Hiwatt
 |
|
| Pro Audio/Amplication | |
| Industry |
Amplification Effects pedals |
| Founded | Surrey, England (1966) |
| Founder | Dave Reeves |
| Headquarters | London, England |
|
Area served
|
United Kingdom, United States |
| Website | http://hiwatt.org.uk |
Hiwatt is a British company who manufactures amplifiers for electric guitars and electric basses. Starting in the late 1960s, together with Marshall and Vox, Hiwatt contributed to the sonic image popularly termed "British sound".
Hylight Electronics was the brainchild of British audio engineer David Reeves. He attended technical school in the late 1950s, and did apprenticeships at Marconi Electronics and Mullard. While working his day job, young Reeves also started working evenings in a small room over Plato Music on Crown Passage in Morden from 1964-1968. He fixed things at first, repairing hifi sets and televisions as well. It was during this time that he first conceived the idea to start his own company and invented the Hiwatt name.
1963 - Local band "The Hylights" amplifier blew up, Dave Reeves said "I could build a better one than that" so he did. He conceived the idea to build more amps from this whilst living in 3a Cotswold road, Belmont, Surrey.
March 1964 - Moved to Morden, Surrey (The maisonette).
Early 1966 - Made redundant (laid off) from Mullard, used £800 separation pay to give him breathing space to develop Hiwatt idea, whilst wiring the amps at 4 Crown Passage, Kingston, Surrey (Plato Musical Instruments Ltd.) and finishing them in the maisonette in Morden.
Late 1967 to early 1968 - Was under contract to build Sound City Amplifiers and with £800 earned from his work, he placed a deposit on 171 Malden Way, New Malden and moved in March, 1968. Then started to build Hiwatt amplifiers in the garage.
Between 26 Jan and 1 Feb 1972 - Moved Hiwatt from the garage on Malden Way to a facility at 16 Park Road, Kingston, Surrey.
The first series of units that were produced bearing the moniker first appeared from Reeves work bench in 1964 (based on one early example obtained by Plexi Palace). These first models used ultralinear taps for the screen grids. They were a split-chassis design 50 watt head with the control panel mounted on the top of the cabinet, and a black and gold nameplate that featured small-case, cursive writing spelling out the name "hi-watt". The original HIWATTs owed more of their design and look to the VOX and SELMER counterparts of the day than to the classic look of the British guitar amplifier that HIWATT later embodied. The DR506 (S/N 159) pictured on this site was built in this shop in 1966, based on receipts still in existence.
...
Wikipedia