For anyone who preordered the new Itchy & The Nits from me.
I've been waiting to send this message till I had a concrete plan moving forward and some kind of timeline... I received the first round of tests for Itchy & The Nits back in early January and experienced an issue where on most turntables the needle was jumping out of the grooves. I had to reject the tests. I spoke to the lacquer house and they explained their lathe had recently been serviced which resulted in a strange anomaly causing this issue. It had since been addressed and new correct lacquers would be made. I also spoke to the plant and they were going to rush the job once new stampers arrived. I received new tests last week and the issue is still present, just less severe. The new tests were only having this issue on one of my four turntables, but that turntable was having no issue with any other record. I've been testing the Nits record on a number of different turntables and with one exception have had no issue. This has been very frustrating and a hard decision to make. I've been in dialogue with the pressing plant and the people who cut the lacquers. After a lot of back and forth I had to reject the second round of test presses. I don't want to run the risk of pressing a record that doesn't work for some people.
I'm having someone new cut the lacquers and send me a reference before moving forward. I should have the reference lacquer late next week and if it's issue free I will have new records by the end of March/ early April. I'm very sorry to everyone who preordered for the long wait. I'm also sorry for the delay in sending this message. I just wanted to make sure I got this right. This situation stinks but both the plant and the lacquer people have been very helpful and easy to work with. I'll keep you guys all updated on progress and get the records out to you as soon as I can. If anyone wants a refund just let me know.
Sorry again,
Rich
