LED ZEPPELIN II RL HOT MIX Atlantic SD 8236 1st U.S 1969 TESTED VG+ complete

$

600

LED ZEPPELIN II RL HOT MIX Atlantic Records SD 8236 1st U.S. RARE VG+. Robert Ludwig/Sterling Sound cut 1st pressing.

Presswell Pressing Plant as indicated by the "PR" on the labels. RL and SS etched on both sides of vinyl.

The infamous Hot Mix first edition of this iconic album, the Eddie Kramer recorded masterpiece with Robert Ludwig mastering has become the definitive pressing of this title. Not rare by any means, thousands were pressed, but very few are found in good condition. I have been through hundreds to find even one copy that wasn't littered with scratches and scuffs. This one is super rare in excellent condition! 

VINYL in VG+ with a few scattered super light paper scuffs only. Test played all the way on Sennheiser headphones this pressing is a thing of beauty, the way a rock record should sound. VG+ is being conservative, it's 80% VG++.

RL and SS etched on both sides.

I could hear the sound of the room and the trail off of the reverb and drums which is almost impossible with a rougher copy because the background noise eliminates the more subtle sounds. I could notice subtle background elements that are non-existent in rougher copies. 

John Bonham was never recorded better than Led Zeppelin II, and his kit sounds like a freight train on this copy! Even the super quiet segments sound excellent and quiet except the very end of "Thank You" during the organ fade out/in at the end where there is a bit more noise than the rest of the record, just the last 15 seconds or so

. I was especially impressed with "Ramble On" where the acoustic guitar sounds more pronounced and "in the room" than other copies. The drum solo on "Moby Dick is usually littered with crackle during the solo where there is a lot of dead space, but this copy shines, what a beauty!!

COVER in VG/VG+ condition. Yellowing/rubbing on front and back, rubbing along edges, corner bumps, spine fully readable but yellowed with rubbing along edges. NO SPLITS.

INNER SLEEVE Atlantic sleeve in VG condition with corner creasing, seams split in middle section of each side.

Record mailed in proper mailer with record removed to prevent splitting. This was fully test played using Sennheiser headphones through a Cambridge Audio receiver on a Technics turntable with Nagoaka cartridge. 

NOTES:

US 1st pressing (with the 1841 Broadway address on the labels), featuring Robert Ludwig's "hot" mastering on both sides. These were withdrawn early because the high bass levels caused low-grade cartridges to mistrack, leading people to return the album on the belief that it was defective. Another engineer was then hired to recut a much less "hot" version of the album, and that is the far more common version.

On some copies the Sterling Sound credit, "SS", appears in both runouts following Ludwig's "RL", and on others the "SS" appears only in the Side Two runout. The "RL" will still appear in both runouts.

Comes in a gatefold sleeve.

This sub should only be used for copies with "RL" in both runouts. Later transitional pressings which featuring "RL" on only one side and another engineer's work on the other should receive their own subs.

"PR" in label matrix denotes a Presswell pressing.

"LW" in runouts indicates Longwear Plating metal parts.

"AT" in runouts indicates Atlantic Studios mastering

"W" in runouts indicates that blank lacquers came from the company Audiodisc.Barcode and Other IdentifiersRights Society: ASCAP

• Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout Variant 1): ST-A-691671-B  LW AT RL  SS  W
• Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout Variant 1): ST-A-691672-C  LW RL SS  W AT