Altec 1591a Limiter / Compressor Pre-amp

[jmorris]

I am thinking of getting one of these. There is a decent one on Ebay. Anyone used them/ Have one. I would love to know which Altec they used at Abbey Road. I'm looking for one for bass gtr. I have read these are good but have not tried. Or the 438C?

 

[ez_willis]

I've had two 1591a's.

I bought them from an auction at my work for $10 for both. I sold them for around $350 each. It would have been too much work to clean them up enough to even be useable.

As soon as I put them up on ebay, I had tons of people emailing me asking me to end the auction early and sell to them. Most of them were from France.

I asked one of them what the big deal was with these units, and he said The Beatles used them on Abbey Road.

I'm almost certain I saw at least one of the ones I sold up for auction within a few months, if that tells you anything.