[78-L] Set Sequence (was: Decca Specialty Series (DAU-x))

[David Lennick]

Michael Biel wrote:
>
> I've been curious about the companies' habits concerning sequence of
> opera LP boxes.  By this time they had forgotten that it would be
> possible to distinguish sequence in a catalog number prefix or suffix,
> and often it is a mystery whether a set will be manual or automatic
> until you open up the (sealed) box!  Early LP sets were usually in
> automatic sequence, but it became considered a Hi-Fi No-No to use a
> changer, so that was the reason for the migration from auto sequence to
> manual sequence in the 60s.  

Columbia actually did auto and manual sequence LP album sets at first. La 
Boheme was SL 1 (manual) and SL 101 (auto).

> But how did the buyers know what they would
> get if they did actually use a changer?  When did which labels change
> their policy?  What did the do with re-pressings of sets that were
> originally automatic when they had switched their policy to issuing
> manual sequence sets?  I've never seen any LP company give you a choice
> like Columbia and Victor gave you in much of the 78 era.  As a kid I
> rarely could afford an opera LP box, but I am picking up a lot of them
> now real cheap in NYC and college disposals.  But I don't have enough to
> find a pattern.
> 
> All I know is that I would have been madderthanhell if I were a
> changer-owner opera-lover in the 60s and occasionally got a surprise
> manual sequence opera.  Considering that the record clubs kept dying
> formats alive longer than stores because they knew their customers still
> drove old cars with 8-track players, etc., I wonder if club opera
> pressings might have been automatic while store sets had been changed
> over to manual, because club buyers might still be clinging to or buying
> changers?  
> 
> As Lenny Kunstadt would say:  "RESEARCH!!!"
> 
> Mike (never owned an LP changer) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

Speaking of 8-tracks....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/cheap-trick-brings-back-the-8-track/article1205531/

You heard it here second.

dl