Thread: a personal Holy Grail found

I'll try to take a couple tomorrow morning,. I can try my new flash.

Originally Posted by Luke

I'll try to take a couple tomorrow morning,. I can try my new flash.

...so let it be written!

Great testimony Luke! I use the word "testimony" because collecting records is a RELIGIOUS experience -- and I can relate... What are you spinning it all on?!?

You might enjoy having a look at my plattenspieler here:

My own personal collection of vinyl now numbers perhaps 5000 LPs or so. Small by some standards...

Cheers!

Wes

Kiss solos still sealed! cool! If you don't mind, how much will you be putting on them?

Originally Posted by eastwes

Great testimony Luke! I use the word "testimony" because collecting records is a RELIGIOUS experience -- and I can relate... What are you spinning it all on?!?

You might enjoy having a look at my plattenspieler here:

My own personal collection of vinyl now numbers perhaps 5000 LPs or so. Small by some standards...

Cheers!

Wes

Wes, your plattenspieler is a joy to behold. Mine is decidedly more workmanlike. At home, I never listen to records anymore unless I'm testing a spot so I can describe if there is any noise for an auction listing. So I just have a used Technics 1200 with a Grado cartridge. At work, I play everything on an old CJ Walker 55. It's an old British deck......kinda like the poor man's Linn. A simple low mass suspension design. My old employee calls it the miracle turntable. Every record that I play on it sounds great and it seems to eliminate a lot of record noise. It's a well worn old workhorse. It has a Japanese Grace tonearm also with a Grado cartridge. If I ever got back into serious listening, I'd probably still keep that turntable and just plunk down for a more serious cartridge, but I left the lunatic world of high end audio years ago and am glad I did.

5000 LPs is definitely small by some standards, but is big by most. To me it's about the top end of what I consider manageable. But I'm helping an estate of a local collector (and have been for the last year) to sell off a collection that was probably around 10,000 LPs and maybe around 15,000 45s. I have a couple crappy snapshots of the 45 collection I should look for.

Originally Posted by thekeddi

Kiss solos still sealed! cool! If you don't mind, how much will you be putting on them?

I think those will go to auction. The prices fluctuate wildly. Sometimes they can be had as cheaply as $40, but I've also seen them go for over $100. Obviously, I'd like get closer to the $100 price. I've been saving every sealed album that's come into the store for a long time. Next year, I'm going to list them all at auction at the same time and watch the feeding frenzy. Collectors + sealed records = crazy bidding wars = new camera gear

Here's a few snapshots of the aforementioned Kinks mega-rarity......

DSCF2539 by Lukinosity, on Flickr


DSCF2541 by Lukinosity, on Flickr


DSCF2540 by Lukinosity, on Flickr

Originally Posted by Luke

I think you might be a collector of gadgets. It doesn't need to be old to be a collection.

Oh, I've collected many things: rocks, comic books, gadgets, mixtapes, fountain pens - just never tried to collect anything rare!

About 20 years ago a guy I used to know was living/transitioning between places, he was living temporarily upstairs of a bar. He lent me his record player and entire amazing jazz record collection. I had that collection for months and he was happy that I was really getting into jazz through his records. I really got into Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Monk, Miles Davis, George Benson, and whole ton of other Greats.

I had to give it all back when he found a permanent place to stay and I eventually lost touch with that guy.

Over the years, I bought some of that music back on record and later on CD. But for a very long time I couldn't find Art Blakey's 'Witch Doctor', an awesome hard bop record they released back in 1961, with the Jazz Messengers which comprised of Wayne Shorter on sax, Lee Morgan on Trumpet, Bobby Timmons on piano, Jymie Merritt on bass and of course Art Blakey on drums.

I would ask at various record stores every couple of years and they'd tell me it doesn't exist anymore. Even when I started getting on to the internet and eBay, I could never find it. Until very recently, I suddenly discovered it was reissued on CD, FINALLY.

So about 20 years later, I finally heard the hard bop sounds of The Witch Doctor again and it was just as awesome as I remembered it back when I heard it on record.

I definitely went through a long phase of listening to nothing but hard bop. Lee Morgan is still my fave trumpet player. He plays with fire and dexterity that other much more famous (over-rated) trumpet players can only dream of. For the uninitiated, turn your speakers up and enjoy this clip of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. It's a slightly different line-up to the one on the record that James speaks of, but it'll give you the idea.