Classic Records (remember the sound...)

Behind the Scenes

How to Reissue a Record
page 4

Once the lacquer is cut, it goes to the plating plant to be electroplated. This process begins with packing the lacquer and gently cleaning it in a mild detergent-based solution. The lacquer is then rinsed repeatedly with highly purified (di) water before being placed on a spindle in the silvering booth. There it is then spun around and sprayed with liquefied silver.

Spraying liquefied silver onto a lacquer.
After the lacquer is "silvered," it is re-cleaned with di water, attached to a bar, and placed in a pre-plate bath of dissolved nickel. When electrically charged, the nickel will naturally adhere to the silver on the lacquer surface.

A freshly silvered lacquer, and the nickel pre-plate tank.
The lacquer stays briefly in the pre-plate tank before it is spun around in the high-speed baths (see below), where nickel is more quickly accumulated, using greater amperage. This process creates a key component called a master. The amount of time the lacquer stays in this solution determines the weight of the master, which is sometimes called a metal part.

High speed nickel baths for making stampers.
The master is next separated from the lacquer, creating an exact reverse image, with ridges instead of grooves. Sometimes it is used to press records in a process called one-step. In that case, the master is referred to as a one-step stamper. Unfortunately, it can only produce up to 800 records before wearing out. In addition, the lacquer cannot be re-used to form another master. To avoid these shortcomings, the master, like the lacquer before, is put back in the bath for more nickel plating, creating a new element called the mother.

The late Ed Tobin with an Iberia mother in its protective pocket.
The mother is then sound-tested on a turntable with a normal stylus. Sound-testing the mother is virtually like playing a record on a standard phonograph. If a tick or pop is heard, the mother is stopped and backed up with the stylus still in the groove, in a fashion similar to the "scratching" of nightclub DJs! By gently moving the mother back and forth, using the stylus as a sort of chisel, most small ticks can be backed out. The ticks indicate impurities in the bottom of the groove, picked up from either the bath or air. In some cases, the tick cannot be backed out and must be removed with a tiny probe while carefully examining the disk with a microscope.

The sound-tested mother is then placed back in the baths and subjected to re-plating. This will produce yet another stamper. The mother can be re-plated up to eight times to produce multiple stampers. Similarly, the master can be re-plated up to four times, yielding numerous mothers, which will in turn produce new stampers. This process may spawn as many as 25 stampers, which are capable of pressing upwards of 15,000 records!

The next step is the pressing plant!

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