Sgt Pepper mixes: the difference between mono and stereo?

Just got my mono Pepper off ebay. It's a yellow and black parlophone original, XEX 637-1 on side one and 638-1 on side two. It's in really good shape and has the cut-outs intact and the psychedelic inner sleeve. I'm 29 now and got my first beatles LP when I was 9. My parents got me the blue box set when I was 11 and I still have it. I'm very familar with the stereo mixes, but tonight was the first time I had heard the mono pepper. I love it. I especially like Pauls scatt on the reprise and the mono version of Lucy. The vinyl is in good shape and has good gloss and no skips, but does have a good amount of noise. Would anyone have any suggestions has how to get it to sound a little cleaner? I've been a beatles fan since young, but since joining this forum have picked up the mono pepper and Help. Thanks a lot guys for opening me up to the world of Beatles mono.

 

Greg....I see the big number "1" post. Welcome to the forum.
I was just listening to it tonight....I like it a lot more than the stereo, just for the 'heaviness" on a lot of the tracks....especially the first 3! The drums and bass are more prominent....and the guitars on Sgt Pepper (first track) just rock!

As for the cleaning up, I'll leave some of our experts to answer that.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Greg!

As for cleaning up your mono Pepper, I'd suggest combining the left and right channels coming off your phono cartridge into a mono summed signal. You can buy a complementary pair of Y-connectors at Radio Shack that'll do the trick nicely. I think you'll find that the summed signal has much less surface noise and rumble.

For general record cleaning, I've been using LAST for the past several weeks. A lot of people on the forum swear by Disc Doctor.

Good luck, and enjoy your time with this great mono album. When you're ready, go looking for the Beatles EP set on CD, too. I just bought it last week, on the recommendation of this forum, and it sounds very, very nice. Far and away the best-sounding Beatles on CD, IMO.

 

Thanks for the info and the nice welcome guys. I appreciate it.

 

Welcome aboard Greg!

Best regards,

Gary