Rudy Van Gelder's cutting equipment and EQ curves — what the equipment records and his own testimony tell us

Last updated: April 8, 2026 Reading time: approx. 5 min

What equipment did Rudy Van Gelder use for cutting?

Question answered on this page: What equipment did Rudy Van Gelder — the engineer who cut records for Blue Note and Prestige — use, and what EQ curve did he record with? And how does this relate to the debate over EQ curves?

An engineer who controlled everything from recording to cutting

Rudy Van Gelder (1924–2016) was the engineer behind decades of recordings and lacquer cutting (mastering) for jazz labels including Blue Note, Prestige, and Impulse!

What set Van Gelder apart was that he handled everything from recording to cutting himself. Most labels farmed out recording and cutting to different studios and different engineers, but Van Gelder controlled the entire chain — from microphone selection to lacquer cutting — under one roof.

Originally a practicing optometrist, Van Gelder began recording to 78 rpm lacquer discs at home in the 1930s. Around 1950, he transitioned to tape recording (purchasing an Ampex 300-C in June 1951), and in 1953 he acquired a Fairchild 523 cutting lathe to begin mastering in-house. This move into self-contained cutting was what led him to secure Blue Note Records and Vox Records as clients (RVG Legacy).

Producer Bob Porter noted that Van Gelder could "put more level on an LP than anyone else" in the business.

The evolution of his cutting equipment

Before Grampian / Gotham (1953 – early 1955)

When Van Gelder acquired his Fairchild 523 cutting lathe in 1953, he is believed to have been cutting with the AES curve. Before the Van Gelder years, Blue Note's cutting had been done at WOR Studios, whose chief engineer was a member of the AES standards committee (→ Pt.17). It is likely that Van Gelder initially continued with the same AES curve.

Grampian / Gotham system onward (early 1955–): the switch to RIAA

Van Gelder then turned his attention to improving his cutterhead and cutting amplifier.

He adopted the BBC-standard Grampian B1/AGU cutterhead, but found the companion Grampian RA4 cutting amplifier underpowered. He asked Rein Narma, an engineer at Gotham Audio in Manhattan, to develop a more powerful cutting amplifier. The result was the Gotham PFB-150WA — a 150-watt cutting amplifier with built-in RIAA recording equalization (RVG Legacy).

A frequency measurement graph of this system dated March 11, 1955 (measured by Jay McKnight, verified by Rein Narma) is available on the RVG Estate website.

That same year, Van Gelder invested in a Scully 601 cutting lathe ($8,500 — roughly $80,000 in today's dollars). In 1962, he acquired a second unit, enabling simultaneous dual-master cutting.

For details → Pt.18, Pt.19

The stereo era: Fairchild → Westrex (late 1950s–)

With the arrival of stereo, Van Gelder adopted the Fairchild 642 stereo cutterhead — co-designed by Rein Narma, the same engineer he had worked with since the Gotham days. Although the competing Westrex system became the industry standard, Van Gelder continued using the Fairchild for several years.

Around 1965, he finally transitioned to the Westrex 3D II cutterhead. This system remained in use for decades (RVG Legacy).

Both the Fairchild 641 system (which included the 642 cutterhead) and the Westrex system were designed around the RIAA recording characteristic (→ Pt.19).

Van Gelder's own testimony

In a contributed article titled "How Quality Of Old Discs Is Brought Up In Standard," published in Down Beat on October 19, 1955, Van Gelder described the process of remastering older recordings. Regarding cutting, he stated:

Incidentally, these remastered recordings should be played back with the same reproduction curve as any new records. In my case, I use the standard RIAA curve.

The equipment records and his own testimony are consistent. The Gotham PFB-150WA introduced in early 1955 (RIAA recording EQ built in), the Fairchild 641 from the late 1950s (RIAA recording EQ), and the Westrex system from 1965 (RIAA recording EQ) — all were designed around the RIAA characteristic.

For details → Pt.20

Connection to the EQ curve debate

Van Gelder's cutting equipment and his own testimony both point to the use of the RIAA characteristic.

From these objective facts, it follows logically that Van Gelder was cutting with the RIAA curve from early 1955 onward.

Blue Note and Prestige records bear different label artwork, but the cutting was all done at the same Van Gelder studio, using the same equipment.

→ Are all U.S. stereo LPs on the RIAA curve?

The "RVG sound" is not about the EQ curve

Van Gelder's recordings have a distinctive sonic character known as the "RVG sound." Some have attributed this to differences in EQ curves, but in reality it was the entire signal chain that created "that sound."

Around 1951, Van Gelder acquired a Neumann U47 — a German condenser microphone that barely existed in the United States at the time — and began using it on sessions from January 1953. Its sensitivity and detail in the high frequencies, unrivaled by the American RCA ribbon and Western Electric microphones that came before it, was one of the starting points of the RVG sound (RVG Legacy).

Beyond microphone choice, program EQ, tape dubbing techniques, and compression processing all combined across multiple stages to shape a single, distinctive sound.

→ What factors besides the EQ curve affect the sound of a record?

Revision History

April 8, 2026: Initial publication