Any Neve 51 series owners or users?

[BJohnston]

I've recently bought a Neve 5104 with 83049 channels. I was wondering if anyone has ever used/owned one of these consoles and what to expect sonically or otherwise?

[Neveman]

Hey,

I know that your post is very old, and I'm sure that you've now had plenty of experience with your Neve.

I just bought one and am interested to hear as much as possible about it.

[BJohnston]

Originally Posted by Neveman

Hey,

I know that your post is very old, and I'm sure that you've now had plenty of experience with your Neve.

I just bought one and am interested to hear as much as possible about it.

Very Cool...I've had my board up and running for a while now. Depends on what you're using it for. I'm using mine as the front end and back end of my studio. There are no Direct Outs as I'm sure you are aware by now. You have to use the Insert Sends for the Direct Out. The push buttons on these bad boys are incredibly hard to find. At least they were when I was looking around for some 2 about years ago . I've got a few channels where the Mic/Line, Eq, pan switches...etc are either crackling or completely worn out. My board didn't come with any paper work whatsoever. Hopefully yours did. For the most part they were one off custom built consoles for Radio and TV production. At least that's what I've deduced over the years. Paper work is a good thing because not all boards were made alike. The Group and Master sections of my board are a complete mystery. They don't work at all so I had to bypass them all together. I'm using my Group Sends/Busses as my Stereo Buss. Kind of weird, but it works. The eq's are okay. They aren't fabulous, but they work. I never use the onboard gates or compressors either. They work fine, but I use outboard comps or software for such things normally. The great thing about the console is that it's built like a tank and you can really push mixes through em. You get a really nice natural compression/color through them when doing so. With that being said the Mic Pre's are pretty transparent. They're not gonna really dress things up or down for that matter. What you hear is what you get.
I had to sink some $ into mine to get it up and running in somewhat proper form. I bought for practically nothing though so to me it made sense. I really wanted to own a Neve console and to be honest I've been pleased with its performance. It get a little moody from time to time, but for the most part she's a real work horse. I've got the number of a great tech by the name of Brian Roth who helped me get mine going. He's out of OKC, OK. Super Cool guy and loves to talk shop. I can get you his info if you'd like.
Anyway, please let me know if you have any specific questions or if find out any worthwhile info please pass it along.

Thanks for writing. Talk to you soon.

Kind Regards

Barry

[Neveman]

Hey barry,

sorry I have been off the radar, thanks for the words.

Well my board came fully serviced and ready to go, I haven't installed it yet as I am waiting for new premises to put it in.

I'd be using it as my front end

interested to know more about the output section.

I am in the market for a further 8 channel strips to add to it as it currently has 12 mono and 4 stereo and blanking plates in the rest.

MJ

[BJohnston]

Hey MJ,
Glad to hear that things are going well. I might have found some extra channel strips. I spoke to the guy today about going and taking a look at them this week. I was going to buy a few myself for replacement parts...etc. I have no idea what kind of condition they're in. He said that the console was torn apart by some guys that didn't really know what they were doing. If they look decent would you be interested in some? What Model number are your mono input strips?
Anyway, I'll let you know what I find out later on this week after I have the chance to look at em.
Hope all is well.

B

[ulysses]

I've got three 83049/B channel strips I would like to sell. At least two of them are not in working condition, but they seem to be more or less complete and would be good for parts at the very least. One is sort of a basket case, one seems to be fully assembled, and one is somewhere in between. I don't know what they're worth, but if you're interested, send me a PM.

[guynoir]

I've been rebuilding some 51 series pres and eqs. They sound great and perform really well when done right. The EQs used power FETs in the output and the desks (I'm told) would catch fire occasionally from the heat! We made some changes to avoid that. I'm looking for some mic gain selector switches though, with difficulty so far.

Barry you are right, they are pretty unique beasts. Even if you have documentation there can be variant boards in the same console, so there goes the documentation!

-John

[vittoles]

hi,
neve 51(neve 83406)
i'm looking for service manual,pinout,datasheet, on this strip channel.
it's a single mic/stereo line preamp.
the ref:
-on the preamp board:EV 10910
-on the eq: EV10880
-on the high/low cut: EV 11160
thanks a lot.

[vittoles]

hi,
neve 51(neve 83406)
i'm looking for service manual,pinout,datasheet, on this strip channel.
it's a single mic/stereo line preamp.
the ref:
-on the preamp board:EV 10910
-on the eq: EV10880
-on the high/low cut: EV 11160
thanks a lot.