put a record in the oven?