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Gluing new center labels over misprint labels - will it work?


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Just got records back from the pressing plant, and most of them have flawed center labels - scuffed, rippled, etc. I have a box of clean labels, and wonder if I can GLUE fresh labels OVER the flawed ones to salvage this mess.   Has anyone done this?   I figure it will be fine as long as I pick the right adhesive and don't slop glue onto the vinyl.  Any feedback greatly appreciated!

 

 

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The plant should fix it, but they won't (extremely shady company -this was only one of the problems we had.)   We'd have to take them to court, which we can't afford.  Meanwhile, people are waiting for records they pre-ordered. 

Why will the gluing on top not work?  I admit it sounds sketchy, but if I used the right adhesive, like Krylon high strength spray, and made sure to press out any air bubbles... seems like it could work.

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sure give it a shot.  Try one and see how it turns out. if it looks nice, do them all.  I've had plenty of records with minor label issues, and if these look nice then it should be fine.  I've had minor and major releases (feist and sigur ros) that have even had labels on the wrong sides  Things happen with presses. If it plays good, that should be what matters.  I know this has place a ton of people that will want a new (replacement) record for the most superfical reasons, but especially since this sounds like a crowd funded type thing, or at least people that cared enough to pre-order, I would assume they will be fine with any minor flaws as long as the music plays with no issue!

 

 

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As an artsy fartsy person heres my 2 cents/pence on the topic (Note this is based on general papercraft/art not specific to records so consider what you feel would be best!): 

 

If you have ripples/creases in the old labels get a flat tip (like a chisel) type exacto/scalpel blade and slice off the raised parts so you get a smooth finish on the new labels.

 

I'd avoid spray adhesive- to get a strong bond you often need to coat both surfaces and that just sounds like it might cause problems record wise. 

 

Elmer's rubber cement is a great one for paper as it doesn't cause it to wrinkle like other wet glues. For a permanent bond you want to coat both the old label on the record and the back of the new label. 

Bonus with the rubber cement is that any excess that squeezes out around the label will roll off when dry (Make yourself a little blob of the glue by painting some on a smooth surface, allowing it to dry a little and then rolling it up and use it to dab and stick up/collect any excess :) This is great when you invariably get some on the top surface by mistake!! haha )

It's also acid free so it wont deteriorate over time and the little jar/tub type containers come with a brush in the lid so they're good to grab and go without having to bother washing applicators and all that mess.  

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Just got records back from the pressing plant, and most of them have flawed center labels - scuffed, rippled, etc. I have a box of clean labels, and wonder if I can GLUE fresh labels OVER the flawed ones to salvage this mess.   Has anyone done this?   I figure it will be fine as long as I pick the right adhesive and don't slop glue onto the vinyl.  Any feedback greatly appreciated!

 

There's a chance there's a second label cleanly attached to the record underneath the bad labels. It's happened to me with a record I did in the past. All I did was peel off the labels with air bubbles and everything was cool. 

 

I'd say check on that before gluing extra labels on there. 

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As an artsy fartsy person heres my 2 cents/pence on the topic (Note this is based on general papercraft/art not specific to records so consider what you feel would be best!):

If you have ripples/creases in the old labels get a flat tip (like a chisel) type exacto/scalpel blade and slice off the raised parts so you get a smooth finish on the new labels.

I'd avoid spray adhesive- to get a strong bond you often need to coat both surfaces and that just sounds like it might cause problems record wise.

Elmer's rubber cement is a great one for paper as it doesn't cause it to wrinkle like other wet glues. For a permanent bond you want to coat both the old label on the record and the back of the new label.

Bonus with the rubber cement is that any excess that squeezes out around the label will roll off when dry (Make yourself a little blob of the glue by painting some on a smooth surface, allowing it to dry a little and then rolling it up and use it to dab and stick up/collect any excess :) This is great when you invariably get some on the top surface by mistake!! haha )

It's also acid free so it wont deteriorate over time and the little jar/tub type containers come with a brush in the lid so they're good to grab and go without having to bother washing applicators and all that mess.

This. Although I think if you've got to do a bunch of these you could make a spray shield for the records with a piece of cardboard with a label sized hole in the center to apply the spray to the record itself. Maybe put felt on the one side that will touch the record so you can apply some pressure and there's no chance for the spray to get outside of the area you want it. It is quite messy though so you'd have to be extremely meticulous about it and choose an area you don't mind being sticky for awhile because it gets everywhere.

Rubber cement is the easier clean up option, but more labor intensive.

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those rippled ones likely have a proper one below.. i've done a couple runs and maybe one out of every 30 or so would have two labels applied, the bottom one solid and the top one all ripply like you described. takes a bit of work but you can pull the rippled ones off leaving the good one below.

 

hopefully

 

 

There's a chance there's a second label cleanly attached to the record underneath the bad labels. It's happened to me with a record I did in the past. All I did was peel off the labels with air bubbles and everything was cool. 

 

I'd say check on that before gluing extra labels on there. 

 
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Thanks for all the feedback, everyone.   These don't seem to have two labels on top of each other.  Would the top label come off easily if that was the case? 

 

I did find a solution for *some* of the records.  There are some where the bubbling isn't very bad - it's basically a long ripple of tiny bubbles that aren't very raised.   On these, I took a credit card (which makes a handy squeegy substitute) and was able to rub the bubbles out.  This doesn't work on the ones with large bubbles.  But on the "rippled" ones it actually worked really well.

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