Remaster Rip-off !

[MasterCylinder]

Due to the Hify post on Bromberg, I went to an on-line seller and looked around.
I ordered the Bromberg disc and also looked at the inventory of "REMASTERED" CDs.............thus I wound up also ordering newer remastered versions of Presence (Led Zepp), Aja (S. Dan) and ZZ Top's First Album.

Received in the mail yesterday, I am happy to announce that all of these discs are great.

The lone exception is that the ZZ Top CD is NOT a remastered disc.............it is the original 1969 analog recording put in a digital format and it succeeds in sounding like that. I'm keeping it because I like this album and it was only $5.

Don't sell your hair to a wig shop -- and don't order ZZ Top's First Album in a Remastered format.

Since I know there are millions that read our posts every day here at the board, I'm certain I'm saving untold fortunes with this warning.

[Hyfi]

Although much of the Bromberg catalog is smooth jazz, there are many tracks where he does similar stuff as on the JH disk.

[MasterCylinder]

I wanted to hear the mastery of the instrument in it's various forms.

In addition, it takes a lot of guts to tackle any of the Hendrix library.

[Finch Platte]

Due to the Hify post on Bromberg, I went to an on-line seller and looked around.
I ordered the Bromberg disc and also looked at the inventory of "REMASTERED" CDs.............thus I wound up also ordering newer remastered versions of Presence (Led Zepp), Aja (S. Dan) and ZZ Top's First Album.

Received in the mail yesterday, I am happy to announce that all of these discs are great.

The lone exception is that the ZZ Top CD is NOT a remastered disc.............it is the original 1969 analog recording put in a digital format and it succeeds in sounding like that. I'm keeping it because I like this album and it was only $5.

Don't sell your hair to a wig shop -- and don't order ZZ Top's First Album in a Remastered format.

Since I know there are millions that read our posts every day here at the board, I'm certain I'm saving untold fortunes with this warning.

ZZ Top has also released a 5-pack of some of their more popular early albums. You can see it here.

Does NOT contain their first disc (weird), but has Rio Grande Mud, Fandango!, Tres Hombres, Deguello and Eliminator. I was going to pick it up, thinking that if they rereleased 'em, maybe they were remasturd and I'd pick them up, but it doesn't say anywhere on the package that they is. So I didn't.

Be forwarned. Remember when they released the 6-Pack and all the songs were rerecorded with "improved" sounding drums and guitar?

[3LB]

don't order ZZ Top's First Album in a Remastered format.

Hold on there...

Upon the heels of ZedZed Top's über successful Eliminator album, their label decided to release their back catalog on CD (for the first time). The "Six Pack" as it was called, culled together the first 5 albums plus El Loco (skipping Deguello). In an effort to update those albums sound, new drum tracks (machine) were dubbed in, plus other 'enhancements' like dubbed guitar effects and reverb were added, to detrimental effect in the opinion of most fans. A few years later, when the individual albums were released on CD, they used the Six Pack masters instead of the original masters.

So, unless you get the recent remaster, your getting something smeared with '80s doodoo, which isn't a problem if you liked the way the Six Pack sounded.

I'd venture a guess that many a remaster are merely the analog taped transferred to a digital format; if you're lucky, the original source tapes were used.

I own Chrome, Smoke & BBQ, their 4-CD box set, and it thankfully was mastered from the original masters.