What board is this?

[netnoggin]

Does anybody recognize the console in this pic?

http://home.centurytel.net/mirage/shade_tree.jpg

It's a shot from Shade Tree studio which was located at the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, long, long ago. Not my picture - I found it while searching for info on the studio for historical/sentimental reasons. My first studio session job was at that studio back in the mid-70s.

I found a thread claiming they had a Neve back then, but I'm not recognizing that as a Neve. Any thoughts?

[ladewd]

It almost looks like an old MCI JH500 or JH428 without a meter bridge. Its a tough angle to get a good look at.

CA

[Gravyblue]

looks like a Harrison. Look for pics of Bruce Swieden

[wedge]

That's an MCI 500 series.

[netnoggin]

Thanks guys. Now that I look at the MCI pics, I have to agree with that choice. For reference, here are some pics from the JH500 brochure:

http://www.labomaticstudios.com/engl...00%20cover.jpg
http://www.labomaticstudios.com/engl...20page%202.jpg
http://www.labomaticstudios.com/engl...20page%203.jpg

BTW, the meter bridge is there - the pic fooled me for a bit also. It was an LED type rather than analog, and had a smoked-plexiglass front (different vendor maybe?). Look on the right where the console appears to start slanting in the opposite direction. That's actually a reflection from the surface of the bridge.

This last page in the brochure was a bit of a surprise:

http://www.labomaticstudios.com/engl...20page%204.jpg

Channel circuit S/N of 75 db? Distortion = .07%? I'd say we've come a long way since then.

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by 68Tele

Cool thread.

Looks like Auratones on the meterbridge, and checkout that Honeywell thermostat on the wall, just like like one still in my parents house...

We sure had some snazzy threads...

[netnoggin]

The hairstyle's were happening too, LOL. Like I said, nobody I know in the picture, but it was typical for the time and upper-midwestern philosophy of style (or lack thereof).

As I googled around looking for more info, I found I didn't realize how much work had been done there. I remember one of Shade Tree's advertised plusses was it was adjacent to the Playboy Club's live venue auditorium with a healthy-sized snake connecting the two. The intent was to be able to record the major acts that came there.

I had lunch with Andy Waterman, the head guy at the time (late 70's), to discuss doing some engineering there. He impressed me as a pretty cool guy back then, always looking for ways to make things happen. He moved on to bigger and better things out on the west coast, most notably founding The Bakery.

He told me if I could get any groups to come in there, he would let me engineer them. At the time, Cheap Trick was really taking off, and he wanted to tap into other opportunities from that same area (Rockford, IL). Unfortunately, my circle of friends that would entrust such a responsibility to me at the time was quite small (zero, actually), so I never got to do it. Probably a good thing as I was just a kid full of desire, but low on knowledge and experience.

I'm reading that Shade Tree became Royal Recorders?