For the ultimate Beatles fan, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has come around to bid on the recording console used to track Abbey Road.
Acquired by a second-hand music equipment outlet called Reverb, the EMI-TG12345 console was built specifically to be the best in the world, and was a prototype when Abbey Road was created upon it.
Its provenance is a bit strange. After the Fab Four finished using it, the TG12345 was disassembled and put into storage. Five years ago, Brian Gibson, a former Beatles collaborator and EMI technician, decided to reassemble and restore the device, using faithfully created replacement parts when the originals were too ruined.
With help from several audio companies and other EMI gearheads, about 70% of the original recording console remains intact: which is to say, built on a blank check to be the best in the world.
“Abbey Road is one of the best albums that’s ever been made, and it sounds so good because of this recording console,” said Dave Harries, who participated in numerous Beatles recording sessions with the console in the 1960s. “Because of the way that Abbey Road was recorded, the album has a distinctive sound that hallmarked the future of pop recording.”
While the console only recorded one full band Beatles project, all four members would go on to use it for their solo projects, Reverb wrote in a statement on the sale.
Some of these projects include John Lennon’s standout single Instant Karma! and his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band record, Paul McCartney’s McCartney, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and Ringo Starr’s Sentimental Journey record.
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According to Harries, the console’s sound was so superior and distinctive that George Harrison asked EMI if he could buy one for himself, only to be turned down for fear that the console would be replicated and sold to one of their competitors.
“This particular console is a one-off. It’s unique. You can’t replace it,” said Harries. “It sounds so good that it holds up against any modern console and, in many respects, it’s probably better. Because in those days, it was built to a different standard—cost, no object. EMI built this to be the best in the world.”
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Apart from its connection to the famous living (and not) Liverpudlians, the console is only one of 17 ever made by EMI—which is now owned by Sony, and so by itself it would typically fetch a high price.
Smithsonian Magazine writes that a similar console, dubbed the Mark IV, was sold at auction for $1.8 million. It was used by several Beatles individually, along with The Cure, Pink Floyd, and Kate Bush.
WATCH a short documentary on the restoration and use of the TG12345…
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