Hot Stamper Pressings of Jazz Guitar Recordings Available Now
We have been planning on doing a shootout for this Earl Klugh’s 1977 Blue Note release, Finger Paintings, for more than a year, and over that time we were fortunate enough to pick up a MoFi pressing of the album locally for the very reasonable price of ten bucks. (The price tag on the jacket is visible at the bottom of this post.)
The notes for our 2025 Shootout Winner included phrases such as “huge, weighty and punchy, ” along with “natural, rich and sweet.” Most copies may not have those qualities, but the best ones sure do.
Contrast that with the Mobile Fidelity pressing that Stan Ricker mastered in 1980. It was one of their biggest early sellers, and one that they no doubt felt had such good sound that it would be sure to sell at triple the price of the regular Mobile Fidelity pressing!
WTF you say? Yes, it would be released in 1981 in a box (not a box set!) as a Numbered, Limited Edition, Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) at the retail price of $50. $178 in 2026 dollars, if you can believe that records used to cost that kind of dough (cough).
OK, that’s all well and good, but this is supposed to be a blog for audiophiles, so forget all that history stuff and just tell us what the record sounds like.
Fair enough. After having played a big batch of standard issue pressings and getting to know the sound of the record well, feast your eyes on the notes we took.
This MoFi may actually set a new standard for screwing up a perfectly good sounding record. (I was going to say tape but I have never heard the tape and have no idea what it sounds like. John Golden (JG) at Kendun cut the originals. Maybe he was able to somehow make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The possibility exists.)
Side One
Track Four
- Really sucked out and clean
- How bizarrely awful!
Track One
- Loud, boosted tape hiss
- Percussion is very thin and clear and hard
- Guitar is sucked out and recessed and awfully dry
- An especially horrible MoFi.
- No!
Side Two
Track Two
- Boosted, hot and bright
- Hi-hat and snare are nasty
- Not as horrible as side one but still bad and
- NFG
I liked a lot of Mobile Fidelity pressings back in 1980, and I positively loved the UHQR of Crime of the Century (the early numbered one that sounds dramatically better than the later numbered pressings. Yes, they recut a UHQR for some reason, and made it worse, I think).
But I can honestly say I always thought Finger Paintings was the worst kind of wine and cheese, sleep-inducing Smooth Jazz and wanted nothing to do with it. (There was a time when Smooth Jazz was a thing. I made the mistake of buying some titles and eventually figured out that this must be music for other people, because it sure ain’t for me.)
I had never bought a copy of the MoFi to audition. I think the only way I had ever heard it was in audio showrooms and at audio shows.
That right there is a sad commentary on the state of audio back in those days, or maybe it’s a commentary on the musical tastes of audiophiles.
I’m happy to say that audiophiles seem to have lost interest in this MoFi. The average copy on Discogs sells for $14.30, and there are 123 up for sale around the world as of February 26, 2026.
But dig a little deeper and you see that close to two thousand record collectors (1951 to be exact) own a copy, and more than two hundred others (209) would like to buy one.
The 179 folks who have rated it gave it an average rating of 4.04 out of 5.
In case there is anyone on god’s green earth who still thinks the average audiophile record collecter has learned a thing in the 40+ years since this pressing came out, here are the top four most recent comments left for the Mofi on Discogs. Read them and weap.
Further Reading
If you are still buying these remastered pressings, making the same mistakes that I was making before I knew better, take the advice of some of our customers and stop throwing your money away on Heavy Vinyl and Half-Speed mastered LPs.
At the very least let us send you a Hot Stamper pressing — of any album you choose — that can show you what is lacking on your copy of the album.
And if for some reason you disagree with us that our record sounds better than yours, we will happily give you all your money back and wish you the very best.
