OK, so this is a 1000 to 1 chance that these two machines actually came from Abbey road, currently though certain factors have made it more likely, anyone who can offer any help I would really appreciate it.
08.12.14 - OK so not much to report on apart from a new lead. It does appear that EMI Odeon (Spain) did in fact have some of Abbey Roads equipment including some tape machines which would tie in nicely with the story my seller told me. If this is true the it’s possible that not only did these two machines master some of The Beatles records, it’s also possible they mastered some Spanish greats like "El Dúo Dinámico". If anyone can offer any pictures, text or videos to support this I would be very grateful.
Updates as the happen; 26.11.13
I have a contact who works at Abbey Road Studios, here are some facts. REDD stands for RECORD ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, this division was foundered in 1955 to cater for the technical needs of recording engineers within EMI. in 1958, EMI were producing the REDD.18 initially for the BTR-3 and later was fitted to the BTR-2 as an upgrade. The REDD.18 was however used worldwide in all of EMI's studios, it was not elusive to Abbey road, but so far he hasn't commented about the tape feed arms which only seem to appear on B&W pictures from Abbey road. Currently we are looking to see if there are any serial number records.
So why do I think these may have come from Abbey road? Well, the story starts off with a Spaniard who offers me two none working EMI BTR-2 machines, naturally like most people who have these, he claimed these came from Abbey Road. His exact story was that they were purchased by ODEON from Abbey Road and he had this information from his father, sadly there was no proof of this and so it was dismissed. Once the machines finally arrived to me, I noticed these were not your standard BTR-2’s ( of which I have 10 of), these in fact had an unusual replay amplifier called the REDD.18, after doing research on this amp it was found that it was used in house for EMI studios only but this covered the globe, so it was narrowed down to being an EMI studios machine but not sure which. Something which was not sold internationally where the platter tape feeder arms, these arms, these arms are EMI’s design and I have only ever seen them on pictures of the EMI control room, no other pictures of the BTR-2 on the internet features them, now, it’s looking more probable.
6 окт 2024