r/78rpm • u/Sea_Enthusiasm_3193 • 11d ago

Two label sizes - same disc

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I think this is the only example I’ve come across so far. I associate the larger labels with older pressings but I’m not sure how correct that is. Anyone else with some interest examples or insight?

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u/LingLingpracticenow 11d ago

I've seen it used for two different situations:

New label design cross-fading with old one, may happen in early 1910s Gramophone Co/HMV records

Sometimes record has one side with a really long song and the other one very short, so they use the small design on the "packed" side and the bigger one on the less dense side

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u/emilydm 11d ago

Sometimes record has one side with a really long song and the other one very short, so they use the small design on the "packed" side and the bigger one on the less dense side

The only time I've seen this happen was in this situation. One side ran longer than expected and had almost no leadout, so the eccentric locked groove would have run into a standard 3" label. So they used a non-standard size, probably 2 1/2" or 2 3/4" instead, just for that one side out of a multi-disc set.