Hiwatt bass amps

[D.M.N.]

Enwistle used DR201s as well. Two of them.

 

[Big_Stu]

I can't comment on Slade and Manfred Mann's use of Hiwatt but if Noddy Holder (Slade) is the poster boy for Hiwatt 200W then I'd keep that a secret if I were you. You take Slade, I'll take Entwistle Live At Leeds,

I take it you'll be another one who only knows of them from their silly outfits they wore in the early 70's? and nothing of them being the highlight of Reading 1980 or Donnington 1981? Maybe "long term" Hiwatt users doesn't count if they only used them for 10 years, or more Hiwatts than The Who ever did? Or far louder than The Who ever were (not that sheer volume means much). All of their Hiwatts were adapted for vastly increased sound quality & I saw Nod & Jim at many sound-checks going over the band's entire rig to make sure everything was up to par.
I'm not trying to big them up here, the time for that is long past, but if you're going to make such flippant remarks you really should know your history first.

BTW. Steve Priest of The Sweet used three Hiwatt 201s in a live situation & recorded with one (I asked him) but I guess you'll want to dismiss him just as easily as you did Slade?. And Thijs Van Leer used a Fender Bassman live (he told me).
FWIW the 201 went from 4 KT88's to 6 EL34s in late 76/early 77 for no other reason than it made sense to unify the range a bit. There is no difference capacity wise to make one or the other more or less suitable for any instrument.
On the initial run there were 99 Hiwatt 400s made. I tracked down number 11 of them near Edinburgh, it was in mint cond. with barely run-in tubes. It was dropped by UPS while being shipped to NM, USA & the impact on the floor bent the chassis in the middle with the momentum of the huge tranny. The new owner stripped it down & bent it back into place using the forks of a fork-lift.

 

[Bigjohn]

I take it you'll be another one who only knows of them from their silly outfits they wore in the early 70's?

No, I was alluding to the sound they made.

and nothing of them being the highlight of Reading 1980 or Donnington 1981?

Great moments like those need not be mentioned.

Maybe "long term" Hiwatt users doesn't count if they only used them for 10 years, or more Hiwatts than The Who ever did? Or far louder than The Who ever were (not that sheer volume means much). All of their Hiwatts were adapted for vastly increased sound quality & I saw Nod & Jim at many sound-checks going over the band's entire rig to make sure everything was up to par.

Well if they had more amps than the Who then ... what?
Too bad they didn't go over their playing and singing with the same attention to detail.

I'm not trying to big them up here, the time for that is long past, but if you're going to make such flippant remarks you really should know your history first.

Yay! Slade!

BTW. Steve Priest of The Sweet used three Hiwatt 201s in a live situation & recorded with one (I asked him) but I guess you'll want to dismiss him just as easily as you did Slade?. And Thijs Van Leer used a Fender Bassman live (he told me).
FWIW the 201 went from 4 KT88's to 6 EL34s in late 76/early 77 for no other reason than it made sense to unify the range a bit. There is no difference capacity wise to make one or the other more or less suitable for any instrument.
On the initial run there were 99 Hiwatt 400s made. I tracked down number 11 of them near Edinburgh, it was in mint cond. with barely run-in tubes. It was dropped by UPS while being shipped to NM, USA & the impact on the floor bent the chassis in the middle with the momentum of the huge tranny. The new owner stripped it down & bent it back into place using the forks of a fork-lift.

I'm not up on Steve Priest of The Sweet.
What's your opinion of Joey Arkenstat?
And why are you telling me Thijs Van Leer used a Fender Bassman live? Ok. When I saw them Van Leer played his Hammond Organ through a Leslie. You were the one saying Focus used Hiwatt. I told you when I saw them they used Fender and Acoustic.

 

[KramerBassFan]

I like SLADE, I like SWEET, And i like HIWATTS.

Enough said...

 

[JimmyM]

there are some who happen to dislike slade and sweet both. that is fine. however, they are wrong. slade and sweet were both fantastic bands in their heyday. so what if they weren't on the king crimson level of complexity? they made great rock that people liked to bang heads to. and compared to a lot of popular bands today, they were musical genius.

 

[Big_Stu]

And why are you telling me Thijs Van Leer used a Fender Bassman live? Ok. When I saw them Van Leer played his Hammond Organ through a Leslie. You were the one saying Focus used Hiwatt. I told you when I saw them they used Fender and Acoustic.

Not me mate, I never said a word about it.

 

[D.M.N.]

however, they are wrong. slade and sweet were both fantastic bands in their heyday. so what if they weren't on the king crimson level of complexity? they made great rock that people liked to bang heads to. and compared to a lot of popular bands today, they were musical genius.

This. Both did good straight ahead "glam" rock. And then Quiet Riot took some great Slade songs and made them popular in the U.S., but ruined them in the progress.

 

[Destructobot]

+1

We're talking about a british amplifier, that was hand wired by a gentleman who wired british munitions and equipment, versus a piece of electronic equipment built by a machine to meet a certain price limit.

And everyone knows British wiring is quality. Ask any Triumph or MG owner!

 

[Bassmec]

And everyone knows British wiring is quality. Ask any Triumph or MG owner!

I would think that the analogy would be closer if you had chosen
Neve and Trident recording consoles.
Not everything was made by british leyland.

 

[60jbass91]

but surely if were talking top of the line amps you cant compare them with that fluff MG i would probably compare an old hiwatts quality construction to that of an old TVR or aston martin

 

[AwkwardLoudness]

And why are you telling me Thijs Van Leer used a Fender Bassman live? Ok. When I saw them Van Leer played his Hammond Organ through a Leslie. You were the one saying Focus used Hiwatt. I told you when I saw them they used Fender and Acoustic.

Not me mate, I never said a word about it.

This comment was supposed to be directed at me I think. I was referring to Bobby Jacobs, the current bassist of Focus, using a Hylight-era Hiwatt DR405 (S/N 13616). I never said nor implied that Thijs Van Leer used one. There were photos of this amp on the Focus website, Invalid Link Removed, but I cannot seem to find them now other than a blurred photo of it in their 'St. Albans 2009' concert photo slide show.

I find it funny that anyone would think that classic Hiwatt bass tones only apply to EL34 amps.

 

[Bigjohn]

I find it funny that you find that funny ;-)

This comment was supposed to be directed at me I think. I was referring to Bobby Jacobs, the current bassist of Focus, using a Hylight-era Hiwatt DR405 (S/N 13616). I never said nor implied that Thijs Van Leer used one. There were photos of this amp on the Focus website, Invalid Link Removed, but I cannot seem to find them now other than a blurred photo of it in their 'St. Albans 2009' concert photo slide show.

I find it funny that anyone would think that classic Hiwatt bass tones only apply to EL34 amps.

 

[AwkwardLoudness]

Glenn Hughes, who used 100w, 200w and 400w Hiwatts at various times w/ Deep Purple, is not the only exception. According to the Mark Huss Hiwatt History site, Glenn Cornick was the person who requested that David Reeves build a 200 watt amp (pic of Cornick's DR201). Colin Pattenden of Manfred Mann's Earth band used a KT88 200w. Slade used multiple KT88 DR201s for both bass and guitar (see Big_Stu's post). The Dutch band Focus used a 400w Hiwatt. I thought that the Moody blues used a DR201 or two for bass, but I'm not certain. There are others for sure.

The earliest DR201 amps were KT88 models built in 1969. The earliest DR405 I've seen was likely built in 1971 based upon the individual component dates.

I'd like to update this a bit. I had the fortunate opportunity to chat with Mr. Cornick in person a few days ago at an amp convention. He was incredibly humorous and friendly. I asked him if he was the first person to inquire David Reeves about building a 200 watt Hiwatt. His storied reply to this began with him jamming with The Who for the first time one night in October 1968. He loved the tone of their amps, at least some of which were labeled as 'Sound City', the Mark I era amps built by Hiwatt. The Who suggested (or maybe insisted) that Glenn call David Reeves, the builder, rather than go to the Sound City store, and they gave him DR's phone number. Later, after an initial purchase of 100 watt Hiwatts, Glenn wanted an even louder amp. DR had actually already built a singe 200 watt amp (a prototype of sorts), but he built it for himself and refused to sell it. This amp was truly his baby apparently from what Glenn recalls. Reeves agreed to clone this amp, and the first DR201s sold were purchased by Jethro Tull in 1969. While these were being built, Reeves allowed Tull to use the prototype DR201 on a local tour of Britain. Glenn said that this amp is the one Invalid Link Removed, second stack from the left, the lower of the two heads on that stack. The amp did not have a control panel with labels for the knobs since it was not intended to be sold. BTW, the bottom cab in that stack is a homebrew that Glenn built himself. The cab to the left of it is one that Hiwatt built match the dimensions of the homebrew.

Glenn said that Tull wanted even louder amps than the DR201, and Martin Barre bought the first or at least one of the earliest DR405 400 watt Hiwatts. Tull used Hiwatt 400s for a period before returning to using several 100 watt heads sometime in 1970, though I didn't ask why. Oh, and I found out that Ian Anderson only toured with one flute until it was broken, and then he toured with a two flutes.

 

[bgmww]

I'd like to update this a bit. I had the fortunate opportunity to chat with Mr. Cornick in person a few days ago at an amp convention. He was incredibly humorous and friendly. I asked him if he was the first person to inquire David Reeves about building a 200 watt Hiwatt. His storied reply to this began with him jamming with The Who for the first time one night in October 1968. He loved the tone of their amps, at least some of which were labeled as 'Sound City', the Mark I era amps built by Hiwatt. The Who suggested (or maybe insisted) that Glenn call David Reeves, the builder, rather than go to the Sound City store, and they gave him DR's phone number. Later, after an initial purchase of 100 watt Hiwatts, Glenn wanted an even louder amp. DR had actually already built a singe 200 watt amp (a prototype of sorts), but he built it for himself and refused to sell it. This amp was truly his baby apparently from what Glenn recalls. Reeves agreed to clone this amp, and the first DR201s sold were purchased by Jethro Tull in 1969. While these were being built, Reeves allowed Tull to use the prototype DR201 on a local tour of Britain. Glenn said that this amp is the one Invalid Link Removed, second stack from the left, the lower of the two heads on that stack. The amp did not have a control panel with labels for the knobs since it was not intended to be sold. BTW, the bottom cab in that stack is a homebrew that Glenn built himself. The cab to the left of it is one that Hiwatt built match the dimensions of the homebrew.

Glenn said that Tull wanted even louder amps than the DR201, and Martin Barre bought the first or at least one of the earliest DR405 400 watt Hiwatts. Tull used Hiwatt 400s for a period before returning to using several 100 watt heads sometime in 1970, though I didn't ask why. Oh, and I found out that Ian Anderson only toured with one flute until it was broken, and then he toured with a two flutes.

Cool. .Great story.

 

[hennessybass]

Cool thread, but it looks like no activity for a while...

Already posted this in a NAD thread, but needs to go here too!!

1977 Hiwatt DR201. The 6 EL34 version.

Invalid Link Removed

 

[Sneakypete]

AwkwardLoudness that is a proper amp you've got there - and with that lovely old-school technology so long as the components are still manufactured the next generation could do a restoration on it twenty years from now. Well done, sir!

 

[MuthaFunk]

Just thought I'd contribute to this cool thread with some of my own HiWatt porn.

1977 Made for Canada DR105 (Same as DR103 only different fusing to meet Canadian Electrical Code) Apparently some of the Canadian models were wired for more gain but this one never got that mod.

It's been ridden hard over the years and shows a repair or two inside. Oddly enough I don't have any pictures of the outside of it but it has the matching Fane Cabinet and sounds great with guitar. I tried recording bass with it and a few different cabs on a few occasions in the past and couldn't get the sound I was looking for. With the VT Bass pedal in front of it, it sounds great but that's kind of defeating the purpose a little.

Thanks for the very informative thread guys! Anybody know who Walton is? I see the Harry Joyce Quality Control signature but don't know who Walton is. Perhaps the guy who wired it out of Joyce's shop?

 

[AwkwardLoudness]

AwkwardLoudness that is a proper amp you've got there - and with that lovely old-school technology so long as the components are still manufactured the next generation could do a restoration on it twenty years from now. Well done, sir!

Um, thanks!! Which amp is the proper one? I've restored all five Hiwatts that I have owned. Still have three. They could go more than 20 more years as long as they don't sit in storage without being played for an extended period.

YAAAYYY Hiwatt p0rn

DR405 before restoration

DR103

DR103 before restoration

 

[bgmww]

oh man.. that DR405 is a monster...
Did you install the cooling fan ?

 

[AwkwardLoudness]

oh man.. that DR405 is a monster...
Did you install the cooling fan ?

No. A previous owner installed the fan. I disconnected it.