I’ve just spent the day moving the site to a new much faster host, fixing some issues, and changing over to a new theme. The other theme was 8 or 9 years old and it was causing a lot a of issues relating to usability of the site.
I am really proud of Toolvinyl, it’s a site that has consistently gotten 70-120 visitors a day for the best part of the last 10 years, and some days much more (thanks reddit). It’s long overdue to get an update, so hopefully you enjoy. The site has gained a lot of attention over the years. It has been mentioned in the official tool band newsletter in response to a question.
It has been cited on wikipedia, on a page my wiki account doesn’t even have edit rights to. It often shows up in various vinyl community forums, and in social places like Facebook and Reddit.
I will be spending some time updating the material on the site in the coming weeks, checking the vinyl guide and fake guide and updating them with the best information I have. Please contact me if you find information you feel is incorrect. The site represents my best knowledge on the topic, but that’s not to say it can’t be improved on, or that I haven’t gotten anything wrong.
In terms of fakes and bootlegs, I am certain bootleg makers often use the guide as a means of trying to create new harder to detect fake Aenima vinyl, so be aware, they are pretty good these days at making fakes. I do get the odd grumpy email from sellers asking me to remove their photos and details, so I guess it’s still working. Counterfeit vinyl sells well because so many people want the original and it is hard to get and expensive. Everyone likes to believe they have stumbled on a deal. I still dream of the day I will walk into a 2nd hand music store and find a mint copy of the original pressing just sitting there. Anyway, enjoy the new site, it should be significantly faster than the old host, let me know if you find anything else broken. The copy over process seems to have a few issues, around special characters, mostly the fancy AE that a lot of people use to write Aenima.
Cheers, Simon
Great news! I have used and promoted your site for years! When I bought my first Ænima vinyl, only to discover it was counterfeit, your site became my TOOL vinyl bible. I have used it many times since on my quest to complete my vinyl collection. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for doing this for the fans. We would be lost without you!