Fake Tool Vinyl Guide

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Updated: March 2017

I have been getting a fair few emails from people asking questions about tool vinyl whether items are fake or not. So I have put together a “Fake Tool Vinyl Guide”. Some of this info I have collected over the years, other stuff and came from Galen, at http://www.collectiveunconscious.org/.

On a side note, I know there are people out there who love tool and want to own anything they can from these guys, but all this stuff below is utter crap. Do not pay money for it, or let anyone you know pay money for it. If you are after rare and interesting recordings from tool there are 100’s of recordings available in different circles on the Internet… All you need is a Bittorrent client, and check out a few sites like:

  • thetradersden.org
  • dimeadozen.org

FAKE Tool Vinyl

Tool ‘Aenima’ Colour Vinyl Reissue LP Gatefold Sleeve

This is probably the most offensive and damaging counterfeit tool vinyl item as so many people are looking for original pressings, and when they end up with one of these it hurts. It says reissue, however there has never been an official reissue.  This comes in yellow or green vinyl most often, however there are also plenty of black vinyl versions. From Ebay: Limited edition reissue, double LP on coloured vinyl (Yellow or Green). Comes in gatefold sleeve with plain white inners.

Stinkfist –  “Eastern European Promo”

Label: “HYA KOH”
This fake / bootleg “promo” copy looks to be like it could, possibly be legit. This has only been on eBay & seems to be sold by one guy from the USA. There is no record of this ‘record’ ever being produced for any reason.

Lateralus – “Rare Blue Vinyl”

A poor, poor counterfeit pressing that offers nothing but a (probable) CD > Vinyl transfer. The actual release of Lateralus by Tool was mixed differently for the vinyl release. This just a sad & poor attempt at making a bootleg.

Lateralus – “Rare Double Vinyl”

This is a different version, obviously, from the blue version because it is “more complete” as it is a “double album”.
Ebay info: This is a mysterious print of Lateralus LP. This was played only one time by me. The tool logo and the title of the record are printed on a sticker on the cover, maybe you could see in the photo. On the vinyl label there are the tool logo, the Lateralus logo and the songs title. I don’t have any other information about this record.

Parabol – “Rare Black Vinyl”

Probably MP3 Sourced. Home-made vinyl pressing. The person or persons who manufactured this have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Side A? Side A would definitely be either the demo’s or something live. Side B has to be various stuff *downloaded* via the Internet in the early 2000’s. All of this stuff is mp3 sources, and freely available on any p2p network…Limewire, Bittorrent etc. The cover has also been taken from a Pink Floyd bootleg.

Salival – “Rare Vinyl”

This tends to surface on eBay & also seems to be available both in the land down under but also in Eastern Europe. Description include comments like “Get this rare MINT LP”, “TOOL – SALIVAL COLOURED DOUBLE LP ”

Album Notes from Blair @ toolband.com:

I’ve received over a dozen e-mails in the past few days about SALIVAL VINYL being sold on ebay. According to the people writing me, these are advertised as being as rare as hen’s teeth (well, as being extremely rare), and can be very pricey (same with the DVD/CD ‘box set’ – those that aren’t even signed by a band member!). For those wondering about the authenticity of the Salival VINYL, I’m fairly certain that these are ALL bootlegs offered for sale by unscrupulous types. As the French might say, this is a travesty. My advice would be to save your hard-earned money, and to keep in mind that I’m not adverse to using an acronym that’s also an anagram (where applicable). But, more about this later. Also, some of those emailing about the questionable Salival vinyl are wanting to know about any possible analogue release for 10,000 Days. To this, I’m sorry to say that I’ve no word yet, but will be sure to post if/when that day comes.

Tool 10,000 days new double LP record coloured Red or Blue

This is a pretty good attempt at looking official, and sales on Ebay are going well because everyone is waiting for the band to make an official vinyl release of the album. But I assure you this is counterfeit. If/When there ever is an official release of 10,000 days on vinyl there will be news of this of the official band website. There has been no such news yet (2017 – maybe it will never come?). Notes from Ebay: New, mint, never played, sealed. This is a limited record: there are only 1000 of it available.

Tool –  Tainted Love Vinyl LP color

Tracks: Calling Dr. Love, Rev 22:20, Passenger, Santa Monica & Orange, Choked, Muhammad My Friend, Divorced, Sober
Someone has taken all of the randomly labeled tool mp3’s that floated around in the Napster era and made a bootleg vinyl from them. There’s a nice Tool font used, and some Pink Floyd-ish cover art. The vinyl itself is blue. Santa Monica, a sublime cover isn’t actually even Maynard or Tool.

Tool  ‘Lollapalooza’ USA 1993 Colour vinyl LP

Tracks: Intolerance, Cold & Ugly, Sober,Swamp Song, Opiate, Bottom, Jerk-Off
A vinyl pressing with source audio from the 1993 Lollapalooza show in Irwindale. The date listed on the auction of the show is: 7/7/1993. However the show was actually in August, not July. The bootlegger has likely used the same source material as the many CD bootlegs floating around that were made from this source: “Tales From The Dark side”, “Sleep Forever”, “Westwood One” “Opium Den” . Ironically if the bootlegger was more resourceful there are plenty of great Sound Board recordings from 93’ Lollapalooza.

Tool Silver Tongue LP

Tracks: Part of me, Hush, Crawl away, Jerkoff, Cold & ugly, Spasm, Wrong way, Kill the revolution
Partly sourced from Mp3 rubbish floating around on p2p networks in the napster era, some of which isn’t even tool (Wrong way).

Tool ‘Lateralus’ Red Vinyl Double LP

The official Lateralus vinyl release took a while to be released to the market, and in the mean time there were a few bootlegs that floated around to fill the gap. These still pop up on eBay from time to time, even though the official release is now easy to come by. I have put a few photos below of auctions I have seen that are not the official release. To see what the official release looks like check out my vinyl guide.

Tool Salival – Red

This one is a bit more recent (2017), and very common. There has never been an official Tool release of Salival on vinyl. The font used is much more recent than the album, which would be pretty weird for starters if you were thinking this is legitimate.

Tool Opiate – Orange Transparent Marbled Vinyl

Pitched as a European import, uses copies of the original labels. Counterfeit.


Tool Ænima 2 × Vinyl LP Album Unofficial Release Gatefold Red

This one is crazy. It’s not even pretending to be official, it says Unofficial in the auction title, yet somehow they want $1450 for it? Crazy right? It is “ULTRA RARE”.

Tool Opiate – Red / Marbled

Looks pretty legitimate because it uses the same label as the original pressing. Counterfeit.

Now on Ebay:

Get items removed from Ebay

If you feel strongly about counterfeit Tool vinyl items on ebay and want to get auctions removed, here is the page on ebay that talks about items like these…it has a link at the bottom that allows you to report fake items….read here.

192 Comments

  1. Douggie_fresh June 19, 2009 at 5:49 am

    Hello,

    I have been seeing a lot of Aenima vinyl reissues latley…there is one that is printed on yellow vinyl and another one on black vinyl. The sleeves bear the Zoo/BMG Logo…but this could mean nothing as I have other bootlegs that have the label on them. I just cant seem to find any info on an official release ANYWHERE! So with that said I cant believe these are legit reissues of Aenima. Any info would help. Also….I didn’t know this, but was there never an official release of Salival on vinyl?

    Thanks!

  3. Cecil Gridley June 27, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    I own the Salival Vinyl, I bought it off of eBay this year and it was sealed. Inside it has the record in a standard record case also sealed and on one side a picture of the person gliding from the Stinkfist video and on the other side has the four pronged fork also from the Stinkfist video. The discs are very thick like the Lateralus ones and the color is a light blue marble. LAMC is not on the record because the length would not fit on two discs. They sound amazing and have no flaws.

  4. admin June 28, 2009 at 3:00 am

    Cecil, of all the vinyl bootlegs the Salival one is the most relisitic, but read the comment above from the toolband (official band website). It is a fake!

  5. sean July 1, 2009 at 12:06 am

    I’ve seen the Aenima lp mentioned above on Aural Exploits website, and they just added 10,000 Days! It says it is a promo copy and it’s on colored vinyl. Any idea where these are coming from?! Are they imports? Any info would be great, thanks!

  6. admin July 1, 2009 at 2:29 am

    Hi Sean – The same website lists the parabol vinyl which is a bad bootleg! So I would take a guess that they are fake. There is no mention of a 10,000 days vinyl on toolband.com, and there would be.

  7. tonym July 1, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    I bought the Aenima LP from aural exploits and it is definitely a bootleg. Colored vinyl, with no real labels (just a brief code so you can tell Side A, B, C, and D.) Plain paper sleeves and cover art that clearly wasn’t printed professionally. Sound quality is excellent though, so I’ll probably hold onto it.

  8. Wes July 2, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    If you press it, they will buy: I know money’s probably not a big deal to the band these days, but how much have they lost by not repressing Aenima? Or not re-issuing the Salival box set? It would be an easy way to make extra cash when they are not touring. They still press Undertow and Opiate??? I bought the crappy fake Lateralus when it was going around, but I got my money back from the seller because it was pressed from an MP3 sourced, Track at Once CD-R, which was extremely frustrating because some of the songs on that album segue into each other. Luckily it finally came out legitimately and was worth the wait. But if whoever is pressing Aenima and 10, 000 Days is doing it properly and the sound is good, more power to them. Maybe the band will wake up and get in gear on this.

  9. nate July 3, 2009 at 12:22 am

    ive just seen someone selling a 10000 days vinyl on ebay, he mentions that it is produced by tool disectional but i guess if someones going to go to the trouble of pressing a bootleg with labels and cover etc then also adding tool disectional is just topping it off in attempts to show authenticity. i did notice that the spelling of hofmann (lost keys blame hofmann) on this pressing is spelt hoffmann, although spelling mistakes have been known to appear in some of tools other music releases. if anyone can say for sure if this is a bootleg or not, tell me so i can buy it!! and as far as the aenima “re-issue” goes, the only difference i can see in the actual cover is that the cardboard is slightly thinner on the re-issue. and just a heads up, im sure there will be people buying the re-issue and swapping the cover with maybe a not so mint original release cover and selling it like that. i guess theres not much difference except for the principal, and the musty smell of the true original!!

  10. teddy July 9, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    i have a tool vinyl that has a picture on it but can not find it in the internet anywhere where could i go to find out what i have and how much it is worth

  11. kgturner July 10, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    there sure is a shitload of those “ultra rare” 10,000 days vinyl on eBay right now. my bullshit detector is pegged. somebody’s cleaning up on those rare releases which were only released in the uk or usa only depending on whose auction you read.

  12. Nick July 11, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    Hi,
    i to have bought the so called re issue of Aenima,to good to be true?
    yes it is from the slightly fuzzy artwork and writing,to the plain paper inner sleeves.
    But wow the sound quality is great ! i’ll settle for this in the hope Tool see sense and reissue it for real.
    Oh and by the way is the mix different from the cd…i’m sure i heared some different parts on my vinyl copy?
    Nick.

  13. Nick July 11, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    Oh and one more thing,i am new to this site…it may have been said but surely Tool are the only major established band without a live dvd.
    Can you just imagine how good it would be?….Blueray,nice box,artwork,booklet,extras….etc…..ok i’ll shut up.
    Nick.

  14. joel July 16, 2009 at 6:51 pm

    this person on ebay is selling fake tool records his name on ebay is operation_goodguys beware he a rip off too

  15. red alert July 16, 2009 at 8:10 pm

    (eBay )collect_it_all_now —- ya i got the record 10,000 days and fuck he rip off and heaps of marks on it the dealer number -ben
    0394197787 and his nick name on ebay is operation_goodguys

  16. Gary July 18, 2009 at 4:50 am

    Hi all,
    Thanks for all the great info, could anyone let me know if the new bootleg Aenima has a gatefold sleeve ? I understand that the record jackets are plain (shame) but what about other artwork ?
    I agree with all others, I have the Parabola and the quality is dismal 🙁

  18. dirty dog July 18, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    man there a lot of fake tool records off ebay fuck i wish they close down there account

  21. Karri July 27, 2009 at 8:06 am

    Does anyone else’s official Lateralus vinyl have really poor sound?
    Mine has very heavy surface noise on it, making it unbearable to
    listen to. It seems that picture discs can be more prone to sound
    imperfections due to their different manufacturing method, but none of my other picture discs are that heavily laced with hisses and the like. Cleaning the record thoroughly did not help at all.

  23. Paul August 10, 2009 at 11:29 am

    Bought the Aenima bootleg in a secondhand shop, knowing that it was a bootleg but the quality is real good so I don’t have anything to complain about (except, that the real Aenima DLP is too damn expensive …)

  24. john August 11, 2009 at 7:33 am

    Mine also sounds bad, you can actually see the warp in the vinyl. I have read others have the same with that problem and that others have ones that sound great. Did you get yours off ebay?

  25. Karri August 13, 2009 at 7:20 am

    Thanks for your replies. I bought the LP from my local record store when it came out. With every needle & cartridge I’ve tried, the record always sounds painful. I guess it’s a part of the nature of vinyl records that some copies can simply become noisy over the manufacturing / assembling / shipping process when they can be exposed to dust & heat etc.

  26. Terry August 16, 2009 at 4:04 pm

    So, what does one do with eBay then? Do you try to file a report to see if eBay will remove these fake recordings? Or, just let the bidders be duped into purchasing counterfit items? Isn’t eBay supposed to do somehting about these f**kheads that sell this shit?

  28. Terry August 16, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Thanks admin. I put in a complaint with eBay….probably won’t make a difference. Maybe if more people did, they’d take notice. I feel sorry for the people that get ripped off.

    I emailed this cock knuckle and said that his lp was a fake/counterfit, and actually got a reply back:

    “No, special limited promo offer”
    – my-vinyl Did this answer your question? If not, let the seller know.
    TOOL 10,000 DAYS 2 X LP BLUE VINYL MINT PROMO

    Item Id: 250480530452
    End time: Aug-16-09 15:05:08 PDT
    Seller:
    my-vinyl (491 )

    99.8% Positive Feedback
    Member since Jan-17-09 in United States
    Location: IL, United States

  29. Terry August 19, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    Fake or not??

    TOOL**LATERALUS (LIMITED EDITION)**VINYL LP
    Item condition: —
    Time left: 25 days 9 hours (Sep 14, 200904:21:31 PDT)

    Price: US $39.95 Buy It NowBuy It NowBuy It Now
    Returns: No Returns Accepted

    Coverage: Pay with and your full purchase price is covered | See terms

    Seller info
    soundcitybeaches ( 398647) 99.8%
    Visit store: Sound City Internet
    Item number: 290340150677
    Item location: Concord, Ontario, Canada
    Ships to: Worldwide

  31. Terry August 20, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    Record store in Santa Cruz selling 10,000 Days LP….

    TOOL 10,000 DAYS LP Brand New Record VINYL
    Item condition: —

    Time left: 2 days 11 hours (Aug 23, 200907:27:55 PDT)

    Quantity: 3 available
    Please enter a quantity of $quantity$ or less
    Please enter a quantity of 1

    Price: US $65.00 Buy It NowBuy It NowBuy It Now

    Seller info
    metamusiconline ( 11203) 100%
    Ask a question
    See other items
    Visit store: METAMUSICONLINE

    Other item info
    Item number: 370248025340
    Item location: 95060, United States
    Ships to: United States
    Payments: PayPal See details
    History: 2 sold

  32. ANDY August 27, 2009 at 2:11 pm

    I have bought both the 10,000 days and the Aenima bootlegs. Both do have great sound, The 10,000 days is def a rip of cd. It has pauses before songs where they would merge together. The packaging does suck on all, my Aenima cover is all wonky and warped. It is lame that these are boots, but i dont think many of us vinyl collecters have any other choice. I think if the band was concerned in any way about this they would just release and re-release real ones…

  33. admin August 27, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Good points Andy…and I agree with you on the band not caring point. Tool show time and time again that they really don’t give a crap about fans…they are one of those bands that like the money, but not the fame. I had a disagreement with some guy on a New Zealand auction site the other day…there was a listing for 10,00 days vinyl…the auction went over $150…and the bidders didn’t even care that it was a bootleg…I think it is crazy to pay that sort of money for a bootleg…that person will be gutted when they see the production value of the actual product that arrives.

  34. Jake September 4, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    Bootleg or actual album?

    TOOL Lateralus 2-LP Vinyl Picture Disc Sealed!

    Item condition: —

    Time left: 5 days 17 hours (Sep 10, 200913:58:13 PDT)

  35. Dan September 6, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    Hey admin, did you say that this record is a genuine m8? I’ve seen auctions for very similiar looking albums which I believed were bootlegs?

  38. Dan September 7, 2009 at 3:26 am

    Thanks admin! It’s ordered and should be on its way at some point this year 😛
    I’ll let you all know how it sounds. (Though my knowledge is severly limited being only my 2nd ever vinyl!)
    Dan

  39. Dan September 7, 2009 at 11:01 am

    Hey guys, just quickly, i found this auction on the site http://cgi.ebay.com/rare-tool-vinyl-lps-10000-days-aenima-lateralus_W0QQitemZ150370176696QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS:B:SRCH:US:101 viewed here we can see the same Lateralus album design that i just bought. I can see here that the 10,000 Days is fake and the one below it. So does that mean the Lateralus and the Aenema are bootlegs too? Will that mean that mine is?
    Sorry the confusion all but i want to make sure 40 wasn’t just wasted.

  40. Admin September 15, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    Dan, Lateralus in the link you provided is legit, the other 3 look fake. Aenima coould be real, as it is hard to say from the photo…but 10,000 days and Salival vinyls are all fake!

  41. nobody September 17, 2009 at 3:24 am

    god damn it, I just bought the Salival pressing off ebay. Oh well, at least I didn’t buy 10,000 days. I hope it gets released on vinyl!

  42. nobody September 17, 2009 at 3:26 am

    god damn it, i just bought Salival off ebay. At least I didnt buy 10,000 days. I hope it gets released on vinyl!

  43. Scooterface September 18, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    Terry on August 20th, 2009 7:39 pm (10,000 days)

    Terry this is a freakin’ bootleg. It came unsealed although “new” I thought. Label around spinle show faint lines (like the user couldn’t hit the hole when mounting.” Vicarious had scratch but very bearable. All are bootleg. I look at it this way, even at bootleg, they are still collectable. Use your own judgement. If there ever is a legit release….I will be on it!

  44. tally September 24, 2009 at 10:30 pm

    there are aenima rereleases on blue vinyl sold in record stores in the UK. the reports here say green and yellow edition are unofficial fakes, but what about the blue vinyl release?

  46. Terry September 25, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    I’ve emailed several of these douchbags selling fakes on Ebay and suprisingly, a couple actually replied back!

    Like this one – TOOL 10,000 DAYS LP LIMITED EDITION VINYL RECORD 10000
    Item Id: 160359063844
    End time: Sep-28-09 12:16:21 PDT

    I told him I thought the vinyl he was selling was fake/counterfeit, and received this back:

    “A few weeks ago it became available on auralexploits.com.
    It is still listed on their website but it is sold out. Go too auralexploits.com and search tool and you will find the listing.”

    Here’s the best example of “Oh, it’s not MY fault, I don;t know what I’m selling…”
    TOOL 10,000 DAYS RARE LTD BLUE VINYL 2LP RARE TRKS MINT
    Item Id: 280394802014
    End time: Sep-16-09 14:16:00 PDT

    Again, I said these were fake copies of the album since they aren’t even out yet:, and this is the unbelievable answer I got in return:
    THANKS, I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TOOL, WE BUY FROM A DISTRIBUTOR, EVERYTHING UNUSUAL SELLS, TOOL FANS KNOW WHAT THEY WANT AND WHAT THINGS ARE FAR MORE THAN I DO. AS I UNDERSTAND IT FROM INFORMED FANS JUST LIKE YOU, THERE ARE MULTIPLE COLORS OF THIS TITLE AND WE TRY TO FIND THOSE FOR THEM. I MAKE NO JUDGEMENT CALL OR EDITORIAL CRITIQUE! THANKS AGAIN & GOOD LUCK IN YOUR SEARCH.

    Another example of “BUYER BEWARE”!!!!

  47. James October 3, 2009 at 4:04 am

    what an excellent website! finally somewhere with some sound advice! i am too in the same situation as a lot of the visitors to this site, and will certainly not be attempting to purchase aenima or 10,000 days until they hopefully get issued/re-issued.

    i dont care how good the vinyl bootlegs are, by definition they are coming from a low quality source, even CD is not going to give you any advantages on a vinyl record.
    so unless you really dont care about the audiophile advantages of vinyl quality, dont buy a bootleg! its just a cd on a big plastic disk!

  48. Ben October 14, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Heartland Records in Melbourne has a copy of the lateralus Blue vinyl bootleg ($60) & the Savital bootleg ($80), the guy who worked there didnt giove a rats when i told him he was selling bootlegs at inflated prices. Also Ive enquired in the Tool webpage (no responce yet) why Opiate & Undertow have been re-released and easily attanable yet Aenima isnt? Fortunatly i brought a copy back in 1997 and still kicking myself I opened it and played it to death.

  49. Chris November 3, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    I just purchased a Lateralus LP Vinyl autographed by the band, I guess it was offered on the toolarmy website. How can I tell if it is authentic and not a fake?

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