Bill Smith Custom Records

Was happy with their service, and if your in the LA area you can drive to pick up your records!

I’ve used them for my past 10 projects. Even thought they’ve priced themselves on the high side for EPs, I still use them. Used URP for years, they went to the crapper. Archer is crud. Rainbo and Erika are way expensive and a pain in the rear. Haven’t tried Brooklyn. Hate the Czech/​GZ DMM mastering sound done by Pirates Press. This is the place for me. Top quality vinyl, reasonable turnaround. Get your stuff mastered well (of course), don’t do cut rate places (aardvark, etc), and all will be good.

I’ve used Bill smith for several of my labels releases. They are good folks that provide a quality service at a reasonable price. Turn around time is always about 4 weeks. The only downer is they don’t print jackets. Kyle H. claims they took almost a year for his release, my guess is he most likely didn’t know what he was doing, they don’t really like to hold peoples hands. If you have pops in your test pressings, it’s because who ever cut your lacquers did a shjtty job. Go with masterdisk or aardvark in the future or just have bill smith do it.

I had the incredible displeasure of working with Bill Smith Custom Records on an independent 7″ vinyl record release last year. Recommended as a mid-​tier vinyl record production plant, my band was excited to be using a «good» record pressing company that came in at our price level.
We did our research, you betcha! We looked at:
UR Pressing
Pirates Press
Rainbo Records
I was not especially impressed with my first contact by phone with BS Custom Records– they seemed a bit rude, bothered by my call, even though I had been schooled by our mastering engineer on exactly what to ask. Yes, I read everything on your website, now before I pull the trigger on a major purchase, I just need a few questions answered. Only after I mentioned putting down a deposit on a credit card did the guy on the line perk up and start treating me with some respect. But that was about the last time…
After our project was sent for off site for plating, it sat and sat, without anyone at BS Custom Records following up, even though they were managing the project. We had our label get involved, to try to push things along at times, with not much better results. Vinyl demand is at an all-​time high, and there seems to be a California work ethic out in El Segundo. Our project took almost a year from the date we contacted BS Custom Records to receive a shipment of under 500 records.
We paid an extra $ 50 for a test-​pressing, and we were glad we did. There were snap crackle pops on the first play. Wait, is this a «vintage» effect? Shouldn’t be happening on a first pressing. BS Custom Records blamed it on the Mastering, or the Plating… passing the buck. If they didn’t like the Master or Plating, they were managing the project and could have sent it back to those companies before making a bad test-​pressing of vinyl and sending it to us, right? I didn’t get their excuses.
I’ve learned enough about the process now, that I can heartily recommend other plants to anyone that asks about our project. And it’s not a mistake I kept abbreviating «Bill Smith» in this review.