Fidelity Record Pressing is the first new vinyl plant to open in California in 40 years. The extruder melted thousands of tiny black pellets into a viscous goo. A hissing, linebacker-sized machine, one of 12 just like it in this Oxnard warehouse, shaped it into a puck-sized "biscuit" of plastic.
A press stamped it into a thin, etched disc and shaved off the rough edges, while a second arm shot down and slapped it with a paper sticker. When the machine finished its handiwork, one hard rock fan somewhere in the world would have a pristine new copy of "Van Halen II." "We're essentially making a waffle here," said Rick Hashimoto, owner of the new Fidelity Record Pressing, as he tapped his custom replica of a decades-old SMT vinyl press last week.
Advertisement This Van Halen LP was one of hundreds that would be boxed up and shipped out on the first day that Fidelity was open to the public. The plant's family of founders — two generations of Hashimotos who've endured vinyl bust-and-boom cycles — believe it's the first major plant to open in California in decades (a much smaller boutique press, Onyx, opened in Arcadia in 2023). Jim Davis and Rick Hashimoto of Fidelity Record Pressing.
(Chiara Alexa / For The Times) Their investment is a big bet that the vinyl revival of the last decade-plus will remain a formidable part of music consumption. To meet the new demand, a very old-fashioned fixture of SoCal's music economy is firing back up. "This is pretty much a brand-new version .
