1960s Alice console reborn and ready for placement in the studio.
There has been a lot going on around Electric Western… I apologize for not updating the site.
Firstly, we’re now well established in Albuquerque and making all sorts of sound, instruments, shows and recordings. Much of my work has been leading up to the opening of a new recording studio here, at which I am quite proud to be the chief engineer/technician. I’ll offer up some more info in the next few days, but needless to say, the recording studio is unique, especially for New Mexico, and even by L.A. standards. Needless to say, the place oozes vintage (more 40s-60s gear than ever) and is not so far from historic Route 66 and Sandia Labs (where many of our fine nukes are made and maintained).
Alice Channels being loaded into new console.
One project, among many, I’m very proud of was the restoration and transformation of a late 60s Alice console into an updated studio mixer for the 21st century. The original was designed for live sound and built around 1967 to 1969 by Ted Fletcher and some other folks at Alice at the time. It belonged to Peter Frampton and, more recently, Joe Walsh, who stenciled his name right on it with white spray paint against the purple front panel. Among others, Jimi Hendrix played through the board, etc etc etc… Fact is, though, it sounded really really good — once I got it running.
In fact, the owner of the console contacted Mr Fletcher asking for schematics or data to build a power supply. Mr. Fletcher simply laughed in response. One should not forget that a large audio console was a custom job in the 60s, and only 10 or 11 boards similar to this one were even made. At this moment I have no idea if another Alice board from this period is even around.
Okay, if you’re a rock historian or a museum style collector, you may not like this next bit, so brace yourself. Given the age, build, and quality of this board to break it up and rebuild it into a studio console. Although much is changed, and many will be angered that the huge purple Alice is now a small purple Alice and group of satellite modules, it is REALLY for the best. Here’s why:
1. We want t use it. It’s much more valuable in the studio than as a 600lb doorstop.
2. I didn’t change a thing about the lovely sowter input transformers, or a single resistor, let alone transistor in the preamp or EQs.
3. I did, however, remove the unneeded bussing structure of the live board with dedicated outputs for each channel. I also added a +4 line input for each channel via a simple but efficient pad. TRS inputs and outputs were added to each channel, in addition to XLR.
4. I designed a regulated +48V phantom circuit for this board and some other vintage preamps we have (RCAs, etc), which feature soft-switching, plus lots of extra love to make the inputs happy with +48V going through. Despite protection circuitry, though, the signal path is not altered.
5. The 12 Channel version also mixes down to 2 stereo busses using the same passive topology in the original Alice Busses (but without need for foldback, monitor sends, etc). Just clean, lovely audio.
So some people are screaming, “why did you tear that apart rather than restore it exactly as it was?!” Well, fact is, it’s got a whole new lease on life now! As engineers we don’t often do things the way we did in the 1930s or the 1960s or even the 70s. We use phantom power a lot more, we can record to many more channels (even us analog die hards use ProTools and Digital Performer now too — heck, 16 channel or 24 channel tape is doable now too — in the 60s it was 3 track machines in most cases). So the Purple Alice is smaller, done with her rock touring days, but now a new power house for recording.
Finally, to put it in perspective, the only folks who wanted to buy the board were night club owners. One guy wanted to fasten it to the ceiling of a tokyo disco, another wanted to place it in a case next to a signed guitar. Nobody respected what the console was even worth, nor did ANY of them want to even try to use it for music or sound.
Well, it doesn’t always turn out this good, I must say. Some restorations and rebuilds are not always worth the enourmous effort, however, THIS NEWLY RISEN CONSOLE SOUNDS GREAT. The inputs are balanced, smooth, and have a very mean growl when turned up. It’s nothing short of magic on a drum kit. Tenor vocals come though clear and bright with a liberal dose of 60s lo-fi smooth. Listening to the beach boys through the channels became a 3 day obsession for us when we were building it — “has Brian Wilson ever sounded so good?”
Finally, please ask questions (I love them). But, I’ll answer one here — will Electric Western make an Alice Clone? Clone — probably not. Copy — definitely not. An Alice inspired channel / pre — most probably. There is a lot to love about these circuits (both the Alice company’s, Fletcher’s and my own), so I’ll try, but first things first… To successfully make an Alice inspired preamp without the original parts will be tough. Even Sowter suggested that they cannot make the input transformers today (which are remarkably unique), and ALL of the other known parts are spoken for. This has never stopped me from firing up my winding lathe, though, making a transformer and building from such inspiration. The results, though, are always different than the original — hopefully it will be an improvement.
