I have always lusted after a Neve 1073 preamp and EQ. They get a lot of love and for very good reasons. Search online and all sorts of adjectives spring out. Warm, beefy, saturated, expensive-sounding. The problem with finding one is that the vintage ones tend to get the most love. These also have a price-tag to match, unfortunately.
There are all sorts of clones available from the likes of BAE but these tend to go for around the £2K mark and more if they have EQ. This is out of the price range of most small studios so I decided to build one!
AML do a lovely kit including everything you need for the build. The only other thing you need is the casing – found at Collective Cases.
The build itself was very straightforward and I can recommend it. A colour-coded booklet details every step of the build and the PCB is well laid out. All resistors and Capacitors even come pre-cut and bent to shape. The only extras I needed to source was some decent solder and a few short lengths of hookup wire. All-in-all this was a very satisfying, easy and rewarding experience. Total cost runs to around £700.
You can see all pictures from the build in the gallery below:
