Hiwatt – It’s a Brit Thing Part 1
By MNJ
| Posted in Guitar
We have a long tradition in this country of building guitar amps, and we should be rightly proud of the companies who have dedicated themselves to producing a quality of product, both in design and engineering terms, that’s both coveted and imitated throughout the world.
One of these companies is Hiwatt. The picture on the left of a stack finished in the union flag was made for a trade show, so you won’t see it for sale in your local music store, although you could order it from the custom shop! The regular production models look like this; Hiwatt HG50RC Hi-Gain Combo, and very fine they are too.
Hiwatt started out like nearly all guitar amp manufacturers, with one guy responding to the needs of local musicians or friends in need of a repair. Dave Reeves, who was working for Mullard in the mid sixties, found himself in this very position, and started building amplifiers in his garage. From the outset he had one aim – to build an amp with top-notch components. Fittingly, he used Partridge transformers and Mullard valves alongside ‘military spec’ wiring, rendering the finished product almost indestructible.
It’s no wonder then that the big rock bands at the time, including Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and most notably The Who, insisted on Hiwatt to cope with their increasingly large tours, and the more rigorous usage that their gear was subjected to. During Hiwatt’s increasing popularity and inevitable expansion in the early 1970s, Reeves enlisted the services of Harry Joyce, who ran an electronics company specialising in wiring, and whose biggest customer was the British Navy. The standards in build quality set by Joyce and Reeves in this period were unprecedented and they are still maintained as a benchmark for the company’s products today.
My own love affair with Hiwatt began when I aquired a Custom 50 Head, made in 1972. It’s completely untouched, never having needed repair. Indeed, the back panel has never been taken off. It has provided trouble free service and I expect it to do so for a long time to come. Recently, I bought a Hiwatt Custom Studio Stage Head. Its point to point wiring, hand laced looms, specially wound transformers and Class A design capture that classic British sound effortlessly. It just exudes history and class.
If you ever get the chance to look inside a Hiwatt amp, take it. The sheer quality of the wiring and quality of workmanship will take your breath away. The company has a worldwide reputation for its uncompromising attitude to amp building, an attitude that has now filtered down to many other makers. There’s still nothing like plugging in to a Hiwatt and hearing that bell-like tone for rhythm playing, and the aggressive bark for lead. Hiwatt – it’s a Brit thing.
Tags: guitar amps, hiwatt