The 30 Minute Rule begins April 15 at 7:00 PM EDT. An Initial Bid Must Be Placed By April 15 at 6:00 PM EDT To Participate After 6:00 PM EDT
Rare ‘mother disc’ for Side B of the Beatles’s twelfth and final studio album, Let It Be, which was released by Apple Records on May 8, 1970. This metallic disc, 13.5˝, was pressed at the Capitol Records Pressing Plant in Winchester, Virginia (“-◁”), and the lacquer was cut at Bell Sound Studios by engineer Sam Feldman (“sf”). The matrix number in the run-out groove area is stamped “Phil + Ronnie JS-17,501 - 12 #2 Bell Sound sf -◁,” information that points to this disc representing variation #4 of 31 recorded variants of the mother disc from the Winchester plant. The outer ring of the disc is engraved in cursive lettering, “Apple.” In very good to fine condition, with some dings to the edge, and scattered scuffs and marks.
A ‘mother disc’ in vinyl record production is a metal positive copy created during the electroforming process between the metal father (negative) and the stampers (negatives used for pressing records). The process starts with cutting music onto a lacquer master, which is then plated to form the metal father. From the father, the mother is made—its grooves match the original recording and can be played back for quality control. The mother, which serves as a durable intermediate that preserves the master and enables consistent reproduction, is then used to create multiple stampers for pressing vinyl records. An impressive early piece of Beatles vinyl history; surviving ‘mother discs’ are very rare, given that the majority were recycled after use.
