Best vinyl versions of BB albums

[buddhahat]

I'm considering trying to get some of my favourite BB albums on vinyl but really have no idea about the best pressings and all that. I'm after the best sound quality foremost (preferably without paying a fortune). Can anyone tell me which pressings I should look for for the following LPs:

Friends
Sunflower
Wild Honey
Today
Love You

Also is there a particularly good Smile bootleg on vinyl that anyone can recommend?

Many thanks,

B

[MBE]

I am a huge vinyl fan. The best Wild Honey is the simply vinyl reissue, try their website. Friends sounds best either in the early 80s or mid 90s Capitol reissues because they solve a problem with Tracendental Meditation's fade which was mastered wrong originally.  Today sounds good on the 94 reissue (these are hard to find but the Stack O Tracks is the only way to get the real Stereo version and Pet sounds with all 3 bonus cuts on vinyl)
Sunflower and Love You are good on the originalls as they all are except Friends. Today is hard to find clean though. Good luck and any other vinyl question let me know here or PM me .

[Dave in KC]

I have a sealed vinyl original Sunflower and Surf's Up. I wonder what they might be worth?

[MBE]

I would say around 35-40 for Sunflower and $30-35 for Surfs Up

[buddhahat]

Many thanks MBE for the info - that's most useful.

[NimrodsSon]

I might add, you can easily find sealed copies of Love You for under or around $5.00, so I wouldn't get anything but sealed if I were you. The only drawback is that 99% of the sealed copies are cutouts.

[MBE]

Love You isn't too hard to find, for around that but it may cost upward of $10-15 sealed if it is from a dealer as opposed to an individual. No problem buddhahat I love to talk about records.

[Mahalo]

What is a cut-out version of a record??? Also, I bought Wild Honey on vinyl and it is in great condition . However, when I play the album it doesn't come out of the channels balanced....Anybody got any insights about this?? When i play any other record it comes out fine.

[Roger Ryan]

What is a cut-out version of a record??? Also, I bought Wild Honey on vinyl and it is in great condition . However, when I play the album it doesn't come out of the channels balanced....Anybody got any insights about this?? When i play any other record it comes out fine.

A "cut-out" album (or CD) is one that the retail store does not intend to restock and is reducing the sticker price for a quick sale. The term derives from literally cutting out a piece of the album cover where the bar code is located (with CDs, a hole is drilled through the case).

Regarding the "Wild Honey" LP: is this a Duophonic Stereo copy? The Duophonic process created artificial stereo by channeling low end signals to one speaker and high end signals to the other. The result could be an album that doesn't sound properly balanced.

[king of anglia]

I am a huge vinyl fan. The best Wild Honey is the simply vinyl reissue, try their website. Friends sounds best either in the early 80s or mid 90s Capitol reissues because they solve a problem with Tracendental Meditation's fade which was mastered wrong originally.  Today sounds good on the 94 reissue (these are hard to find but the Stack O Tracks is the only way to get the real Stereo version and Pet sounds with all 3 bonus cuts on vinyl)
Sunflower and Love You are good on the originalls as they all are except Friends. Today is hard to find clean though. Good luck and any other vinyl question let me know here or PM me .

For collecting purposes AND audio quality, I'd go for the original releases. The modern re-issues use digital masters if I'm not mistaken and any fule kno that analog is inherently better than digital for sound fidelity.

[Mahalo]

On the back of my Wild Honey album, in the upper right corner, it says:"STEREO This record may also be played safely on most modern monophonic equipment." The LP says stereo on it as well. I don't know if this album was really mono, and what I have is a reprint in stereo...It definetly doesn't say duophonic on it. Were there re-issues of this by Capitol records?? My copy seems to be original, but I don't know, there is no year on it. I bought it from a Rhino records store.

[L Ransford]

If your pressing is an original American, a mono copy will have "T 2859" in the front top right corner, and a "stereo" copy will have "ST 2859." Capitol did reissue the LP much later, and those have a green label and say "A Capitol Reissue" in the top left corner of the cover. It was reissued by Capitol again in the 1990's.

[Mahalo]

Mine is ST 2859. So I guess it's an original American, Right?? Did the band record this in mono or stereo?

[L Ransford]

Wild Honey was released in mono and fake stereo but I have heard some stereo outtakes posted by users on this board.

[Mahalo]

Again, forgive me, but what is fake stereo? I've seen that listed on my SOT Smile! for some of the songs. Is my Wild Honey LP in fake Stereo, even though it says stereo on it?

[L Ransford]

"Fake" (simulated) stereo is only a mono signal that has been manipulated to create the illusion of stereo by putting the mono signal on each channel of a stereo signal and then putting one slightly out of synch with the other, kind of like an echo in a stadium sound. It can also be done by re-equalizing the signal and putting all the high-end on one side and the low end on the other. This can be rather ugly sounding through headphones.

[Roger Ryan]

This is exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned "Duophonic" previously. I'm not certain why the original "Wild Honey" album would use the term "Stereo" on the cover, but it is generally known that Beach Boys albums from "Today" through "Wild Honey" were never released in true stereo (until "Pet Sounds" was remixed in '96).
I think you've got a "Duophonic" copy (or "fake stereo" to use the less polite term).

[Mahalo]

I think you're right  Roger Ryan. I have my speakers set up on opposite sides of my room. when I played WH the majority of sound was disproportionatly to one side of the room. I am just going to have to one day get my hands on an original MONO version. I think that Darling sounds so good on vinyl, far superior to the digital version. I appreciate the tip Roger. Over and Out.

[MBE]

It's not too hard to find in mono on vinyl . The 74 reissue was mono as was the early 80s and mid 90s ones. Simply vinyl's from the late 90s was mono too.

[wgolly]

how do the reprise twofers compare (friends/WH)?  I know the reprise vinyl is held in high regard.  I'm guessing they're better than the original capitol pressings.

[MBE]

I think the Capitol pressing are good. As far as ease in finding a clean one the newer the pressing the better. I avoided the WB pressings olnly because I wanted the original covers.

[Fun Is In]

It's been a long time, but I recall buying the Reprise 2-fers when they were all that was available and enjoying the heck out of the vinyl and liner notes....Then a used record store opened in town (Djangos) and I found original issue Capitol pressings....and preferred the sound on them to the Reprise re-issues. 

Haven't listened to them in 20 years or so, so this is based on memory.

[wgolly]

oh okay, one more.  how do the capitol versions of PS compare with the reprise one put out in '72? Like the original pressing and subsequent ones, I guess when they were reissiued by cap in the 80's.

[MBE]

All of the pre 1990 versions of Pet Sounds have tne original mix. A lot of echo and a cough was removed from Here Today in 1990. I would have the say you are most likely going to find an early 80's pressing to be the easiest to find clean. I never heard a major difference otherwise.

[Fun Is In]

The US Pet Sounds bundled with the original CATPST on Warner/Brother didn't sound anywhere near as good as the UK import that a friend of mine had to either of us.