You Can Buy the Recording Console the Beatles Used to Make Their Iconic Album ‘Abbey Road’

Rock fans, musicians, producers and engineers looking for inspiration will have the opportunity to bid on a rare recording console that the Beatles used to track one of their most famous albums.

The EMI TG12345 console, which is being sold by Reverb, was a prototype installed in Abbey Road Studios in London. There, the band used it while working on Abbey Road (1969), the last album they recorded together—and one of the most celebrated in rock history.

“They’ve achieved here the closest thing yet to Beatles freeform, fusing more diverse intriguing musical and lyrical ideas into a piece that amounts to far more than the sum of those ideas,” wrote Rolling Stone’s John Mendelsohn in a 1969 review.

The album’s big hits—such as “Come Together,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something”—were all recorded with the TG12345. Dave Harries, an engineer who worked with the Beatles during many recording sessions in the 1960s, thinks the console played a vital role in their final sound and ultimate success.

“Abbey Road is one of the best albums that’s ever been made, and it sounds so good because of this recording console,” says Harries in a statement. “This particular console is a one-off. It’s unique. You can’t replace it.”

In addition to Abbey Road, the console was used to record several later solo projects, including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Ringo Starr’s Sentimental Journey (1970) and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (1970).

Only 17 models of the console were ever created. After the band members were done using it, the original prototype was retired, taken apart and put in storage.

Then, five years ago, Brian Gibson, a former EMI engineer and Beatles collaborator, decided to reassemble and restore the device. He organized a team of audio engineers and technicians, who were able to reconstruct the console using 70 percent of its original parts. They also worked with British companies, which built faithful replicas of missing pieces.

To celebrate the return of the TG12345, the team set up the device at the former home of London’s Decca Studios earlier this fall. For the first time in more than 50 years, musicians put it to the test.

We Recorded on the Restored Beatles' Abbey Road EMI Console

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Artists such as Duke Garwood, Sam Simmonds, Rosalie Cunningham, Sara Hartman and Hana Brooks gathered to try it out, according to Rolling Stone’s Jon Blistein. Reverb filmed the sessions and released a short documentary about the console’s history and restoration.

“It sounds so good that it holds up against any modern console and, in many respects, it's probably better,” says Harries in the statement. “Because in those days, it was built to a different standard—cost, no object. EMI built this to be the best in the world.”

While there is no estimated price, the machine could end up being quite expensive. In 2017, a TG12345 MK IV console—which had been used by Harrison, Starr and Paul McCartney, as well as artists like Pink Floyd, Kate Bush and the Cure—sold for $1.8 million.

The sale begins on October 29, and officials at Reverb are hoping the console will appeal to musicians who want to use it.

“Music gear is meant to be played,” Antoine Bourgougnon, vintage electronics expert at the company, tells the Observer’s James Tapper. “That’s what’s so special about the Abbey Road console—of course, it’s a piece of history, but it’s also been restored to be in perfect working condition so that it can go on to make even more music for years to come.”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.