The actual production figures for these consoles is not known, but estimated to be between 20 and 30 units of various configurations and sizes.
Although the consoles were never sold commercially, many have come onto the market in recent years, as they have been replaced with more modern equipment.
As a result, most of the surviving examples are now in private hands.
There are currently fourteen of these consoles that we know of, including a mobile version which is still kept (and used) at Abbey Road.
Here follows a list of currently known consoles, showing the EMI Studio they were originally supplied to, and their present location/owner.
Abbey Road:
Several of the consoles from Abbey Road were purchased by producer Mike Hedges. His main console is the Mk4 desk from Studio2, which was used (amongst many other projects) for the recording of the classic Pink Floyd album "Dark Side of the Moon." Mike also owns several other ex-Abbey Road desks of various sizes.
The second Abbey Road Mk4 console is owned by Kevin Augunas, and is in "Barefoot" Recording Studios in Los Angeles. (Photo)
One of the former Abbey Road mobile consoles is installed at 2KHz Studios, West London, whilst another is still owned by Abbey Road and used on special projects.
Another of the Abbey Road mobile desks was previously owned by producer Jeff Jarratt, and was leased back to Abbey Road for use during the remastering of the Beatles "Anthology" series of albums. (Photo) This desk is now privately owned and is in regular use in a private studio.
Pathe-Marconi (Paris):
Two desks from Paris still survive.
One is in songwriter/producer Terry Britten's "State of the Ark" studio in Richmond, South London. (Photo) The other (the Mk "Q" version) is in Vega studio, in southern France.
EMI Sweden:
A Mk2 console from EMI Stockholm is also owned by Kevin Augunas, Los Angeles. (Photo) This desk is interesting since it appears to have been factory modified to allow 16 track monitoring (although still only having 8 output groups.)
EMI Netherlands:
A Mk3 console from EMI studios at Heemstede is now owned privately in the USA. A picture of this console can be found on the Bavo Dekker website.
EMI Australia (Studios 301, Sydney):
This console has now returned to the UK and is now owned by Noel Gallagher of "Oasis." The desk is in regular use in Oasis private studio near London. (Photo)
EMI Lagos, Nigeria:
The EMI Lagos Mk3 console is also back in the UK, and is privately owned. This console was used to record part of the Paul McCartney & Wings album "Band on the Run."
South Africa:
A Mk3 console from EMI's South African
studios has recently appeared (See
Picture). Currently arranged in a 12 in/ 4 out configuration,
this appears to be a cut down version of a larger desk. The holes
in the framework indicate that this is just half of a standard
console, and the cassette layout follows that of being the Left
hand side of a larger desk. The interesting question is, what
has become of the rest of it?
Can anyone supply
any more information on this console?
Rio de Janiero, Brazil:
Formerly in the EMI studio Rio, this Mk3 console (Photo) is now owned by AR Studios in Rio de Janiero.
Spain
Previously on display in the offices of EMI, Madrid, a TG Mk3 console has recently been returned to the UK and is in Olympic Studios, Barnes, South West London.
Bits And Pieces.
A number of individual channels of TG consoles are widely scattered. Of note is the "sidecar" of TG cassettes (including an original Mk1 channel) at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles, which has appeared in several photographs. There are also channels located in studios in Los Angeles, Boston and Houston.
In order to keep this information up to date, if you know of the location of one of these consoles, or even parts of one, please let us know.