Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Beatles Available Now
UPDATE 2026
This commentary was written in 2010, prompted by our good fortune in finding a clean, -1/-1 original pressing of Sgt. Pepper, at a local record store, in stereo no less.
Since that time I believe we have played at least one other early pressing. We are unlikely to play another.
The originals have almost nothing in common with the amazing pressings that end up winning our shootouts, none of which have ever been mastered in the 60s to the best of my knowledge, although it is possible that ten or fifteen years ago, before we really got to know the record the way we know it now, there might have been one or two from that decade.
Since then the cutoff is somewhere in the mid-70s. We leave the specific years for you to figure out.
Of course, if you bought a White Hot Stamper copy from us, you know at least one of the stampers for at least one of the sides that wins a shootout, and perhaps both if you happened to have purchased a 3/3 Top Shelf copy. (At the time of this writing there are a total of seven on the site, out of about 500 records. Needless to say, they are very hard to find.)
Certainly nothing from 1967 and nothing on the original label.
And definitely nothing in mono.
We had the opportunity not long ago to audition a very clean original early pressing of the album and were frankly quite taken aback by how just plain AWFUL it was in every respect. No top end above 8k or so, flabby bass, muddy mids — this was as far from Hot Stamper sound as you could get.
To be fair, we have played exactly one copy on our current system. (Played an early copy or two long ago but on much different equipment, so any judgments we might have made are highly suspect.) Perhaps there are good ones. We have no way of knowing whether there are, and we are certainly not motivated to find out given the price that original Sgt. Pepper’s pressings on the Yellow and Black label in audiophile playing condition are fetching these days.
We can tell you this much: no original British pressing of any Beatles album up through Pepper has ever impressed us sonically.
UPDATE 2024
Not true! Here is an exception to that “rule” and here is another one.
We’ve played plenty and have yet to hear one that’s not congested, crude, distorted, bandwidth-limited and full of tube smear.
(The monos suffer from all of these problems and more of course, which is only natural; they’re both made with the Old School cutting equipment of the day.)
If that’s your sound more power to you. It’s definitely not ours. The hotter the stamper, the less congested, crude, distorted, bandwidth-limited and smeary it will be.
Try the CD
If you happen to own an early pressing you like, you really owe it to yourself to hear just how good a Hot Stamper pressing can sound.
If you don’t want to spend that kind of money, perhaps a listen to the new CD would be in order. I will go out on a limb and predict that the new CD is significantly better sounding in most ways than any original pressing you may own, and it’s about $15.
We would encourage those who find Heavy Vinyl pressings to their liking to do the same. I think the average Sundazed record probably sounds worse than a CD of the same title. We know some of them clearly do; we’ve had the misfortune to play them.
Side One
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
With a Little Help from My Friends
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Fixing a Hole
She’s Leaving Home
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Side Two
Within You, Without You
When I’m Sixty-Four
Lovely Rita
Good Morning, Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
A Day in the Life