Modified & recapped Analog Gates “The Producer” mixer hotrodded microphone preamp

Looking for a killer Analog vintage mic preamp with color and vibe for your studio? Look no further. Every now and then, a vintage gem of unprecedented beauty pops up and begs for a full resto-mod and when we came across this one we knew we had to get it done right. We are very happy with how it turned out and how wonderful it sounds. This is gear porn at its finest and is currently a plug-and-play collectors dream, ready to make beautiful music. Needs nothing but a mic and a source.

One of a kind listing. You’ll probably never see another Gates Producer like this again. An incredibly few of these flagship field mixers were ever made and even fewer have survived. Fully recapped and final modifications completed January 2nd 2023. Even comes with spare VU!

We set out to take the coolest looking analog Gates mixer on earth and turn it into a great microphone preamp capable of competing with the top tier, world class pre’s out there. As you'll read below, it has a ton of OTHER options how you can also wire it up for a number of other duties too, if desired, such as a summing line mixer too.

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Another ultra rare gem from Lutz Multimedia. Extremely rare American made germanium analog Gates “Producer” model mixer modified and ready to go. Great for analog summing, line mixing, single mic preamp, keys mixer, drum buss, cool little sidecar, what have you. Neat little hotrod, needs nothing.

Has been fully recapped as shown and works great. A lot of other work has gone into this machine. Any questions please ask. Open to trades. Great shape for its age and ready for 70 more years of music making!



RESTORATION DETAILS:


The microphone preamp section is born of high-gain Gates germanium pedigree. Some notable components are the massive Sprauge powerlytic cap and transformer balanced in and out. The vintage RCA 40314 UFO germanium resistor with heat sync gives this preamp its unique flavor. Very cool topology makes for a very clean sound, super low noise floor, tons of headroom, warm and punchy vibe.

New red indicator bulb. Since it was a broadcast mixer, it yields about 85db+ of overall gain (!). New professional stripped down copper hammer tone paint job and wiring has also been completed early 2023. Loose Chassis has been cleaned, repaired and secured. On and off switch has been deleted. Most of the front switches are now obsolete as it is modified to solely be used in a recording studio as a single microphone preamp. Contacts have all been serviced. VU was repaired and now works perfectly. IEC power cable has been replaced and rerouted. New hardware replaced where needed. Funky little speaker has been tested as working but is not currently hooked up and will require further wiring if you think you need it. We did not since it may inject noise into the system. Some other wiring has been replaced and rerouted as shown. Modern PCB components added for another 70 years of trouble free operation. Other soldered Pcb components were re-flowed and entire PCB was cleaned and de-fluxed. I/O has been cleaned with Deoxit D5 and potentiometers serviced and cleaned with F4.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the unique one of a kind knobs are about twice the size of the largest Daven bakealite knobs I’ve seen and it is certainly impressive in any control room. It’s actually hard to see just how big the knobs are in these images because the VU is also so huge too, it all ends up looking normal in photos without reference. Must be seen in person to grasp the massive design of this thing. It’s like an atom bomb console in person. It really is almost absurd how masssive the controls and VU are. VU is also twice as big as I’ve ever seen on anything at about 6” tall.

BONUS- I am also including an impossibly rare (unobtanium) second acrylic clear cover for the VU meter that has no cracks on it at all. I show it in the very last picture of this listing. The reason I’m including a second acrylic cover for you is because the existing VU has an unfortunate slight crack along left side as shown (very hard to see really) which doesn’t block needle view or inhibit usability at all, of course, which is why I left it for now.

Will make a killer addition to any studio looking for a wonderful sounding vintage microphone preamp.



I/O MODS EXPLAINED:


If you’re not familiar with barrier strips (IE: terminal strips), here’s a detailed description of a common upgrade you can do if you desire to do so.

So all these cool old 50’s broadcast RCA/Collins/WE/GE/Raytheon/Gates mixers used internal barrier strips for their inputs and outputs (I/O) For hardwiring in the studio. This is that long slat of metal with rows of screw heads. Studios and radio stations didn’t have todays connectivity like XLR, DSUB, ELCO or DB25’s back then for primary (mains) inputs and outputs (outside of mic cabling, typically), so everything, including outboard gear, was hardwired into the studio with wire and screws. This is why old limiters and compressors like the fabled LA2A’s have pigtails hanging off of barrier strips, just like this old bird has inside the top front of the inner sub chassis. Mixers connected to the system with these barrier strips. As I’m sure you already know, balanced I/O requires three wires to an XLR or TRS jack, which is easily accessed on the barrier strip. Chanel one is therefore screw head 1 2 and 3 on the barrier strip. Channel two is 4 5 and 6 and so one (this unit has been modified so mic preamp card comes in on 7, 8 and 9). Now that it is fully recapped, you have the option to wire it up with Line inputs to be used a summing mixer instead of a mic preamp down the road. We prefer a killer vintage single mic pre with tons of gain than a summing mixer so we have it wired as such but you can change that if you like! The options are there now that it is fully restored. 


I’d def be into a trade for a vintage u87, any black spade mic or Soyuz 019. Also into synths and guitars. Open to ideas.

Thanks for looking. Trades welcomed. Any questions please ask. Cheers 🍻