A Guide to Choice Studio One Pressings

This guide is a community project, aiming to help people navigate the mind-numbing record pressing maze of the legendary Studio One label. It is by no means intended to be a definitive guide (nothing is definitive with Studio One due to terrible quality control). It is my hope that this guide will serve as a resource for those on a similar journey to figure out the best quality pressings of critical Studio One tracks.

Collecting Jamaican music isn't glamorous. I've been flashed on in West Oakland while buying records from an old Jamaican couple. I've spent days wearing a cheap gas mask while digging through rat-shit-infested attics and basements. I have traversed the five boroughs in New York City looking for old Studio One 45s and (arguably) discovering more of my own roots than anything else.

This project has been a long time coming for me - my father was from the North Bronx/White Plains area and was a lifelong student of Jamaican music. From him I inherited my obsessive nature about record collecting, my love for Jamaican music, and my exhaustive researching habits.

In truth, no man is an island, and I can only hope to be helpful to others who love Studio One. Please feel free to write to me with any questions or input, it is all a work in progress.

On some long road shit,
Morgan Nixon