Led Zeppelin II RL Robert Ludwig Pressing

$

96

Please read complete description and auction conditions before bidding..I DO NOT listen to an album unless I say so in the listing and grade completely on a visual inspection ONLY and cannot guarantee that there may be some minor noise that might show up somewhere on the vinyl. 

 All winning bids MUST be paid within TWO days of end of auction! If not paid within five days I reserve the right to relist. Thanks! International bidders contact me first before placing any bids for shipping quote and approval or else your bid will be removed.

Original 1969 Atlantic Records SD 8236 of Led Zeppelin II...this is the RL Robert Ludwig Hot Mix Pressing...RL etched in both sides of dead wax....Side one: STA 691671  RL      Side two: STA 691672   RL  (directly under the RL initials on side two are a very very faint letter A and the number 2, but they are not side by side)...there is nothing else in the dead wax....there is no pressing plant code on either side, but the code on the label is CP for Columbia

Vinyl--VG+....light superficial sleeve marks...nothing that can be felt...plays and sounds AWESOME with a small bit of background noise between cuts and during soft passages (yes, there are a few soft passages in this otherwise wall-shaking music)...super clean labels (1861 Broadway address) and original inner sleeve

About the RL pressings, here is a reply direct from Mr Ludwig himself(borrowed from discogs website): 

Here is my reply from Robert Ludwig. Let this be the final word in this debate. Thanks!
Hi Jim,
I'm surprised about Lee Hulko's initials being on some of the parts. In all these years I had never come across any copies with his initials before.
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.
I still got to Master "Houses of the Holy" later on, no skipping problems with that as far as I know!
I hope this clears this up for you.
All my best,
Bob Ludwig
Gateway Mastering Studios Inc
428 Cumberland Ave
Portland Maine 04101
207 828 9400

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I use the goldmine visual grading system for vinyl records and attempt to describe them to the best of my ability. All albums are VISUALLY graded unless I specify in the ad that I have actually listened to it. Unfortunately, any visual grading has a certain amount of subjectivity from each person and can result in one person not seeing things exactly the same as another. If, for any reason, you feel that any record bought from me does not match my description as given, you may return the record to me by media mail and I will refund your purchase price. Please contact me first before doing so. I will not refund if you do not contact me first. I ship by media mail for all records ($4.00 to the continental US)and they are packed very well in sturdy cardboard. If you wish to have any record shipped a different way, please contact me before bidding to insure that I have time to get a price for that. Please do not ask for changes after winning a bid. If paying by Paypal, payment must be received within 2 days of auction end. If paying by any other method please email me within 2 days to inform me of how you are paying and when payment will be sent. If payment is not received within 5 days I may relist the item and cancel the winning bid.  I reserve the right to cancel any auction at any time if the item sells locally.

Side one playback reveals a few ticks and pops here and there...especially at 1:23-1:27 of the first cut...there is a tick that almost sounds like a millisecond skip...I have examined the grooves very closely and can see nothing at all in the grooves even after super cleaning them, so it may be a very tiny manufacturing flaw...it does not detract from the music tho, but keep that in mind with your bidding...side two is the cleanest sounding as far as any background noise goes

Buyer retracted his bid because I do not ship to Italy