Neil Young Owned "HARVEST MOON" LP METAL ACETATES (DMM Reference Discs) | eBAY

Neil Young Owned "HARVEST MOON" LP METAL ACETATES (DMM Reference Discs) | eBAY(Click photo to enlarge)

 

In case you're looking for that last minute holiday gift for your favorite Neil Young fan, here might be the exact item you're looking for!

Up for auction on eBay (thanks Johnny Q!), Neil Young's personal DMM (direct metal mastering) copper Album Reference Discs for his 1992 album Harvest Moon.

DMM was a record mastering technology whereby a copper disc was cut instead of a lacquer acetate, allowing two steps to be eliminated from the record pressing process.

These two single-sided copper plated metal discs measure nearly 1/2" wider than a conventional album, and weight a few pounds each. They were cut at Masterdisk in New York City on September 10, 1992 (Harvest Moon was released November 2 1992.) Numerous record stampers were made directly from these copper discs, which were then sent to Neil Young. The original box from Masterdisk is included.

While not intended to be played on a turntable, the discs function like a record, and can be played.

The provenance is best explained by the included letter of authenticity from longtime Neil associate Joel Bernstein:

This letter is to authenticate two single-sided DMM Album Reference Disks (the equivalent of DMM metal acetates) of Neil Young's album Harvest Moon, with Masterdisk labels, dated 9/10/92.  These discs belonged to Neil Young, who gave them to me.

I photographed Neil Young for the first time at his first East Coast show with Crazy Horse, at the Bitter End in New York City, in February 1969. I went on to work with Neil extensively, as both his and CSNY’s tour photographer, and shooting him for eighteen of his album covers (including After The Gold Rush, Harvest, Time Fades Away, Tonight’s The Night, Decade and Rust Never Sleeps) plus numerous other official projects including publicity, advertising, songbooks, posters, et al. On various tours from 1973-1993, I also worked with Neil as his guitar technician; and served as his archivist for 20 years, researching and presenting him with every source for audio, artwork and text used in his massive box set Archives Vol. 1  1963-1972.

During the course of working for Neil, he gave me various acetates, test pressings, set lists and other memorabilia. Neil knew I was a collector and he wasn’t, so once he was done with things like this, instead of throwing it away, he often gave it to me. 

Sincerely, 

Joel Bernstein

 

Letter of Authenticity by Joel Bernstein

Don't be denied!

As you may recall, earlier this month "One of the rarest records in the world": NEIL YOUNG UNRELEASED TRANS TEST PRESSING w/ UNRELEASED EXTRA TRACK | ebay.

 

More on Neil Young's archivist Joel Bernstein.

 

Joel Bernstein
San Francisco, April 9, 2018
(see Joel Bernstein Interview: The Story Behind Neil Young's Album "Songs for Judy)

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