Bert Jansch Self-titled Vintage 1966 UK 2nd Pressing Transatlantic TRA 125

$

51

• Bert Jansch.
• First Record (self-titled).
• Transatlantic TRA 125.
• 1966 2nd Edition UK Pressing.
• Miss-printed Track Listings On Jacket.
• Clarifoil Laminated Jacket Front.
• Bert Jansch is regarded by several critics as "the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar.".

Item Details
Manufactured in: United Kingdom
Recorded: By Bill Leader at his home on a reel-to-reel (tape sold to Transatlantic)
Original Issue: 1965
This Issue: Believed to be 1966 (see list of identifiers below)
Label: Transatlantic TRA 125
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
Side 1: (stamp) TRA · 125 · A  : ?? :
Side 2: (stamp) TRA · 125 · B  : A11
My evidence for this being a 1966 pressing are the following: 1)It has the textured purple "t-globe" style label with 3 Concentric rings, blank space on the left side of the "t" with "Side One" text to the immediate left of "1." This style of label was introduced in the mid-1960's, 2)The laminate flip-back is only along the spine edge on the backside, 3)On the back of the jacket in the lower right corner is "Printed in England by Robert Stace."
Was bought used by this seller many years ago and now offered from his private collection. Has had just a few plays only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I neutralize residual static charge with a Zerostat immediately after cleaning. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.

Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with NOS Soviet Voskhod matched tubes (see last photo).

Track list
For track listings, please see my attached record label photographs.

I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
Grading Details
Note: Grading LPs by text characters is subjective and at best are only a guide as no two used records are of exactly the same quality. Please, refer to both my photo evidence and detailed descriptions to judge by YOUR OWN grading standards. Questions are always welcome. eBay no longer allows me to enter separate grades for each side of the sleeve or record so you may not see any in the box above but are listed below. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are graded and described in detail separately for your complete assessment.

Outer Jacket Inspection/grading:
VG++/VG+
On the front face my extra "+" is mostly due to the very high gloss retention of the laminate (you can see the reflection of my hands and cellphone in the photo). There is a curved "hill" from the vinyl's raised edge but it does not have much broken gloss there at all. There is a very reflective and glossy surface over the whole face which makes Bert's photograph just pop out at you. That transparency of the laminate is impressive to see holding it in your hands. Only if I held and tilted under very bright light could I see any of those extremely fine handling "swirls." What keeps this side from getting any closer to NM territory are multiple places the laminate has separated from the card stock (thinner than normal) forming stress creases. The most noticeable of these are at the top left and right corners, the bottom right corner, and about the middle of the right edge. My photo makes most of these plain to see. This kind of de-lamination is very common on very old thinner UK jackets. There are some short creases along the top edge that are not de-laminated and about 4 more minor ones along the spine edge. Front face colors are brilliant. The rear face lacks the creasing of the front side but does have some ring discoloration plainly visible in my photo. Note: the track listing has misprints in that some track names do not match the same ones on the label (A6, B3,B5). These errors could make this a "collector's edition" as I have selected.

Vinyl visual inspection/grading:
VG+/VG++
Side 1 had a noticeable number of the typical nanometer-width rainbow reflective "swirl" hairlines usually caused from paper sleeve rubbing. I didn't see anything that looked at like a "scratch" but there were two adjacent slightly thicker surface trails passing through T1 and just stopping at T2. I made a note to play T1 100% during play test to see if those marks affected the audio in any way. Side 2 had noticeably less of the surface sleeveing swirl hairlines but it did have some small grayish "mottling spots" scattered randomly around the top surface. I'm guessing these are from static contact with the paper sleeve affecting only the surface.

Play Testing:
VG+/VG++
Extensive play testing was performed after visual inspection (continuous written notes were taken). I listened to the beginning, middle, and end of each track for a few minutes on each needle drop. When the track width was noticeably greater I took more play samples to get good coverage. I also listened to all lead-in, lead-out and transition grooves between each track. Some tracks were played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 96k/24-bit WAV files. This allowed me to go back and re-check some of my notes on digital playback in ProTools. Here is rundown of each side from those notes.

Side 1 Play
T1 gave me a good estimate for the overall pressing quality. During the quietest parts of the song on my sensitive headphones I was able to occasionally detect what i would describe as "micro-ticks" (mostly high frequency spectral density, low in volume, non-distracting). T2 was played 100% per my visual check notes. I did hear some light to moderate ticks as the instrumental ramped up in volume, a couple of them repeating 2-3 times, but only occurred within the first 1/3rd of the track. So, this does correlate with the visual check. This track has some really aggressive fingerpicking energy! T3 featured very strong and clear vocal/guitar. Cut nice and hot, there was no apparent vinyl noise except for a few very light repeating ticks in the background during the last 4th of it. T4 was gently touching and this had some of those "micro-ticks" I described above but they took nothing away from my enjoyment of the performance. T5 is a very short instrumental based on a "raver's club." Very nice picking! T6 was one of my favorite tracks. It was one of the songs he often performed live. Had a bit quieter vinyl too. T8 is my top track of the side. Its one of his all-time best and is very emotionally moving. Vinyl noise was gratefully low on this gentle song. Note though, that being on the innermost grooves which are compromised for high frequency performance there are touches of sibilance smearing here and there.

Side 2 Play
T1 is a great song crafted by Bert. The volume level of his voice is very robust and that kept any of those occasional "micro-ticks" farther below the music. T2 is one of this side's best. It has a very bold solo guitar opening and stays very clean until the final grooves where I did hear a few light ticks. T4 is a slow, gentle blues that has very clear-sounding audio performance and was noticeably quieter than average, as was the transition grooves into T5. T5 is another best-of-album instrumental. Was cut really hot, but without any distortion keeping any possible vinyl noise well below the signal. Superb track! T6 was an "intimate" style vocal that was very clear and cut at higher volume. Just a couple of noticeable ticks in the last 1/3rd. OK, T7 is the real prize of the album. Bert's awesome take on Davy Graham's iconic "Angie" (sometimes spelled "Anji"). Paul Simon did a decent cover of the song but Bert blows away that one and all others. I give this track on this pressing top honors over any other Jansch sampler re-press I have owned. Best of album and worth getting all by itself. My impression of this side is that it was overall bit cleaner audio and quieter vinyl than Side 1 so I added an extra "+."

While certainly not NM in play quality, this collectable vintage 66 year-old still plays well enough to enjoy and appreciate Bert's debut UK pressing. I think it deserves to be in any serious collection of his music. I hope someone else will enjoy owning it for a long time.

Packaging

• Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
• Original inner sleeve is included separately.
• Record has been placed into a new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeve, as the original is paper, probably holding onto some dust, but also potentially abrasive. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean during shipping and ultimate buyer usage.
• Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
• Sent in high quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners and all corners double-taped.

Shipping

• Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
• A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP).
• If you do buy more than one LP on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined invoice.eBay does give you the option to "Request an invoice from the buyer," but this option is not available on the eBay mobile app. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.