Eel Pie Neve Console

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matriachamplification

matriachamplification

Wall Thomas
Joined
Feb 3, 2019
Messages
447
Location
Ontario, Canada
Hello friends,

With some amazing luck Wilma has randomly tracked down the Eel Pie Neve Console that Mr. Thompson-Bell designed while at Neve and its for sale! If the Canadian dollar was not so weak we would happily fork over the $330,000 asking price.

https://shop.sylviamassy.com/produc...t-tt-patchbay-historic-quadrophenia-8028-era/
None the less we have reached out to the owner Dan Alexander and Sylvia at SylviaMassey to enquire about them donating the console to our museum. Here is to wishful thinking but more so. Awesome find!

All the best!

Wallace, Wilma and the Kids.
 
Dan doesn't own the desk unless he purchased it from the owner. Dan is a gear broker, he usually sells stuff on consignment and takes a cut or buys outright and sells it. Dan does not donate to museums but it doesn't hurt to ask as you never know.
Sylvia has her ownNeve, IIRC it came from sound city but is not not the dave grohl studio A desk, her's came from their B room. Sylvia has retired the desk and had it up for sale, but I don't know if it ever got sold. The asking price was well over a reasonable market price.

The desk from Eel pie was/is at Prairie Sun studios up in northern California. It was/is in their B room. It was restored by Geofff Tanner and Gene Cornelius(engineer at prairie sun) when it went in. They are asking a reasonable price for the desk and it's provenance but considering the market and how people mix these days one could say it is over priced.
 
pucho812 said:
Dan doesn't own the desk unless he purchased it from the owner. Dan is a gear broker, he usually sells stuff on consignment and takes a cut or buys outright and sells it. Dan does not donate to museums but it doesn't hurt to ask as you never know.
Sylvia has her ownNeve, IIRC it came from sound city but is not not the dave grohl studio A desk, her's came from their B room. Sylvia has retired the desk and had it up for sale, but I don't know if it ever got sold. The asking price was well over a reasonable market price.

The desk from Eel pie was/is at Prairie Sun studios up in northern California. It was/is in their B room. It was restored by Geofff Tanner and Gene Cornelius(engineer at prairie sun) when it went in. They are asking a reasonable price for the desk and it's provenance but considering the market and how people mix these days one could say it is over priced.
Click to expand...
Hello pucho,

thanks for sharing this info! Always interested in learning about console particulars. As always you are well informed :)

All the best!

Wall
 
pucho812 said:
Dan doesn't own the desk unless he purchased it from the owner. Dan is a gear broker, he usually sells stuff on consignment and takes a cut or buys outright and sells it. Dan does not donate to museums but it doesn't hurt to ask as you never know.
Sylvia has her ownNeve, IIRC it came from sound city but is not not the dave grohl studio A desk, her's came from their B room. Sylvia has retired the desk and had it up for sale, but I don't know if it ever got sold. The asking price was well over a reasonable market price.

The desk from Eel pie was/is at Prairie Sun studios up in northern California. It was/is in their B room. It was restored by Geofff Tanner and Gene Cornelius(engineer at prairie sun) when it went in. They are asking a reasonable price for the desk and it's provenance but considering the market and how people mix these days one could say it is over priced.
Click to expand...
Boy, it's been a strange/sad couple of years watching these desks that Dan's listing. Last year it was the 5316 from the original Tiny Telephone in San Fransisco and maybe another Neve, and now this one. I had to go look at his site to see if he still has the Helios from The Manor listed—sure enough, it's there.
 
I've seen this console before and I'm trying to remember...
I was sure that Prairie Sun had two 8048's when I was there-I may be wrong- both really needed sorting out.
Geoff Tanner never restored consoles- he prefers to align and setup- he doesn't solder even...
 
Hooray!
Someone actually _refusing_ to be credited for something they didn't do.
How refreshing.
Nice one Ian.

So many people claim ownership of certain consoles and outboard designs, since they worked for the companies concerned, and years later, you find out that they only made the tea.
 
I was once in that room recording through that console, a few years ago (as guest musician, not as engineer, not my session). I got to hear the EQs during mix set up, and hanging out, I can verify it exists and it works. :)
 
tommypiper said:
I was once in that room recording through that console, a few years ago (as guest musician, not as engineer, not my session). I got to hear the EQs during mix set up, and hanging out, I can verify it exists and it works. :)
Click to expand...
It is fairly easy to spot. It is one of the few Neve desks fitted with PPMs throughout (unless someone changed them since I last saw it in 1975).

Cheers

Ian
 
Ian, thanks, sorry, I must be getting old, what are PPMs? Price Per Minute studio rates? :)

I remember it b/c of the distinct room, and all the 1064s...

(...and they always mentioned it was formerly PT's.)

Blakey, when I was there this was the only Neve. At least settled. I was there a couple times on a couple projects and saw and worked in several rooms. I don't believe they ever had a 2nd Neve, at least settled, or at least long term. Maybe in a transition... it does ring a faint bell that they had one that needed repairs, and were figuring it out, maybe even functional but sitting in the middle of the room like a piano or something I think that could be, I have a vague memory of it under blankets, now that I think of it. I may be way off.

I believe this one is an 8036, not 8048, maybe Ian can confirm, and let us know the difference.
 
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Apropos of whatever...

@groselicain The 5316 from Tiny Telephone was being sold because John bought an 8068. I only know this because I bought a bunch of transformers and 3514's pulled from that 5316.

He actually wound up parting the console out because he was having a really difficult time selling the it due to COVID (impossible for anyone outside the country to check out the board). He had all of the modules (3314's or 15's, can't remember) racked in pairs and they're available for purchase from him.

For all of those curious about the differences in 'The Neve Sound' of the two consoles; John told me that the 8068 sounded like the 5316 to him, or the 5316 sounded like the 8068, not sure which....

It's a little funny (to me) that the console often touted as 'The Best Sounding Neve' (by somebody, somewhere trying to sell one), the 8068, is all Class A/B outputs. You know, the ones that aren't supposed to sound as good as the 'Pure' Class A Outputs (127x's). Yes, I know the input modules were Class A (10xx modules), but the rest of the console buses (only two s's) and sends are all 3415's.

I guess 'The Neve Sound' is mostly in the transformers.

Or people's heads.

I'll go away now....
 
noizetoys said:
Apropos of whatever...
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for that! I was scared that desk would be parted out when I saw how it didn't move. I actually had a really hard time not buying some of his strips and transformers—partly because of all the records I know and love that were cut and/or mixed on it.

You mention that the sound is mostly in the transformers, and I sure think you're onto something.

Please don't go away!
 
I've also talked to a few people who have cloned, modded, repaired, etc. original modules and most say that the current Carnhills are sonically "close enough" (+/- 3%) to the originals that they stopped worrying about it. The only issue, now apparently not much of an issue, was that the mic input transformer had to be tweaked a little to more closely match the original St. Ives.

Bare in mind that there are sonic differences between original modules. No two sound exactly the same. I used to have some 1066's and 1272's (converted to pre's by Brent Averill) and they didn't sound exactly like one another. Close enough for Rock and/or Roll.

I have original mic (10468) and line (31267) input and output transformers (1166) that I'm going to put into a 'new' hand-wired AMS/Neve 1073 and see how different they sound. I also have original (currently un-recapped) 283 & 284 cards to try out as well.


I am continually amazed at the amount of half-truths and misinformation that persists on the Interwebs about all things Neve. But, then again, I am a bit of a nerd about that stuff and I'm not trying to sell anything so.... @ruffrecords has been invaluable in my learning and understanding this stuff as have many others on this forum.

Best get back to acting like I'm working...



Now, how do I go about replacing 283/284 amp cards with 2520's.....
 

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