Neve 33114
A three-band EQ and mic amp in a single module - the channel strip that turned up by the dozens inside Neve's broadcast and recording frames.
Overview
The 33114 rarely gets its own spotlight. It spent its working life packed into consoles, 24 at a time, 32 at a time, 36 at a time. The used-gear listings of the mid-1990s are where it comes into focus. A British dealer advertising in Studio-Sound (July 1996, p.93) listed Neve 33114 modules fitted into a 12/8 subframe alongside 33752 routing modules. It's a discrete, three-band equalizer with a microphone amplifier, sold as a building block rather than a standalone box.
The console was where these modules lived. The same run of Studio-Sound classifieds through 1994-1997 shows 33114s fitted into Neve 5305 frames (one configured 32/8/16 with 32 of them, another 24/4/2 with 24), into 5315 frames (36/8/2, 36/4/2, and 28/4/2 configurations), and into the small Melbourne 12/4/2 desks, sometimes mixed with 33115s. A 12/8 subframe carried a dozen of them paired with 33752 routing modules. So the 33114 was a channel strip deployed in quantity, and the frames it populated point to broadcast consoles, remote-patchbay desks, and mid-sized tracking rooms.
By the documentation that survives, it is not a 1073 or a 1081. Those modules get named individually in the same dealer listings with their own prices, and the 33114 sits in a separate column. Whether the circuit owes anything to the 1081's EQ, the sources don't say.
The 33114's story is mostly one of quantity and context. That's what a module pulled from decommissioned consoles looks like, as opposed to one sold to individual owners. Collectors chasing a 33114 today are usually after a piece of a specific desk - a 5305, a 5315, a Melbourne - or want an affordable way into the Neve EQ sound without paying 1081 money.
The pricing history is thin. The £495 figure from early 1997 was a dealer retail ask for a single module. In the mid-1990s American market, Mix (August 1994, p.229) quoted 33114s at around $1k in a used-equipment roundup that also priced 1064s at $1.3K and 1073s at $1.5K. That puts the 33114 at the bottom of that ladder, roughly two-thirds the cost of a 1073 in the same listing. These are period dealer asks, not auction results, and they don't say what a clean example fetches now.
Condition is the practical concern. These modules are decades old, and the ones that surface have usually come out of consoles that saw heavy daily use. The dealer listings that mention 33114s almost always describe the parent console as "refurbished" or "superb condition," which suggests the modules were serviced as part of a desk rather than individually. A buyer should check connector condition, whether it's been recapped, and whether the switches and pots still track, because a console pull's history is tied to whatever frame it came out of. The sources document no failure mode specific to the 33114, and no service literature surfaced in this research.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.