THE TRIDENT’S JOURNEY
From Cornwall to Oxford
The restoration story of the Trident 80B
"I bought the desk from Sawmills Studio in Cornwall. They had three originally, one which they still use. The other two were stored and used for spares. We took the best one back to Oxford and rebuilt it"
Nick Moorbath
A studio you reach by boat
Sawmills sits in a tidal creek near Fowey, reachable only by water at high tide. Three 80Bs lived there. One was still in daily use. The other two had been stripped for parts over the years.
Stripped, checked, replaced
Four people worked with me on the restoration of this desk, and it wouldn't sound the way it does without any one of them.
Dave Nally built a new motherboard for the extra 8 channels and dealt with the serious electronic work. Martin Noyce at Control Sound built a brand new future proof patch bay, which works perfectly.
Robin Legget and I, who did much of the installation work at the studio, stripped, checked and replaced every component that needed it.
I bought a brand new power supply from GRS Systems in the States, which allowed the original to be kept as a spare.
Robin and Dan Williams did a fantastic job restoring the woodwork.
"The Desk now sounds great – Warm and Punchy "
I reckon it’s got to be the finest example in the UK. Most of these desks that have survived have gone to the USA as they’re very sought after there.
Designed by the Godfather of British EQ
The EQ was designed by Malcolm Toft, known as the Godfather of British EQ. It's warm, sweet and very musical.
The mic pres have always been said to be very open sounding. They are.
Toft's desks have run through British music since the seventies. Bowie, Queen and Elton John recorded on the early models at Trident Studios in London.
Two decades later the 80B was the desk behind Definitely Maybe, Fool's Gold and I Should Coco, all tracked at Sawmills.
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