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As the world’s first purpose-built recording studio – an iconic institution that’s played host to countless legendary artists, from The Beatles and Pink Floyd to Radiohead and Adele – Abbey Road Studios has a long and storied history behind it.
It’s those stories that make the place what it is, but for younger and less experienced artists early on in their career, the weight of that history can be a little intimidating. “Sometimes we’ve found that people find the idea of coming here a bit daunting”, Abbey Road’s Mark Robertson tells us.
Over the past few years, the Abbey Road team has been trying to change that, reimagining the studio in a concerted effort to create a more accessible and inclusive space. Through programmes like Amplify, an artist accelerator that offers workshops and mentoring to aspiring creatives, and Equalise, an initiative aimed at addressing gender imbalance in the music industry, Abbey Road is on a mission to inspire the next generation of music-makers.
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Prices have been slashed across multiple rooms, working hours made more flexible, and much of the studio has undergone a significant redesign, as several spaces were reworked to become more welcoming and conducive to creativity. But the next step, of course, was the gear. Drawing up a shopping list of more than 100 instruments and pieces of recording equipment, the team brought in the “most comprehensive collection” of gear that the studio has ever housed.
Installed in Studio Three – the smallest of Abbey Road’s three original rooms – and two of its more intimate spaces, The Front Room and The Gatehouse, the new kit spans everything from vintage essentials like the Roland Juno-106 and TR-808 to oddities like the Suiko ST-50 Poetry Trainer and Suzuki Omnichord, with an emphasis on playful and accessible instruments capable of sparking instant inspiration.
Though there was plenty of classic gear acquired – including pieces previously owned by John Paul Jones and Portishead’s Adrian Utley – the team also sought out contemporary instruments like the Teenage Engineering OP-1 and Telepathic Instruments Orchid. And being Abbey Road, they’ve even managed to bring in some things that haven’t yet been released, such as the much-hyped kid-friendly drum machine Tembo, which now sits proudly in the studio reception.
We sat down with Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing and Creative Mark Robertson and Artist Relations Manager Jack Lintorn to find out more about the extensive collection of new gear that’s been added to the studio and how this fits into their broader vision for Abbey Road in 2026 and beyond.
Can you both give us a little bit of background on yourselves and your roles at Abbey Road?
Jack: “I’ve been part of the team for about eight years, working with Mark on various different projects we’ve been running. So that’s our artist accelerator, Amplify, and also programs like Equalize we developed, which gives underrepresented groups opportunities in the studio. Now I’m working in the role of Artist Relations Manager, trying to make Abbey Road into a creative playground and doing lots of work to get younger artists into the studio.”
Mark: “I’m Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing and Creative. I came here to set a new vision for Abbey Road, and Jack and I have created a number of programs to give back, to make this place more accessible and to inspire and inform the next generation, whether that’s people that want to be an artist or a producer.
“The things that we’re doing now are part of a wider vision. We spent a bit of time rethinking our brand purpose and why we’re here, and clarifying the direction and vision for Abbey Road. What we’re doing is coming back to our core purpose, which is about helping people to make music and to realize their creative ambitions. That’s very much what we’re looking to build, a true home for doing that.”
You recently brought a bunch of new gear to Abbey Road. Was this part of your return to that original purpose you mentioned, and this mission to make the studio more accessible?
Mark: “Totally. We spent a lot of time looking at the gear that’s in the room. There are obviously a lot of things that people know we’ve got here, particularly instruments and EMI gear that was invented here by the REDD team. But there were more things that we knew from working closely with artists and producers that we wanted to have in the collection, and that’s really the stuff that Jack’s been focused on finding and sourcing.
“We wanted to have things where, maybe we’ve already got the plugin, or maybe we made the plugin, but we wanted to have the real deal too. And also to find some things that were as unique or as interesting as some of the existing things in the collection, and where possible, they have a bit of a story behind them.
“When I’m in a session, what I really love is – whether it’s a grime artist or whoever else – I love how the engineer can run down the corridor and go and find a bit of outboard gear from the ‘50s or ‘60s that will then change their sound. I suppose what we’re doing is adding more of that.”
Talk us through the decision-making process behind working out what you wanted to acquire?
Jack: “It started with an 18-month process of making an initial list of what I felt we really needed and what would enhance the creative experience for artists coming into the studio. Then I went to the likes of Kid Harpoon, who’s now our Producer in Residence, and Jordan Rakei, who is our Artist in Residence. Khruangbin came in one afternoon, and it was only meant to be for an hour, but we spent about four hours talking through all the gear that we thought would be amazing to have in the studio.
“So we went to lots of different artists, and even the Abbey Road engineering team, and asked: ‘what do you feel like we could really do with here?’ There were a lot of instrumental voices as part of this. It ended up that we collated a list of 100 different pieces of gear and equipment, and now we have 16 new synths and seven new drum machines – it’s the most comprehensive collection we’ve ever housed at Abbey Road.”
Once you had your list together, how did you go about sourcing the gear? With so many pieces, I imagine that was quite a challenge.
Jack: “Tony at Soundgas was instrumental; he was so helpful. We really wanted to have bits of gear that had stories behind them that we could share with artists. That’s what’s amazing about the gear we currently have at the studio, whether it’s John Lennon’s piano or it’s the echo chamber that The Beatles used for the first artificial reverb.
“We ended up bringing in John Paul Jones’ TR-808 drum machine and Adrian Utley from Portishead’s Jupiter-4, and this is all through Soundgas. We wanted to have this old gear coming through that we know has been serviced and maintained to a high level, and that’s where Soundgas is brilliant; they provide a certificate signed by their engineers making sure that something has been signed off and it’s good to go. When you’re buying a 1974 Minimoog, you want to know that it isn’t going to break down in two weeks.”
Was there anything that was particularly difficult to find?
Jack: “We were looking for quite a few pieces. We have a Suiko ST-50 Poetry Trainer, that’s an old Japanese ‘80s synth – that was difficult for us to source, but they managed to get one of those for us, which was great.
“We’ve also brought in a vintage 1967 Ludwig Hollywood kit for Studio Three. That was sourced with Martin Oldham, Nile Rodgers’ drum tech, and Ralph Salmins, an amazing session drummer. We sourced that over many months and that was quite difficult. We already had a new Ludwig in the studio, which sounds great, but we thought, ‘how great would it be if we could have a vintage one too?’
“We’ve already had a few artists playing it, and we had a comment from one of the bands that was in there a few weeks ago – they said it’s the best drum kit they’ve ever played. That’s exactly what we want to hear.”
I imagine that you have a lot of younger artists coming in that may have never used something like an analogue drum machine or a vintage Minimoog, for example. Are you doing anything to help them familiarize themselves with the older gear?
Jack: “We had Soundgas down to help our engineering team. It’s very important that our engineers know how to use this equipment, because for some of them, it’s the first time they’ve used a Juno-106 or an 808. So we’ve had a few training days with our team, and they’ve been very keen to get on board with using all this gear in their own time.
“We’ve had multiple sessions now where an artist wants to use a load of our new synths and the team have felt very comfortable bringing them into the session. It’s one thing having this amazing gear, but it’s about making sure we have the team that can then share how to use it with the artists coming in. So far, it’s been a real success.”
How did you decide which studio space a piece of gear lives in? Is that based on the character of the room, or the kind of sessions that it usually hosts?
Jack: “The rooms which we’re using for this are the Front Room, the Gatehouse and Studio Three. Most of the bigger pieces live in Studio Three: the 808, the Minimoog, the Linndrum. They’re quite iconic pieces of kit. The Gatehouse is very much a writing room, so we have a lot of the synths and drum machines in there; the Korg MS-20, the Moog Grandmother, the Roland Jupiter-4. Those kinds of pieces where you can get started very quickly, it’s not too complicated to get going with those synths. Everything else is just kind of floating, so people can just pick it up and take it into their sessions.”
Mark: “We used to have a lot of tape machines in the corridor, but we created some space, and a lot of this gear is out there now on bespoke racking, so it’s all visible. People are coming along, touching it, playing it and adding it to their session. For some people, it’s like being in a toy shop or a sweet shop. It’s all there, and you can just take it and book it for your session.”
Jack: “On those shelving units now we have different pedalboards ready to go, so an artist can be starting a session and we’ll have a set-up ready for them. We’ve brought in pedals from Hologram Electronics, Chase Bliss, Earthquake Devices… they’re all there and you can just pick them up and add them to your pedalboard. Feedback from artists told us that they want to be ready to go as quickly as possible, and that’s what we’ve helped to create with this.”
You’ve brought in some famous and iconic instruments like the Juno-106 and the TR-808, but can you tell us about some of the lesser-known or unusual bits of gear?
Jack: “We’re in conversations with Soma Laboratory, and we have the whole Soma suite now. Soma Terra was something that I really wanted to bring into the studio; it’s basically a polyphonic synth housed in a block of wood.
“We recently had some Equalise sessions with an artist called Jasmine.4.T in Studio Three. We brought in some young female and non-binary producers who were there to observe the session taking place, and we had the Terra in the middle of the room, and they were all using it and loving it. That’s something which is quite unique and something we haven’t been able to have before in sessions.”
“Another piece which is now living in our reception is by a company called Musical Beings called Tembo. It’s brilliant; it’s a completely wooden drum sequencer, where you have these magnetic discs, and you put them down onto each of the channels and you can build a whole track from scratch. Everyone I show it to, they’re instantly hooked. We now have that in reception, where we used to have magazines, but now you walk through the door and straight away it’s there for you to play with and have fun.”
Can you tell us about the response you’ve had from artists so far?
Jack: “It’s only been a few months, but the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I think we’re just offering so much more as an overall creative experience, it’s really changing how we operate. Even the engineers, they go past the shelves and start noodling away on an Omnichord or they take a few pedals out to test. It’s not just the artists, but it’s also our internal team that are really so on board with it.”
Mark: “We probably can’t mention the artist’s name, but a young artist that has been coming here for a while talked about how the shift in the synth collection has completely changed his perspective and given him so many more opportunities to explore his sound.”
I’m interested in what you said about some of the younger artists finding the prospect of recording at Abbey Road daunting. A lot of the gear you’ve brought in, like the Tembo and the OP-1, is on the more fun and accessible end of the spectrum. Was that an intentional decision, to bring instruments that feel a bit more playful and inspirational?
Mark: “Yeah, you’re spot on about that. We’d never want this place to be a museum, and it’s always going to be moving forward, and it’s as much for the creators as it is for the other people that come in here.
“One of the amazing things about Tembo has been that everybody who sits down there just instinctively touches it and wants to play with it – it blows people’s minds! We wanted to be able to put things in front of people that surprise them, but they feel they can discover and find their own way with. We never want to dictate; it’s about opening people’s minds and providing them with a range of different things to inspire them.
“Being intimidating is perhaps about thinking about the people that came [to Abbey Road] before. You’re coming to a place where it says ‘no entry’ on the gate, you’re coming up those steps, and the reception before had this enormous black desk – it was almost like you’re confronted by security the minute you come in here. So we’ve redesigned that space and it’s much more relaxed. We wanted to put some instruments and playthings in there, so it’s not this solemn formal space. The last thing we want to do is take somebody out of their creative mindset as soon as they arrive.”
Is this the end of the shopping spree, or are you looking to bring in anything more?
Mark: “There was this chunk that we introduced in January, but the conversations are continuing. When we set out on this journey, as well as looking to the future, we wanted to find a few vintage things that had a degree of providence. We’ve already got the Mrs Mills piano, we’ve got the celeste that was used on the Dark Side of the Moon, the Challen piano that The Beatles used… all these things that have got stories behind them. So finding things like the instruments that belonged to Portishead and John Paul Jones, that’s still interesting to us. We’ll keep an eye out for things that have got a story, because it’s part of the romance of coming here.”
