Soundgas At Abbey Road (Part One)

Soundgas At Abbey Road (Part One)

Late last year I was contacted by Jack Lintorn from Abbey Road Studios to ask if we could help them create a collection of inspiring vintage and new instruments and effects for Studio 3 and their other creative spaces. The Abbey Road team had done a great deal of work to create the initial list and it was a pleasure to collaborate with them on this incredible project. 

Abbey Road Studio 3 is where The Beatles recorded Revolver and Abbey Road, Pink Floyd made Wish You Were Here and Dark Side Of The Moon, and Radiohead The Bends. Oh and Fela Kuti, Amy Winehouse, Stormzy, Fontaines D.C., The 1975, Dave, Little Simz, amongst many, many others.

To be invited to advise and consult on this project to create a mix of old and new equipment for Studio 3 to remain at the cutting edge of new music into the future is an honour and beyond my wildest dreams. It was our good friend and long standing Soundgas customer, Kid Harpoon, who is currently producer in residence at Abbey Road, who suggested they get in touch.

When Jack subsequently asked me if I'd 'mind' coming down and running a session to introduce the Abbey Road engineers and assistants to the new gear, I was slightly dumbfounded: 'You're asking if I'd like to come to Abbey Road and play with some of my favourite gear in Studio 3?!' Truly a dream gig...

Abbey Road is owned by UMG and they'd agreed to make a generational investment in instruments and equipment to attract more upcoming artists to the smaller studios and ensure that Studio 3 had a gear list that matched its pedigree.

It's not often that I get to help curate a whole studio collection of classic and iconic vintage instruments, and to recommend some of my favourite exciting and inspiring new gear. To get to do this at Abbey Road in the very room where some of my favourite music has been recorded, is truly humbling. 

As a musician and producer himself (Klaverson), Jack has his finger on the pulse and the wishlist already featured many items I would have recommended. My experience with new gear is limited - we don't stock lots of brands/products at Soundgas, instead preferring to work closely with a few smaller manufacturers whose gear we really know and use - but we quickly agreed on the basic list. There was a chunk of new gear that Soundgas don't sell but Chris at Absolute Music came through for us and delivered the goods very swiftly.

At this point we went from the fun of creating the ultimate gear list to the hard slog of refining and negotiating to ensure manufacturers/gear we all wanted to include would make the final list. 

It was a juggling act and not without a good deal of back and forth and I am indebted to some of the incredible people we are fortunate to work with. Special mentions to Grzegorz (Soma Synths), Steve (Audio Kitchen), Shane (Echo Fix), Hugh (Fieldtone), Lars (T-Rex Effects), Ben and Nick (audio.computer), Ste (Euterpe Synthesizers) and Phil (Focusrite) for going the extra mile.

Where new instruments had been specified I suggested that, where possible, Abbey Road should opt for quality vintage equipment that aligned more closely with their heritage. So new Fender guitars and basses became vintage from the golden age of Fender Japan all carefully set up for us by the good folk at Monty's Guitars.

I was especially happy that a vintage drum kit was ultimately decided upon, rather than a brand new one, and the end result is a stunning collection that is indeed worthy of the Abbey Road name.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Jack and the team to create this dream collection that should see Studio Three (as well as the Gatehouse and Front Room studios) continue to inspire exciting and innovative new recordings for generations to come. The success of the project is evident; we've already had feedback from musicians and engineers who've used the gear and loved it (on the training day several items were unavailable as Jordan Rakei was using them in the Front Room!).

In part two, I'll share some of my experiences when I visited Abbey Road for the first time just before Christmas and also detail how the first introductory sessions were received.

Below is a list of gear old and new that we supplied.

Soundgas Serviced/Supplied Vintage

Casio SK-1 Sampling Keyboard (Circuitbent)
Fender Japan Vintage Jazz Bass
Fender Japan Vintage Precision Bass x 2
Fender Japan Vintage Stratocaster
Fender Japan Vintage Telecaster x 2
Korg MS-20 (Vintage/Cased)
Linn Drum LM-2
Moog Minimoog Vintage 1974
Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm
Roland Juno-106 
Roland Jupiter 4 Kenton Midi (ex Adrian Utley)
Roland TR-707 (Expanded - 727 808 909 + 4 Soundgas Banks)
Roland TR-808  Rhythm Composer (ex John Paul Jones)
Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer
Suiko ST-50 Poetry Trainer
Yamaha TH10E Electric Taishogoto
Thermonic Culture The Culture Vulture
Vintage Percussion (MIsc) Toy Box
Yamaha DX-7 Mk1 (Upgraded)
Yamaha TX-6 Xylophone

New

Audio Kitchen The Big Trees & Fake Plastic Trees
Audio Merge KTBK Filter
audio.computer Beat Friend Drum Machine
Echo Fix EF-X3 Chorus Echo (Tape Echo)
Echo Fix Pedals: EF-P2, EF-P3 and EF-P5
Euterpe Vertice Filter (Extreme Vintage Soundgas Edition)
Fieldtone Box Of Uncertainty
Fieldtone Weaver Handheld Sampler (Soundgas Edition) x 2
Mellotron M4000D
Oto Machines BIM, BAM, BOUM, Bebe Cherie
Soma Synths Flux + Bob
Soma Synths Pulsar 23 Drum Synth/Machine
Soma Synths Cosmos Drifting Memory Station x 2
Soma Synths Lyra 8
Soma Synths Terra
Soundgas LFOmo Modulation Box
Soundgas Type 636P Preamp Pedal
Soundgas Type 636P2 Twin Preamp Rack
T-Rex Binson Echorec Delay
T-Rex Replicator D'Luxe Tape Echo Pedal
Teaching Machines Wellspring Stereo Spring Reverb

Plus a range of other new gear including:

Hofner Violin Bass Sunburst
Latin Percussion Bongos, Congas & Percussion
Meinl Kalimbas
Moog Grandmother
Oberheim OBX8
Sequential Prophet 5

Press

Read the Music Tech news article: Inside Abbey Road Studios’ new collection of rare and vintage instruments: “We wanted not just the digital version of this gear, but the original”