This recording console, built in 1978, was the inspiration of producer George Martin and engineer Geoffrey Emerick, who asked Rupert Neve to come back to the company he had just sold and "build three more consoles."

Indeed, this was the very last Neve created by Rupert himself. The three desks were to be installed at various AIR London studios, two in London, and one in Monserrat (the mother of all resort studios).

In the early '80s, the first console was sold to Atlantic Records for their studios in New York. In 1986, the console from Air Montserrat was purchased for Studio A at A&M as part of a massive reconstruction effort. The New York console eventually was sold to artist Bryan Adams and put in his Vancouver studio.

Under executive orders from then owners Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the console sold to A&M underwent an extensive rebuild job by the famed A&M Tech Squad, from caps and opamps to replacement of worn metalwork.

This console is the first from Neve to use monolithic opamps. The use of these opamps is enhanced by the very musical high-level driver circuits and toroidal transformers, which are used any time signal has to leave the console.

Another feature is remote control microphone amplifiers, which allow the preamps to be close to the source. An additional 8 modules were added in 1993, along with Flying Faders automation. Clients marvel over this wonderful old beast, who often remark about it sonorous qualities: "I can do no wrong here!"