It never fails to impress me how much human labor went into building 80 Series Neve consoles.
I am referring to desks built from about 1970 – 1978. Neve had 500 employees! They must have bought
the tea in bales … Check this out: the wiring looms for the consoles went into the desk frame in ONE
piece, already tie wrapped and ready to be soldered in … what? As hard as that is to picture, there you
go …
Just the complexity of a single auxiliary module is daunting.
(Please read in David Attenborough’s voice):
I’m looking at the front section of a rather complex Neve buss and aux module. It offers eight buss outs
plus eight aux sends with four volumes that switch pre/post fader in pairs. The module also has solo,
mute and pan (side to side and front to rear) all mounted on a sub panel with a front panel that
measures 12” x 1-3/4”. It contains 22 push button switches, four single pots, plus a dual pot/switch.
Aside from the sheer electronic complexity, the physical construction of these modules and
consoles approached aircraft quality. Few other companies built physical components with this degree
of strength and design integrity.
The only other company that approached this aspect of construction combined with advanced facilities
was Calrec. While several other manufacturers’ products were as musical sonically, and as versatile, if
not more so, none were built with the electronic and physical integrity of the Neve products. It would
be great to have a list of the people who actually built this stuff. I started this with the idea of expressing
how on one level, it always makes me sad to strip an old Neve. As I cut the wires, and take out the
connectors, I know that an immense amount of work went into every one. It’s crazy when you consider
it.
Oh well … pass me the tin snips …