The recording console used by the Beatles in the making of the “Abbey Road” album is being offered for sale for the first time next week on Reverb.
Built by EMI in 1968 and used to record the Beatles’ final recorded album in 1969, the prototype EMI TG1234 recording console is the first of just 17 produced. Lauded for its sound fidelity and technological breakthroughs compared to previous models, the console is remembered as the first to rely solely on transistors.
It took a team around five years to rebuild the console, which had sat unused for decades. The restoration process was led by Brian Gibson, an engineer and Beatles collaborator known for his work shaping the sound of many recordings at Abbey Road Studio, including the Beatles’ album of the same name. The team managed to reconfigure the console with around 70 percent of its original parts.
Finally, the console was used once again for the first time since the Beatles’ solo sessions of the 1970s by a group of artists and engineers, including Sam Simmonds, Duke Garwood and Better Joy.
After being used for “Abbey Road” the console was subsequently utilized by all four Beatles in solo projects, including John Lennon’s “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,” Paul McCartney’s “McCartney,” George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” and Ringo Starr’s “Sentimental Journey.
Reverb’s vintage electronic instruments expert Antoine Bourgougnon told cllct the console was so beloved by Harrison, “often regarded as the biggest tech enthusiast of the Fab Four,” that he attempted to buy it. However, Bourgougnon says EMI was concerned its technology would be copied and sold to a competitor and refused to sell it.
“It sounds so good that it holds up against any modern console and, in many respects, it’s probably better," said Dave Harries, who played a role in multiple recording sessions with the console during the 1960s. “Because in those days, it was built to a different standard, cost no object. EMI built this to be the best in the world.”
Bourgougnon explained the significance of the console as a ground-breaking piece of recording technology: “Nowadays, even if you’re listening to low-quality records, the music itself sounds clean. We take that for granted. Pop an old record on, and you’ll hear scratches and blips that were commonplace until just a few decades ago. The TG 12345 was incredibly clean — so much so that today’s artists actually download electronic plug-ins to virtually replicate its sound.”
Mike Hedges, a producer and engineer who worked with bands such as The Cure and U2 at Abbey Road during the 1980s, said he once threatened to stop working at the studio when they said they would switch to a different brand of console.
With prices for guitars and other music memorabilia reaching record heights in recent years, such as the $2.86 million paid for a Lennon guitar in May 2024, sales of consoles such as the prototype EMI TG1234 are few and far between.
One of the few comparable sales came for another EMI console, used in the recording of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” which sold in March 2017 for a record $1.8 million.
“Due to both the size and uniqueness of recording consoles, they are less traditional memorabilia and more functional instruments that continue to make music, which leads to more peer-to-peer sales,” Bourgougnon said, going on to say this console was built with “an unlimited budget” and state-of-the-art components. “ It would be impossible to rebuild from scratch, or would cost millions for the parts and labor alone, assuming you had the right technicians.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.