The Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Beatles DR. EBBETS Box Set
PLUS
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band UHQR
The 2010 Doc Ebbett Vinyl Remasters
Rock & Roll
Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs - MFSL
Pressed in Japan on JVC *Super Vinyl*
The Beatles: The Collection was a vinyl box set of every Beatles album remastered at half speed from the original stereo master recordings, except for Magical Mystery Tour which was mastered from Capitol Records' submasters with the last three tracks in rechanneled stereo. Each album was pressed on virgin vinyl by the Victor Company of Japan ensuring the best sound quality possible. The album covers were replaced with photographs of tape boxes and log sheet. The original album covers were included in a booklet which also featured a certificate of authenticity as this was a limited edition collection. Missing from this collection was all of the Beatles' singles that did not appear on their original
UK albums.
Released with much anticipation in early October 1982, The Collection was lauded by critics and fans worldwide for the superb sound, and sold-out completely within the first year. MFSL repressed a second run of the Beatles Box Set for a total production run of 25,000 over the next two years or until October 1985. Today, The Collection fetches up to $10,000.00 for a mint condition set on online auctions.
Contents:
1. Please Please Me - MFSL1-101
2. With The Beatles - MFSL1-102
3. A Hard Day's Night - MFSL1-103
4. Beatles For Sale - MFSL1-104
5. Help! - MFSL1-105
6. Rubber Soul - MFSL1-106
7. Revolver - MFSL1-107
8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - MFSL1-100
9. Magical Mystery Tour - MFSL1-047
10. The Beatles - MFSL2-072 (2 LPs)
11. Yellow Submarine - MFSL1-108
12. Abbey Road - MFSL1-023
13. Let It Be - MFSL1-109
BONUS (NEVER RELEASED BEFORE):
14. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band UHQR Version - MFQR 1-100
A note on this Ebbetts unique release :
No one ever heard of Ebbetts neddle dropping the UHQR Pepper, right? Wrong, on his last interview, Ebbetts disclosed his secret, telling Doug Sulpy he had done a drop of this fantastic Album from a sealed 180 grams vinyl and he was very proud of it (see below), well Beatlefriends, here it is for all of you to enjoy the BEST Pepper release EVER!
This rare boxed set was produced in a limited edition, individually hand numbered run of 5000. The UHQR itself stood for Ultra High Quality Record.
The vinyl is 180gm 'Super Vinyl', developed from improvements made during the creation of CD-4 Quadraphonic records. It is designed to be flatter, more consistent, harder wearing & pressed on an extreme precision press, almost totally eliminating disc eccentricity or warpage.
This gives excellent channel separation & is designed for a flat frequency response across the range with negligible distortion or mid-range disc surface vibration.
The box itself contains two carbon foam anti stain pads, one fold over stiffening card, a fold-out technical specification manual, a UHQR individually numbered & signed Certificate Of Authenticity, and the 13 Track vinyl LP in a unique hand numbered picture sleeve with anti-static inner.
The box itself is high quality, textured & embossed with red text.
Originally released in 1967.
Limited edition of 5000 custom pressings. It was made from the master stamper at the Victor Company of Japan (JVC) plant in Yokohama, Japan during the July 1982.
THE STORY BEHIND THIS 1982 RELEASE (For those who care about it like me)
The Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (or MFSL ) Beatles Box set was
released in 1982 (exact date unknown to me, either October or November).
It's official name is "The Beatles/ The Collection" and it's catalogue
number is MFSL BC-1.
Before the box set, MFSL had already
released three of the Beatles LPs as individual items. The first was
"Abbey Road" either on December 1979 or January 1980. The process for
the discs included using the master tapes (when available) and then
utilizing "half-speed" mastering of the laquers. This was then pressed
onto "super vinyl" when sent from California (MFSL headquarters) to the
Yokohama factory of the Victor company in Japan in order to fabricate
the metal masters and the press the records. This "super vinyl" was
transparent when held up to light and was heavy vinyl and harder than
regular vinyl in order to establish the best sound possible. The master
tape used for "Abbey Road" was actually the Capitol sub-masters and not
the original from Abbey Road.
The second Beatles LP from
MFSL was "Magical Mystery Tour". The master used for this project was
actually from EMI but this version originated from Capitol and was used
by EMI for the 1970s re-issue. This didn't make much sense when
considering that this version contained second generation stereo for
eight songs and fake (duophonic) stereo for three songs. This second
release was put out on February 01 1981.
The third
Beatles LP from MFSL was "The Beatles (White Album)" issued on January
07 1982. The master tapes used for this project were also sub-masters
from Capitol.
All of the above covers were released with
colour banners at the top denoting that there were "Original Master
Recordings". "Abbey Road" had the standard cover, "Magical Mystery Tour"
had the re-issued gatefold without the booklet and "The Beatles (White
Album)" was not embossed not did it contain the poster and individual
photos. The labels for these three pressings were white with black
print. "Abbey Road" has the target Capitol logo, "Magical Mystery Tour"
has the EMI logo (ironically) and "The Beatles" has the dome Capitol
logo.
The box set was then released. The remaining 10 LPs
were as follows: "Please Please Me" (using the original master tape from
EMI), "With The Beatles" (also using the original master tape from EMI)
"A Hard Day's Night" (also using the original master tape from EMI),
"Beatles For Sale" (using a re-mix from the four track tape), "Help!"
(using a re-mix tape), "Rubber Soul" (using a re-mix tape), "Revolver" (
using the original master tape from EMI), "Sgt. Pepper" (using a re-mix
tape), "Yellow Submarine" (using a re-mix tape) and "Let It Be" (using a
corrected copy tape). It is also interesting to note that "Pepper" in
this set does not contain the recording of the high frequency or the
"inner groove".
Each of the 14 discs in the box set have
the white labels with black print. All have rice paper inner sleeves and
are surrounded by a cardboard gatefold sleeve and housed in custom
covers. The custom covers feature a photo of a tape (actually the same
tape is used for all the covers) and an open tape box which shows
information as to when the tape was removed from the box and used for
issues and re-mixing for various countries, etc. The sound is amazing.
The
box set also includes a "Geo-Disc" which is a 12 inch plastic platter
used to align and set your stylus and cartridge to a transcription deck
!!
The box set also comes with a 12 by 12 40-page colour
booklet which explains the MFSL process, contains a certificate of
authenticity individually numbered (my copy is 11,734). The booklet also
contains reproductions of all the Beatles LP covers - front and back:
"Please Please Me" has the "stereo" marking on the front and stereo
catalogue number on the back; "With The Beatles" has no marking on the
front and stereo catalogue number on the back; "A Hard Day's Night" has
the "stereo marking on the front and stereo catalogue number on the
back; "Beatles For Sale" has no marking on the front and the mono
catalogue number within the left inner sleeve of the gatefold; "Help!"
has the "stereo" marking on the front and stereo catalogue number on the
back; "Rubber Soul" has no marking on the front and the mono catalogue
number on the back; "Revolver" also has no marking on the front and the
mono catalogue number on the back; "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band" has the mono catalogue number; "The Beatles" has no indications of
denoting "stereo" anywhere on the cover; "Yellow Submarine" has the
mono catalogue number on the back and is missing the original red lines
from the first pressing releases; lastly "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Let
It Be" use the re-issue covers from the 1970s thereby eliminating the
booklet for "MMT" and using the EMI/Parlophone logo rather than the
Apple logo for "Let It Be". I point this out as all of the issues are in
stereo and it would have been nice to use the original covers for all
of the above with their stereo catalogue numbers.
The
booklet also contains a discography at the back. The whole book is
surrounded by a sturdy white cardboard outer sleeve. Finally, the set
comes with a "Certificate of Limited Warranty".
Supposedly, 25,000 copies of this box set were released. All sold out within a year.
Starting
in June 1984, the rest of the Beatles LPs were released individually as
the remainder of the "Original Master Recordings" series start with
"Rubber Soul". One anomoly is the version of "With The Beatles" as an
individual MFSL record, it is rarer than the others due to the fact that
a damaged metal part for the recording ensured it had a very limited
run.
