Runout decoder: what the etchings in the dead wax mean
The smooth band between the last song and the label is called the runout, or dead wax. Cutting engineers and plants scratch and stamp codes there. Type what you see.
Runout decoder
130 markings from the dead wax
Search the letters, numbers, initials and symbols scratched or stamped between the last song and the label. Every row links to its source; plants and engineers varied their habits over the years, so a marking is a clue, not proof.
| In the dead wax | What it means | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| "Mastered by MasterDisc" stamp | Masterdisk, New York, a variant imprint of the house name. source | Mastering house |
| ####-AO | Discos CBS, Madrid. source | Pressing plant |
| (SP) or SP plant code on the center label | Specialty Records Corporation; a -SP matrix suffix alone does not prove a Specialty pressing. source | Pressing plant |
| -#####- (four or five digits in hyphens) | Pallas, Diepholz, Germany. source | Pressing plant |
| -1A | Typically a first pressing, side A, per Vinyl Me, Please; not proof on its own. source | Code |
| 0 (stamped or etched) | Capitol's Jacksonville, Illinois plant. source | Pressing plant |
| 1A to 1F (Columbia) | Six first-cut lacquer sets, two each for Pitman, Terre Haute and Santa Maria; A is not earlier than F. source | Code |
| 1Y//1 2Y//1 | Often an early pressing, per a UK shop blog. source | Code |
| 3-digit date + F-#### e.g. 107 F-2654 = July 1991 | Sonopress, Gütersloh, Germany; the first three digits are a date. source | Pressing plant |
| 380 | Lacquer cut by Philips in France. source | Mastering house |
| 5 + "Nashville Matrix" | Southern Plastics, Nashville. source | Pressing plant |
| 710 | Musikkindustri, Oslo. source | Pressing plant |
| =1 (inverted 1) and ▽ | Optimal Media, Röbel, Germany. source | Pressing plant |
| A (Decca example) | Guy Fletcher, shown by an engineer letter suffix in a Decca example. source | Engineer |
| A1 B1 (also A//1 B//1, A-1 B-1) | Often a first-press code, per a UK shop blog; not proof on its own. source | Code |
| AB (hand-etched near 12 o'clock) | Abbey Manufacturing, East Newark, New Jersey. source | Pressing plant |
| ALCO (A, L, C inside an O) | Alco Research and Engineering, Los Angeles. source | Pressing plant |
| AT/GP | George Piros at Atlantic Studios, New York (a reader correction adopted by the collector who lists it). source | Engineer |
| AZ | Allen Zentz Mastering. source | Mastering house |
| Bestway | Bestway Products, Mountainside, New Jersey. source | Pressing plant |
| BG | Bernie Grundman, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| Bilbo / "Bilbo Ta1pe" variants | Denis Blackham, cutting engineer. source | Engineer |
| Bird wings (sometimes a small flower) | Brian Gardner at Allen Zentz Mastering. source | Engineer |
| BK | Bill Kipper, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| BLAIR, BLAIR'S, BL△IR | Chris Blair at Abbey Road. source | Engineer |
| Block S (faint) | MGM's Bloomfield, New Jersey plant. source | Pressing plant |
| Boppin' Bob | John Robert Jones, at Decca and then Discos Columbia in Madrid, 1968-1975. source | Engineer |
| CALL THE COPS | Happy Mondays, Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, on most US CDs. source | Message |
| CB | Chris Bellman; the mark is tiny and easy to misread. source | Engineer |
| cg / C.G. | Chris Gehringer at Frankford/Wayne. source | Engineer |
| CGD triangle logo | CGD, Milan. source | Pressing plant |
| Contest message with phone number | Elvis Costello, This Year's Model, UK (1978). source | Message |
| Cookie | Ian Cooper, at Pye and Utopia and later an independent DMM room. source | Engineer |
| CSB, C.B. | Carlton Batts at Frankford/Wayne (1984-1993). source | Engineer |
| CT, CTH | Columbia's Terre Haute, Indiana plant. source | Pressing plant |
| Dash number (e.g. -1, -2, -3) e.g. X-1234-B7 = cut 7 | Which cut of that side; a new mix or take moves it up. source | Code |
| DM | Columbia's Don Mills, Ontario plant. source | Pressing plant |
| DMM | Direct Metal Mastering: cut into a copper-plated master instead of a lacquer. source | Format/process |
| Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law | On some copies of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" single; believed requested by the band. source | Message |
| E A S T embossed round center hole | Specialty Records Corporation, from 1979; a lone "A" there means Allied instead. source | Pressing plant |
| Embossed vs carved code | Raised (embossed) codes come from the stamper; carved ones from the lacquer or mother. source | Code |
| Eyebrows | David Turner, cutting engineer. source | Engineer |
| f (at right) | Sam Feldman at Bell Sound, per one collector's photo caption. source | Engineer |
| Five- or six-point star | Capitol's Los Angeles plant. source | Pressing plant |
| G-code at 3 o'clock, mother number at 9 e.g. GG = 11th stamper | EMI Hayes, UK; the stamper letters use the GRAMOPHLTD cipher (G=1 ... D=0). source | Code |
| GC / STERLING GC e.g. STERLING GC | Greg Calbi, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| GK | Gilbert Kong at Masterdisk. source | Engineer |
| Goodbye Waterface | Neil Young, Tonight's the Night. source | Message |
| GP | Listed by one collector as George Peckham; the same collector later read AT/GP as George Piros, so check the context. source | Engineer |
| GV, G.S.V. | Greg Vaughn at Frankford/Wayne. source | Engineer |
| H (stamped) | RCA's Hollywood, California plant. source | Pressing plant |
| HTM e.g. Revolver; The Dark Side of the Moon | Harry T. Moss at EMI and Abbey Road. source | Engineer |
| HW | Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk. source | Engineer |
| I (stamped) | RCA's Indianapolis, Indiana plant. source | Pressing plant |
| IAM in a triangle | Capitol's Scranton, Pennsylvania plant, about 1963-1973; IAM is the International Association of Machinists, the union. source | Pressing plant |
| IFPI + four or five characters (CDs) | Mould SID, added at pressing. source | Code |
| JJ | John Johnson, Fine Recording era. source | Engineer |
| JMS, MJS, MS | Michael Sarsfield at Frankford/Wayne. source | Engineer |
| K-### | Allied Record Company, Los Angeles, per one source; another describes Allied's mark as a Q-shaped stamp. source | Pressing plant |
| KG | Kevin Gray, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| KT at 12 o'clock | A Gramophone Co. tax code. source | Code |
| L-prefixed code (CDs) | Mastering SID, added at glass mastering. source | Code |
| Label messages on every release | Third Man Records puts runout messages on all its releases. source | Message |
| Label plant numbers 56 / 73 / 25 (1979) | Columbia Pitman / Terre Haute / Santa Maria, printed on the label. source | Pressing plant |
| LC + four or five digits | A GVL label code, not a matrix or catalog number. source | Code |
| Letter after cut number (e.g. -1R) e.g. AM 438-1R | Identifies the mastering engineer at that firm. source | Code |
| Letters at 3 o'clock (BUCKINGHAM cipher) e.g. NN = 66th stamper | Decca UK stamper number, coded B=1, U=2 ... M=0. source | Code |
| LH | Lee Hulko, co-founder of Sterling Sound. source | Engineer |
| LP + date e.g. LP 910207 | Ljudpress, Östersund, Sweden. source | Pressing plant |
| LW | Capitol Los Angeles on Warner Bros. releases. source | Pressing plant |
| M3 + six digits | Pathé Marconi, Chatou, France; 3 marks a 7-inch and 1 a 12-inch. source | Pressing plant |
| Manufactured In Germany (stamped) | Teldec-Press, Nortorf, Germany. source | Pressing plant |
| MASTERDISK (stamped) | Masterdisk, New York (name since 1973, formerly Mercury Records Mastering); lacquer cut there. source | Mastering house |
| MASTERING BY FRANKFORD/WAYNE NEW YORK, F/W + apple | Frankford/Wayne Mastering Labs, New York (1973 to April 2008); the apple can look like "C5". source | Mastering house |
| Matrix at 12, stamper at 3, mother letter at 9 | CBS Aston Clinton (Aylesbury, UK) layout. source | Code |
| MATT'S | Matt Colton, who has cut at Porky's, Alchemy and AIR. source | Engineer |
| MILES | Miles Showell, cutting engineer. source | Engineer |
| MP / MPO | MPO, France. source | Pressing plant |
| MR in a circle (stamped, sometimes reversed; etched after 1985) | Monarch Record Mfg. Co., Los Angeles. source | Pressing plant |
| OI_7261_IA_I | CBS Haarlem, Netherlands (1977-1987) matrix style. source | Pressing plant |
| Orlake / OR / O | Orlake Records, Dagenham, UK (early 1970s). source | Pressing plant |
| P (small, faint, stamped) / CP / CP-1, CP-2 | Columbia's Pitman, New Jersey plant. source | Pressing plant |
| P + number (e.g. P13, P17) e.g. P13 | George Piros at Fine Recording; the number names a specific lathe and cutter-head combination. source | Engineer |
| P USA | Pallas (Germany) pressing for US export. source | Pressing plant |
| Pecko Duck, Delta Pork, Pecko's Delta, Porky Pecko | Variant signatures of George Peckham. source | Engineer |
| Porky / A Porky Prime Cut e.g. A Porky Prime Cut | George Peckham, a UK cutting engineer who began at Apple in London in 1968. source | Engineer |
| PR / PRC | PRC, Richmond, Indiana. source | Pressing plant |
| Q-shaped stamp | Allied Records, Hollywood, per one collector; another source lists Allied as K-###. source | Pressing plant |
| R (stamped) | RCA's Rockaway, New Jersey plant. source | Pressing plant |
| Raised Roman I | First take of the recording (Decca example). source | Code |
| RCE, R.C.E., RE (Frankford/Wayne) | Rick Essig at Frankford/Wayne. source | Engineer |
| RE | A repressing, per this guide. RE can also be initials, such as Rick Essig at Frankford/Wayne (listed separately), so read it in context. source | Code |
| Recorded at Home (ornate) | Emitt Rhodes, Emitt Rhodes. source | Message |
| Rifle / arrow / "wine glass" (·─◁, ---<) | Capitol's Winchester, Virginia plant. source | Pressing plant |
| RJ | Ray Janos, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| RKS | Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. source | Engineer |
| RL | Robert (Bob) Ludwig, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| RVG / VAN GELDER | Rudy Van Gelder, on classic jazz cuts. source | Engineer |
| S, SI, SII, CS, CSM | Columbia's Santa Maria, California plant. source | Pressing plant |
| S-T-E-R-E-O / STEREO stamp | Contemporary Records stereo lacquers, 1958-1961. source | Format/process |
| SH | Scott Hull at Masterdisk. source | Engineer |
| SJR, Stu | Stuart J. Romaine at Frankford/Wayne. source | Engineer |
| SLM (stamp/etch) | Sheffield Lab Matrix; lacquers plated there 1979-1984. source | Pressing plant |
| Small odd Q | Quality Records, Toronto. source | Pressing plant |
| SMK / SMI | Sound Makers, Westville, New Jersey. source | Pressing plant |
| SP | Specialty Records. source | Pressing plant |
| SPAR / SP-AL + B-##### | Plated at Specialty, pressed at Allied. source | Pressing plant |
| SPGER, SPENG, SPAUS, SPCAN, SP-ITA | Plated at Specialty (usually mothers), pressed at a plant in the country named, from the 1980s. source | Pressing plant |
| Square (78 era) | Blumlein moving-coil cutter. source | Format/process |
| SRC logo (large S, small R and C) | Specialty Records Corporation, Olyphant, Pennsylvania. source | Pressing plant |
| SST | Schallplatten Schneid Technik Brüggemann, a German lacquer-cutting house (not a pressing plant). source | Mastering house |
| ST / MO prefix | Stereo / mono (example given for Atlantic), per a shop blog. source | Format/process |
| STERLING (stamped or etched), SS (small) | Sterling Sound, New York mastering house. source | Mastering house |
| STRAWBERRY | Strawberry Mastering, London. source | Mastering house |
| TJ | Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound. source | Engineer |
| TOWNHOUSE | Townhouse Studios, London. source | Mastering house |
| Triangle (78 era) | Western Electric (Westrex) moving-iron cutting system. source | Format/process |
| Two rings with a gauge forming an "A"; drum and two sticks; compass forming "A" | Artisan Sound Recorders, Los Angeles; sources describe its logo in different ways. source | Mastering house |
| U (East German labels, 1980s) | UC noise-reduction encoding, per Wikipedia. source | Format/process |
| U in a circle / URP | United Record Pressing, Nashville. source | Pressing plant |
| Wally | Wally Traugott, mastering engineer. source | Engineer |
| We Love You A.L.K. | U2, Rattle and Hum (1988), for production manager Anne Louise Kelly. source | Message |
| WW | Capitol Winchester on Warner Bros. releases. source | Pressing plant |
| YEX, YAX / XEX | EMI lacquer prefixes: YEX and YAX usually stereo, XEX usually mono, per a shop blog. source | Format/process |
| ¢ (cent sign) | Tom Coyne; the cent sign is a pun on his name. source | Engineer |
| ØPHASE | Ashley Burchett, cutting engineer. source | Engineer |
| △ + five digits (delta number) e.g. △12345 | A job code used by Monarch and other plants; not proof of Monarch by itself. source | Code |
| ◈-P-◈ | MCA's Pinckneyville, Illinois plant. source | Pressing plant |
| ✱ (six-point asterisk) | Audio Services, Wednesbury, UK. source | Pressing plant |
| ⧈-G-⧈ | MCA's Gloversville, New York plant. source | Pressing plant |
For how these got there, read the runout section and collecting and grading.