This is the EMI TG12345 MkI recording console that was used by The Beatles and many other artists at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios. It’s best remembered today as the console used to record the seminal Beatles album “Abbey Road.”
This console was also used by Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Billy Preston, The Hollies, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy, and by individual members of The Beatles working on solo projects including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison.
Above Video: This documentary from Music Box tells the story of the Abbey Road, including its origins and what was actually happening inside the band at the time.
“The Beatles Abbey Road” album, released in 1969, is recognized as one of the most influential and important popular music albums of the 20th century. The album showcased the band’s continuing evolution as musicians, songwriters, and producers.
It also featured a range of genres from rock to pop to early progressive, including complex harmonies and innovative recording techniques that would become influential industry wide. The use of the Moog synthesizer on several tracks was particularly groundbreaking, and helped usher in the coming age of electronic music.
The album’s cover, depicting the band members walking across a zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios, has become one of the most famous and imitated images in popular music. Abbey Road was a commercial success, topping charts worldwide.
That small intercom microphone was used by the producer to communicate with the band in the soundproof recording studio.
The EMI TG12345 MkI Recording Console Includes:
- 1 x Control Room Monitor (CRM) Cassette with control room loud speaker, monitor selector, sync replay and main cue levels, ‘correlator’ control, CRM level, loudspeaker quiet, CRM, monitor and meter selects, and mute buttons.
- 1 x Studio Playback Cassette with loudspeaker controls, playback selectors, artist manager microphone and levels, oscillator level, frequency switch, studio playback level, operator talkback and alternate switches, and studio talkback buttons.
- 2 x Group Cassettes, each with channel selector, compressor/limiter, EQs, and echo sends.
- 3 x Track Monitor Cassettes, each with re-record (mixing) selector, replay selector routing, four echo channels and level sends, pan, and monitor track level.
- 5 x Main Cassettes, each with cue sends, EQs, V.U. meters, pan pot, and stereo aux sends.
- 12 x Dual Microphone Preamplifier Cassettes, each with cassette routing selector for group, main, and track monitor cassettes, compressor/limiters, EQs, four echo sends, spreader control, and pan controls; with 38 Painton faders overall, with 10 main cassette Ernest Turner V.U. meters and 30 small dc channel meters plus a phase meter.
- The metal console frame with illuminated EMI logo to the upper left corner, meter bridge, talkback grille, and mains transformer power supply unit (PSU), fitted with modern ‘scribble strip’ front panel.
It comes together with original Vitavox B50 Abbey Road studio talkback microphone as used by The Beatles and other artists and engineers, and a first pressing copy of the Abbey Road LP. If you’d like to read more about this historic recording console or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bonhams
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