THE RIVER 2LP: The US Columbia Santa Maria Plant pressing

Recently, I obtained a US analog copy of my favorite album from a US eBay seller. It was a cheap buy as you can guess from the relatively worn sleeve conditions. However, the highly priced international shipping of LP package,

Before and after cleaning LP sleeve: Vertically aligned two images on the left
(before cleaning) are taken from the actual auction page. The "20" marking on
the front sleeve is very faint (yellow circled). There is 
a small corner cut on the
upper-left corner of the rear face of the sleeve which has a gold promo stamp.

which cost close to triple the amounts of the item this time, always annoys me as a non-US resident. After delivery of the LP across the Pacific, the first thing I had to do was to remove the handwritten black markings "20" made on both the front and back covers, which I guess indicate the set price ($20) when this copy was once sold on store shelves before being auctioned. It was not a tough or cautious work because the album sleeve was still glossy laminated, thus relatively tolerant to a little rough wiping with convenient organic solvents like absolute ethanol (although the use of which generally causes damage to sleeves such as de-colorization). 

The sole reason why I purchased this rather worn copy was that it was a white label promo probably pressed at the Columbia Santa Maria Pressing Plant, CA, which I had not owned before. Early in this blog, I wrote about two slightly different labels on the US pressing of THE RIVER LP (here). They differ notably in the style of track listing, one with wide while the other with narrow spacing between track titles. This difference reflects where a label is printed, hence where a vinyl disc is pressed.

Two types of white US Columbia labels for THE RIVER. These are Terre Haute (left) and Santa Maria (right) pressings according to each dead-wax matrix inscription. Note that there is also the same difference for the regular red labels.

As occasionally mentioned in this blog, back in early 1980's when THE RIVER is originally pressed and then repressed, Columbia Records run three major plants for vinyl pressing: Terre Haute, IN (1953-1982), Pitman, NJ (1960-1986), and Santa Maria, CA (1963-1981). Vinyl copies pressed at the Santa Maria factory are usually identified

Typical examples of Santa Maria-specific matrix inscriptions: S1 on a
white label promo disc (left) and S2 on a red label regular disc (right).

by "S1" or "S2" which is hand-etched and rolling upside down to the left of the matrix number found on the dead wax (for example, "IS   PAL 36855" on Side 1). They are usually etched very faintly and sloppily compared to the matrix numbers that are also hand-etched, and so hard to recognize in some cases. To the best of my knowledge, such a Santa Maria-specific matrix inscription is always associated with the "narrow-spacing" track listing on both white promo and regular red Columbia labels on THE RIVER.

The catalog number 36854 printed on Santa Maria (left)
and Terre Haute (right) versions of Disc1 inner sleeve.

Another signature of the Santa Maria pressing is found on the inner sleeve for Disc 1. Printed on the upper right corner of the front face (listing track lineup) is 36854, the catalog number assigned for this album, that differs in the font style and position where it is printed, between Terre Haute and Santa Maria versions. Moreover, there seemingly is a trace of the erased five-digit number on the Santa Maria sleeve that corresponds in position to the catalog number printed on the Terre Haute sleeve. On the other hand, the inner sleeve for Disc 2 has no such digit number printed on either side of both versions.

By far I have not conducted detailed examination if there are any noticeable differences between Terre Haute and Pitman pressings, except what are etched and stamped on the dead wax (although no clear differences seem to exist on either outer or inner sleeve). It's my understanding that exploiting these differences that make it clear to distinguish one pressing from others offers a way of enjoying collecting multiple copies of the same title.