Led Zeppelin II RL LH HOT MIX 1st U.S. Pressing HULKO LUDWIG Atlantic Tested

$

125

1969 LED Zeppelin II Vinyl in Strong VG, test played LOUD with treble up, sounded great in quieter song like Thank You, noisier for a bit at very beginning of side 1 with a rotation or two of static then cleans up to VG+ by the time the drums kick in on Whole Lotta Love.

Side 2 a bit noisier towards the last half, VG, no skips, Lee Hulko’s mix is fantastic on this side, great player!

Robert Ludwig mastering on Side 1 Lee Hulko mastering (using notes from Robert Ludwig, sounds identical t a RL/RL to my ears). RL is etched in dead wax on side 1, LH is etched on Side 2. Terre Haute, Indiana Pressing Plant information.

VINYL in VG+/VG with side 1 a solid VG+, a bit noisy at the beginning but cleans up with soft background crackle, really nice listen even in quite sections like during "Thank You", no skips on my system.

Side 2 is more VG especially the last half of the record, still a strong listen but a bit more noticeable crackle with occasional pops, no skips!!

COVER in VG+ with solid spine and seams all around, light rubbing along the edges and light chipping at top seam near the spine, light rubbing on cover, very nice!!!!

INNER SLEEVE Atlantic inner in VG+ with staining/yellowing all seams intact!

NOTES:

Taken directly from a widely circulated letter online from Bob Ludwig himself:

"When there were big orders of certain titles and there wasn't physically enough time for one person to crank out the lacquers as fast as the record company wanted, sometimes we would help each other out.

For instance, my initials might appear on a Beatles record that Lee mastered. 

In every case, compared to now, those titles were relatively easy to master. Once one of us mastered an album and it was approved, we made careful notes, either one of us could cut it and it should come out the same. Back then, Lee and I shared the one room and worked different hours so it is possible one of the plants blew a part and needed a replacement right then with no delay.

So after I mastered the album (which Eddie Kramer & Atlantic approved) it was shipped to all the radio stations and the initial pressing was all from me and Sterling Sound.

Amhet Ertegun at Atlantic heard the album (which Eddie demanded be as hot as possible) and apparently it skipped on his daughters little turntable. Instead of calling us at Sterling and asking us to lower the level a little and telling us where it skipped, they had the disk cutters at Atlantic use my EQ'd cassette file copy and they cut it WAY lower than my original cut plus, in my opinion, it sounded dull and generally not very good sounding in comparison.

So all the disks that were played at the radio stations and all the initial pressings world wide came from me (and apparently Lee cut a part or two) and that was what "sold" the record and made it a hit. A year later, whenever I visited someone I would look at their Zeppelin II album to see if it was my cut or Atlantic's cut. It was easy to see by eye, the Atlantic cut ended much farther from the label and the grooves to the naked eye looked very conservative."

Labels include "CTH" suffix (indicating Terre Haute pressing) and "Mfg By Atlantic Recording Corp., 1841 Broadway, New York, N.Y.".

The dead wax side two is slightly narrower than that on side one.

Later press information:

If this doesn't have "SS RL" and "SS LH" etched in the run-outs then it is a repress - remastered at Atlantic, rather than Sterling Sound.

Around 200,000ish pressings were done of Robert Ludwig's 'high mix' which, like Hendrix's 'Ladyland' 1st masters, caused some poor-quality phonograph needles to 'skip'. Thus, a repress ordered by Ertegün at Atlantic. 

Clarification: Disc may have "RL" on Side A and "SS LH" on Side B

• Rights Society: ASCAP
• Pressing Plant ID (Columbia Terre Haute, on labels): CTH
• Matrix / Runout (A side bottom label): ST-A-691671CTH
• Matrix / Runout (B side bottom label): ST-A-691672CTH
• Matrix / Runout (A-side runout etched [skinny "RL" etched next to a very small "ss"], variant 1): ST-A-691671-1A C12 RL SS T
• Matrix / Runout (B-side runout etched [very small "LH" etched next to a larger "ss"], variant 1): ST-A-691672-D A15 LH SS T |
• Matrix / Runout (A-side runout, variant 2): ST-A-691671-1A RL SS C2 T I
• Matrix / Runout (B-side runout, variant 2): ST-A-691672-D SS LH A5 o T I