Note on "RVG" Pressings of Blue Note Records

As Robert May mentions here, many later issues of Blue Notes, even from the 1970s, have "RVG" or "Van Gelder" stamped into the run-off vinyl. These are more collectible, and they typically sound a lot better than the ones that do not have these markings. My suspicion is that these records are pressed using stampers that derive from the original mastering session, when the record was first released.

Van Gelder would have created the original lacquer when a record was first released. That lacquer can be used to create a number of stampers (how many depends upon other aspects of the process---see e.g. here for a description of it), and each stamper can be used to press about 1000 records. If Blue Note did not need to press too many records all at once, these parts would have been saved and re-used to press the later re-issues (which, thus, would not have needed remastering, which saves money).

The reason the "RVG" records sound so good, then, is that, as far as the stampers go, they actually are 'original'. Most importantly, the later "RVG" pressings were not made from tapes that were 20 years old or whatever. Of course, these are probably later stampers, and so there would be some sonic degradation. But, on the other hand, a given stamper starts to wear out toward the end of its life, which is why it has to be retired. Some later discs may, therefore, actually be superior to earlier ones. (There's no real way to know whether you're getting a disc from the beginning or the end of the life of a given stamper.)

Indeed, it is my understanding that, some years ago, parts deriving from the "Original Jazz Classics" (OJC) series, originally released in the early 1980s, were re-discovered and used to create stampers from which they could press new records. So, again, the tapes used to create these records were much less old than one might suppose. I have some of these releases, which were done on 180g vinyl, and they can be very, very good.