The Motown 8-track consoles were entirely home made. The studio console was tube and the mix room console, which was built around three years later was our first solid state except obviously for the built-in Studer C-37 mono and two-track machines.
These were the earliest consoles I know of that had multiple effects send pots and mute switches. In fact there was a separate mute switch for the program channel and the sends from that program channel so you could hear the signal dry or listen to just the reverb. The timers were an important part of production because the disk level for a 45 would drop like a rock if you went over three minutes. The mix console also had meters that could be turned off and the eight inputs were set in a removable panel that could be used upside down if you wanted the sound to get louder as you pulled the faders towards you. A switch under the panel triggered a relay that swapped the wiring around so they remained 1-8 left to right. The first eight of the now infamous "Motown Equalizers" were built to go with this mix console.
Currently I'm mastering CDs of a bewildering variety of music out of my home, looking for material for a few of my clients and having an absolute ball hanging out here in Nashville. I'm also producing one artist and am in the cheering section of a couple others including The Time Jumpers which is an absolutely stunning band that Carolyn Martin sings in.
http://thetimejumpers.com/