Found on Reverb: The Association's Flickinger Console

The 22 recording consoles Daniel Flickinger made in the '60s and '70s were custom jobs for a number of the biggest artists and studios of the day: Ike Turner, Sly Stone, Muscle Shoals, and more.

Back in 2016, Sly Stone's Flickinger N32 Matrix desk—which he used to make There's a Riot Goin' On, Fresh, and Small Talk—landed on Reverb. We wrote then about that console and the famed builder:

Flickinger settled on Hudson, Ohio, bought a building, built out a proper production facility and hired a sizeable staff. ... Everything from circuit board design to engraving to woodwork was done in-house at the Hudson plant, and the price tag was nothing to sneeze at. With an average cost of about $85,000 and the most elaborate builds topping out around $200,000 in 1970 money, Flickinger consoles were very much in the "premium" category.


Flickinger
The Association Console
View the Listing

Today, we have the good fortune of having another Flickinger console land on Reverb.

Built in 1969 as the live board for The Association—the California pop band known for '60s hits like "Never My Love," "Windy", and "Along Comes Mary"—this console has a musical legacy that extends well past that band.

According to the current owner, producer and engineer Sheldon Gomberg, this Flickinger was passed down to the producer and engineer David Vaught, who was playing bass for the group in the '70s. After The Association folded, Vaught purchased the board from the band and used it for the next 35 years at his Camp David recording studio.

While in use at Camp David, it was at the center of many recordings, including Primitive Radio Gods' Rocket, Toad The Wet Sprocket's Bread And Circus, The Counting Crows' Recovering The Satellites, and more.

The console has 20 input channels. According to the listing, "There are a total of three sub master sections with a sub fader on each, for a total of nine mix submasters that can be configured into five main outputs, with patch points for all of these that have four Langevin equalizers."

In addition, Gomberg writes, "The Association Flickinger console operates on +- 24 volt power rails. Most modern consoles run on +- 18 volts. This gives the console a full +24 db headroom." It also breaks down into units of manageable size, able to be transported in a minivan or station wagon.

To learn more about this historic console, click here to see the listing.

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