 HIWATT amplifier with Fender Precision bass | |
| Company type | Pro Audio/Amplication |
|---|---|
| Industry | Amplification Effects pedals |
| Founded | Surrey, England (1966) |
| Founder | Dave Reeves |
| Headquarters | England |
Area served | United Kingdom, United States |
| Website | hiwatt |
Hiwatt (stylized inall caps) is aBritish company that manufacturesamplifiers forelectric guitars andelectric basses. Starting in the late 1960s, together withMarshall andVox, Hiwatt contributed to the sonic image popularly termed "British sound".[citation needed]
Reeves started the Hylight company (the name came from an early 1960s band named "The Hylights" that a friend belonged to), registering the name in September 1966. To help finance the start of his company, Reeves contracted withIvor Arbiter's Sound Citymusic store to manufacture Sound City-branded guitar amplifiers. These amps (the so-called "Mark I") were Reeves' current amplifier design re-badged with the Sound City name. With as much power but a cleaner sound than theirMarshall counterparts,[1] Sound City amplifiers were adopted byThe Who'sJohn Entwistle andPete Townshend in 1967. AfterJimi Hendrix and his managerChas Chandler approached Townshend for his opinion on amplification, the Jimi Hendrix Experience began using Sound City amplifiers in addition to their Marshall amps.[2]
In late 1968 The Who approached Arbiter with a request for Sound City amplifiers with slight modifications. Arbiter declined the request, but Reeves agreed, creating customised Sound City L100 amplifiers. This model was named the Hiwatt DR103, which would be modified in 1970 into the CP103 "Super Who 100" model which Townshend used almost exclusively for over a decade. In 1973 the updated DR103W model was created, which has been the central piece of equipment around which Townshend's various rigs were built for the next thirty years.[3][4]
Hylight Electronics also manufactured amplifiers under the Sola Sound brand for the large UK musical instrument distributor Macari Ltd.. This arrangement only lasted for a short while as the popularity of the Hiwatt amps increased.
Hylight Electronics originally sold direct to the musicians so that they could reinvest the profits that would have gone to distributors and music stores back into growing the Hiwatt brand. One of the earliest famous Hiwatt users wasJethro TullbassistGlenn Cornick. It was at Cornick's urging that the first 200-watt (and later 400-watt) Hiwatt amps were produced. Pete Townshend, who worked with Reeves on the Sound City amps, also became a Hiwatt endorser.
Hiwatt hired former band road manager Peter Webber, who demonstrated, promoted, and sold the company's amplifiers as quickly as they were built. In 1971, Hiwatt was struggling to keep up with production, so Reeves approached amp designer Harry Joyce to wire chassis for Hylight.[5]