Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ Recording Console Heads to Auction
Famed TG12345 MK IV desk was housed in Abbey Road’s Studio 2 and also used by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr
The Abbey Road Studios EMI TG12345 MK IV recording console. Photo: Mikerossphotographic.com
The Abbey Road Studios recording console used in the creation of Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side of the Moon will hit the auction block in March.
The Abbey Road Studios EMI TG12345 MK IV recording console, which was housed in Abbey Road’s famed Studio 2 from 1971 to 1983, is one of the marquee items in Bonham’s TCM Presents”¦ Rock and Roll Through the Lens auction, which takes place March 27th in New York.
While no estimate has been set, the console is expected to fetch six-digit bids.
Three Beatles ”“ Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr ”“ each recorded music as solo artists with the console, with Kate Bush and the Cure also occupying Studio 2 to use the two-of-a-kind desk.
The TG12345 MK IV was created as a collaboration between Abbey Road and EMI engineers and is considered, thanks to its pioneering technology and then-state-of-the-art equipment, one of the greatest consoles ever constructed.
The seller, producer Mike Hedges, purchased the console directly from Abbey Road Studios in 1983, when the studio upgraded their equipment. Hedges kept the console in his own studio since then, with the TG12345 MK IV still in “excellent working condition.”
The twin TG12345 MK IV unit, which was in Abbey Road’s Studio 3 before it was moved into Studio 1, is currently housed in Austria’s Prime Studios.
The recording console’s auction block comes with letters of provenance, including one from ex-Abbey Road Studio Manager Ken Townsend, as well as instruction manual, a documented history of the desk courtesy of Abbey Road technician Brian Gibson and a copy of Dark Side of the Moon, which was named Rolling Stone‘s Greatest Prog Rock Album of All Time.
