how were copies of vinyl made in "third-party" countries

This meaningless grading of used records has only been happening since the vinyl resurgence. In the original era of vinyl, the grade of a used record meant something. There were no internet sales and used record shops knew how to grade using the Goldmine scale (or their own). Most shops would let you preview a record.

@lowrider57: Chad Kassem licensed the rights to reissue Tea For The Tillerman by Cat Stevens, and hired Bernie Grundman to do the mastering (he has his own facility in Los Angeles). The original UK "pink label" Island Records LP has long been an audiophile grail, included in Harry Pearson’s Super Disc list.

Chad got a call from Bernie, telling him he had made a startling discovery: the original Island/A &M lacquer was cut assuming the master tape was Dolby A encoded. It wasn’t! With Dolby A engaged in playback of the master tape, the Dolby equalization curve significantly rolled off high frequencies, drastically changing the sound of, amongst other things, Cat’s Ovation acoustic guitar. The Ovation has not a wooden body, but a plastic one, and is an unusually bright sounding guitar. Not on all previous LP’s and CD’s!

I didn’t own a pink label Island copy, but rather a slightly later-70’s "Palm Tree" UK Island, so I assumed the issue I had with the LP---a lack of high frequency overtones in the cymbals, and a lack of punch in the kick drum (missing high frequencies rob a kick drum of it’s attack characteristics. My LP didn’t imo live up to it’s reputation)---was because of the pressing. As an illustration of why Chad Kassem and his Analogue Productions/QRP team make better LP’s than does Mobile Fidelity, MoFi didn’t realize the Dolby issue when they remastered the tape they received, releasing the album on LP and CD with therefore compromised sound quality.

So Chad had Bernie cut the album "flat" (no Dolby A), and the resulting test pressing sounded very, very bright to Chad. Chad gave Michael Fremer a call, appraising him of the situation. Chad told Michael he wasn’t sure audiophiles would like such a bright sounding LP, but Fremer told him "Hey, that’s what the recording sounds like." Chad had Bernie do a cut with the high frequencies brought down in level somewhat (via equalization, not Dolby circuitry), and send both version to Fremer to listen to. Michael encouraged Chad to release the LP with it’s recorded, non-EQ’d sound. Available on a single 33-1/3 RPM LP, or in a 2-LP 45 RPM set. An absolutely incredible sounding LP!

@bdp24 

cool story

One of my favorites is Jeff Lynne. I always wondered why his own records sound so substandard. I always blamed the type of music. Or my equipment

Jeff Lynne is well known for his love of extreme levels of compression. I love the early albums of Dave Edmunds, but what Jeff Lynne did to Dave's sound on his productions completely changed Dave's signature sound (1950's Rock 'n' Roll, Traditional/Hard Country), and not for the better. I never cared much for ELO either, but The Traveling Wilbury albums I love.

well, I love ELO, to me they are in the top 5 influential bands ever (and that's generous, since it was all written by Lynne. He wrote and produced top hits for  George Harrison, Tom Petty, Brian Wilson and more.

I also love the Birmingham sound, besides ELO: the Spencer Davis group, the Moody Blues, how this bleak little town created so much in the 60s and 70s