How much colour choice do you actually get on a lathe cut?
Pressed vinyl needs a dedicated colour run to go beyond black, which is exactly why custom colours are usually reserved for runs of hundreds of copies. A lathe cut works differently. Here's what's actually possible, and what to think about before you choose.
Why PETG makes colour practical at one-off quantities.
On a pressed record, colour comes from the PVC compound itself — getting anything other than standard black means a dedicated colour run at the pressing plant, which only makes sense once you're ordering in the hundreds. That's a large part of why coloured vinyl has historically been a limited-edition, higher-volume thing.
PETG lathe cutting works the other way round. The blanks themselves come pre-manufactured in a range of stock colours and finishes, so choosing a colour doesn't mean setting up a special production run — it means picking from what's already available and cutting your one copy (or five, or twenty) directly into it. That's what makes real colour choice practical even for a single dubplate or a short run for a gig.
What's actually available right now.
Rather than a theoretical list of everything PETG can come in, here's the honest current line-up — the colours actually in stock and ready to cut into today:
Black
The standard blank, always in stock. The default unless you ask for something else.
White
Solid, opaque white — a clean, high-contrast alternative to black.
Clear
Fully transparent — see straight through to the groove and label beneath.
Transparent red
A red-tinted see-through finish — the same glass-like quality as clear, with colour.
Yellow Sometimes
In stock periodically rather than permanently — worth asking, but not guaranteed for every order.
Always expanding. This is the range today, not the ceiling — the line-up of available colours and finishes is actively growing. If you don't see what you want listed here, ask anyway. Pricing: a standard coloured blank (anything other than black) is +£0.50 per record on top of the base price.
Does colour affect how it sounds?
No meaningful difference. Black, white, clear, transparent red and yellow are all the same PETG base material with a small amount of colourant — it doesn't change how the stylus cuts or traces the groove. Choose on looks, not on any sound quality trade-off.
Choosing a colour for your project.
Gifts and personalised records — colour is often the whole point. A wedding, birthday or anniversary cut in a meaningful colour turns a one-off record into something closer to a keepsake than a format choice.
Bands and artists — matching a colour to your artwork, single cover or brand gives a short run of lathe cuts a more finished, intentional feel when you're selling them at gigs or online.
DJs and dubplates — colour is mostly personal preference and practicality; some DJs like a dubplate to be visually distinct from the rest of their bag at a glance.
Whatever the reason, the process is the same: mention your colour preference when you place your order. The current range is black, white, clear, transparent red and (sometimes) yellow — more focused than some people expect, so it's worth checking before you build a concept around a specific shade. It's also a range that keeps growing, so ask even if you have something more specific in mind.