Century Record Mfg. Co.

Mastering, matrix, label and jacket printing, and pressing company related to Century Records (4) imprint, and served as a contract presser for companies such as Liberty, Pacific Arts, Windham Hill and Flying Fish. Century also pressed hundreds of syndicated radio shows produced to promote the various branches of the U.S. military.

MASTERING

This location continued to doing mastering work once K Disc Mastering began in Hollywood. The Saugus facility continued non stop cutting much of the weekly 100 different shows for AFRTS - requiring close to 200 lacquers to be created each week. The Hollywood operation was intended to expand the corporate identity in the business but without impacting the matrix, printing and record pressing plants who were the vinyl sales customers. When Century was no longer the lowest bidder for the AFRTS contract, they closed down the operation shortly after, ca. 1993.

The mastering studio consisted of four cutting suites, two of which were equipped with Scully lathes (with Westrex cutters) and two with Neumann VMS66 lathes (with SX68 and SX74 cutters). Being a full-service operation, lacquers cut here were sent to the neighbouring Century Record Mfg. Co. for further plating and record pressing.

Mastering engineers who worked here at one point or another:
Hank Waring
Lois Downs
Lois Walker
Patty Marquez
Jack Skinner

Runout Identification:
• Early pressings from the 1940s-'50s contain a "V-####" or "FV-#####" catalog number and is usually identified by the legend "Manufactured by Century Record Mfg. Co." on labels and / or cover.
• From the mid-'60s, runout etchings for Lps contain an "FPV" or "FP V" etch accompanied by a five-digit job number, i.e., "FPV44760-1", the "-1 / -2" suffix being identifier for the A- or B-side of the pressing. Sometimes the prefix appears as "7̶PV", the "F" represented with an old-fashioned cursive character that resembles the digit "7" with a line through the middle.

The "FPV" indicates two things: FP tells the matrix department to do a “full protection “ three step process of metal master, mother, and stamper. The “V” designation acknowledges the long history of Keysor Century with government record pressing including the WW2 era “V-discs”.

If an Re-1 (or in some cases -2 or even -3) is seen in the runouts, it's an indication that the original mastered lacquer to metal step(s) was unacceptable for some reason and a replacement lacquer was made, marked RE-1 for re-master one.

PRESSING

Pressing Ring Identification:
• Through 1961: 2.75" "deep groove" pressing ring similar to contemporary RCA pressings - example
• 1961 - 1969: flat label area with approx. 2.875" pressing ring - example
• ca.1969 to 2003: flat label area with 1.5" pressing ring - example