Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland Rare 1st Press on Track

	£		303
	$		401

Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix's masterpiece work 

Original UK 1st Pressing 'blue text' Nude Ladies Cover

This is an original UK 1st pressing of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Electric Ladyland" and can be distinguished by the blue tinged text on the inside cover and the larger than later pressing pictures of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Reading.

Cover condition is excellent as can be seen by the photos and shows very little wear with laminate still intact throughout and the spine is in very good condition with the picture still very clear. Note that the Ladies "naughty bits" have been deliberately blurred for this listing".

Published on the Track Label it has the inverted matrix numbers on the labels with side A/D and Side B/C configuration - eg Sides 1 & 4 On the first disc and Sides 2 and 3  on the second.

Codes are

Track 613008/9

Side A - 61300**8 A//1 12

Side D - 61300*8 B//1 12

Side B - 61300*9 A//1 1

Side C - 613009 ******B A//1 12

This has been in my possession for over twenty years having been purchased from a record collector shop in Reading (Who wrote on one of the white dust covers that it was mint) ,  however it has to my recollection only been played once in that time to transfer to cassette for use in the car before a CD edition replaced that. 

I no longer own a turntable other than a cheap MP3 transfer deck which I am loathe to play this on, so I am unable to grade this as a dealer would, but visually I can see no scratches anywhere on the vinyl I would say its in A1 condition on that basis but a collector may rate this higher. Certainly there is no sign of any dust, or scratches anywhere on the vinyl.

International postage rates will be dependant upon country of destination - Please contact Seller.

On 11-Jun-10 at 10:08:12 BST, seller added the following information:

+++Update++++

I have had some questions on the quality of the vinyl, so I have done some research and with some help of a friend have played the records through headphones in an attempt to grade them based on the standard gradings detailed on the net.
As I have mentioned, visual the vinyl shows no sign of hairline scratches and on that basis I would grade all of the sides as excellent. However playing the record I can hear light background noise on the run in but to be honest it sounds no different to me than the noise I recall hearing on brand new vinyl but it's been many years now since I heard new vinyl but then I remembered a recent Ian Gillan CD I bought (One Eye to Morocco) which came with a 45rpm disk that I had never played so I have used that as a comparison and to be honest I can hear similar levels of background noise on that.
So on that basis I am going to go out on a limb and say that all four sides of this 42 year album should be graded somewhere between VG+ and Excellent but with the added comment again that I am not an expert on vinyl records - I always bought them for the music enjoyment and I was more than happy to switch to CD and the only real reason I kept some of my vinyl collection when I replaced them with CD was because of the cover (particularly this one for some reason :)
I would also add again that I have blurred the naughty bits on the ladies on the cover in fear of the auction being taken down by Ebay - I have not retouched the cover photos anywhere else.
Also would stress again that this is most certainly a first release of the album because the photos of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding are bigger and the text is in blue. The next issue shows smaller photos of the drummer and bass player which indicates a subsequent release and those are not as rare as this. (See I did some research !!)
Hope this helps.

On 13-Jun-10 at 21:04:46 BST, seller added the following information:

I am copying a reply to a question here in order to give a better idea of the condition of the vinyl, following further research into vinyl grading and also obtaining a method through which to pay this. I have attempted to compare the condition to both a barely played album I bought from new in 1982 and a recent "bonus" 45 (Free with a recent Ian Gillan CD which until this test remained unplayed. Conclusion is that the vinyl compared very well with the new vinyl and exceeded that of the 1982 Album. 

Here is my answer to the last question - 
Hi - I have just been listening to the album again on vinyl and then comparing it to the MP3 version have on Itunes and I was surprised to realise that the Vinyl version does give greater listening pleasure. However I only burn my MP3's at 44,000 Mhz so I went and located the original CD and again the vinyl did sound better again !!!. So I am going to have to eat my words of the last 20 years that I can't tell the difference between CD and Vinyl.
I then located my copy of Led Zeppelins "CODA" - an album I played probably three or four times since I bought from new in 1982 (It's not a good album !!). The inner sleeve on the Zep album is hard card and you can see fine surface lines where the album has been returned to the sleeve. The Electric Ladyland Album  I am selling here does not seem to have suffered the same fate being in paper and polythene sleeves. I then played the Zeppelin album and despite careful treatment and only the occasional play the Hendrix album plays much better. So if you did a blind "taste" test and asked which is the 42 year old record and which is the 28 year old record in regards to condition both visually and Aurally - The Hendrix album would win hands down. Certainly there is no continuous crackle/pop noticeable whilst the album is playing (Last comment in direct answer to question).