“Dubbed”
Seventy-eight-rpm disc manufacturing processes entailed the creation of several generations of positive and negative impressions of the wax or lacquer master recording. The final, negative, “plate” from which shellac discs were pressed was called a “stamper.” The positive plates from which stampers were created were called “mothers.” Stampers were good for a limited number of pressings before they wore out. When they wore out, new stampers were generated from the mother. If a stamper was worn out and a mother was not available, usually because it was inadvertently lost, destroyed, or damaged during a manufacturing process, new stampers could not be made. In those instances, a regular disc would be copied to serve as the source of a new set of mothers and stampers. Pressings derived from copied discs were called “dubs.” This process resulted in discs of audibly inferior sound to that heard on pressings from stampers made from original mothers. Victor usually indicated dubbed 78-rpm pressings by inscribing “S/8” in the ride-out area of the disc.