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A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIWATT
The HIWATT amplifier brand was the creation of British audio engineer David Reeves. In 1963, whilst looking at a friend's band “The Hylights” blown amplifier, Reeves stated, “I could build a better amp than that”. So he did. He began to make amplifiers in his spare time, quickly gaining a reputation amongst musicians for their power and dependability. |
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In 1966, Reeves started the Hylight company, whilst still working for the audio electronics firm Mullard. His first large order was for Ivor Arbiter's SOUND CITY music store. These amps became known as the “Mark 1” SOUND CITY , using Reeves' current design, rebadged with a Sound City logo. After deciding to concentrate on developing his own HIWATT brand, Reeves' was taken to court by Arbiter, who claimed they owned the design and Hylight were using it without permission. When Reeves asked the Arbiter engineers what some unused holes in the chassis were for, the Arbiter engineers were unable to answer, as they were still using Reeves' original design! Needless to say Reeves won the case. |
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Dave Reeves |
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At some point between 1967 and '68, Reeves was made redundant by Mullard. He used the £800 he received as severance to put a down payment on a house, with a small garage attached that became the new home for Hylight Electronics. To begin with, Hylight sold directly to musicians, to cut out additional fees by distributors and music stores. At around this time Glenn Cornick, then of Jethro Tull, began using HIWATT amps in his live sets. Pete Townshend also started using Reeves' amps, after he met David through the SOUND CITY amps he originally used. Word grew fast and HIWATT began to be used by bands such as The Who, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Manfred Mann and others. With the addition of sales manager Peter Webber, a former band tour manager, HIWATT's reputation grew.
With demand threatening to exceed production capabilities, Dave Reeves decided he needed help in the most time consuming stage in building his amps, the wiring of the chassis. This led to the legendary partnership of Hylight and Harry Joyce Electronics. |
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Harry Joyce was an accomplished wiring technician, known for his “no-compromise” workmanship and “military-spec” wiring. He had hand-picked his elite crew of employees fresh out of technical school and trained them personally in his meticulous practices. At that time they were contracted to Gravesby Instruments Ltd to produce wiring projects for the Royal Navy, and whilst initially sceptical, he eventually agreed to work with Reeves, on the proviso that they only produce 40 units per month, to ensure quality control. Reeves also struck up deals with Partridge Transformers, Fane Loudspeakers and continued to use his old employer's Mullard valves to maintain the high quality and dependability synonymous with the company's image. |
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Shortly after, Hylight Electronics, now including Doug Fentiman and newly-appointed factory foreman Ian Oates, moved from Reeves' garage to a converted bakery in Kingston-upon-Thames . With the addition of Mike Allen and Danny Edwardson, brought in to improve the quality of HIWATT cabinets, and Phil Dudderidge, whose specialty lay in the design and manufacture of public address systems, the HIWATT name became even more prevalent throughout the world, gaining endorsement by big name acts in ever increasing numbers. HIWATT's popularity remained throughout the seventies, as small adjustments were made to the designs to reflect the change of tastes within the industry, notably the concession of using printed circuit boards, although strict wiring standards and construction quality were still maintained. Specially built custom amps such as Pete Townshend's modified CP103 and Dave Gilmour's linked-input DR103 were also produced at this time. |
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Sadly David Reeves suffered a fatal fall down a flight of steps in early 1981, and as he was divorced, control of his company was taken over by solicitors, not by his three children as was his intention. Some existing employees, among them Mary Clifford, admin for the company, formed Biacrown Ltd, and continued to make HIWATT amplifiers. But the new company found it difficult to pay their bills, and lost many of the contracts with their suppliers, notably Harry Joyce and the original Partridge Transformers. Eventually, in 1984 Mary Clifford sold the company to Rick Harrison of Music Ground, who still makes HIWATT amplifiers today. |
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David Gilmour and HIWATT
It's suggested that David Reeves first came to David Gilmour's attention through Sound City (The backside of the Ummagumma album features a Sound City L100), but this is unconfirmed. What IS known is that Gilmour's love affair with HIWATT began in July/August of 1969, and would continue virtually uninterrupted for the next forty years. |
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Gilmour's amp of choice has always been the DR103, the design of which was developed in January of '69, just a few months before Gilmour began to use them. Throughout the early seventies David's main live setup consisted of three DR103's (one being a spare), powering four separate WEM 4x12 speakers. The WEM's were loaded with Fane speakers, similar to the HIWATT equivalent. |
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David also had his DR103's customised with small but significant modifications over the years. His use of an Alembic F-2B bass pre-amp at some points lead to the HIWATTs only being used for their power amp stage. He also had a linked input created, to negate the need for a jumper lead to bridge the channels. For 1984's About Face David experimented with Fender amplification, and again for the Momentary Lapse of Reason album and subsequent tour, but switched back to HIWATT at some point in '88. |
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For the Division Bell tour in 1994, Gilmour's rig reached its largest size, consisting of a total of 6 HIWATT heads. His main setup of 3 DR103's remained (one being a spare), remained, one of which was fed through a Boss CE-2 chorus pedal. He also used 3 STA-100 heads, one driving a Heil talk box, and the other 2 each driving a custom built rotating speakers, based on the Maestro Rover design and dubbed by Gilmour “Doppolas”. The signal was spread into 4 speaker cabinets for stereo – 2 WEM 4x12s and 2 Marshalls using celestion speakers. |
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With the release of On an Island, Gilmour dropped back to his simpler 3 amp setup, powering 2 WEMs, and it was this setup that was used for the famous Live8 performance in 2005. |
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*my thanks to mhuss.com and gilmourish.com for the information used in this article.
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