Hiwatt History

Hiwatt is a British company that manufactures amplifiers for electric guitars and bass guitars. Starting in the late 1960s, together with Marshall, and Vox this company forms an image of so-called "British" guitar amplifier sound.

Another lesser-known branch of Hiwatt production involves various effect pedals and units.

The Hiwatt brand was created to meet the requirements of The Who's Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. Townshend had been using Sound City amplifiers since mid 1967, and Entwistle since earlier that year. In late 1968, they approached the company asking if their equipment could be modified slightly. This request was denied, but manufacturer Dave Reeves, a former employee of Sound City, agreed and created customised Sound City L100 amplifiers under the name Hylight Electronics. This model was named the Hiwatt DR103, which would later be modified in 1970 into the CP103 "Super Who 100" model that Townshend used almost exclusively for over a decade. In 1973 the updated DR103W model was created, which Townshend still uses to this day.[1]

• Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)
• Tommy Bolin
• John Entwistle (The Who)
• Robert Fripp (King Crimson)
• David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
• Steve Hackett (Genesis)
• Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order)
• Trevor Horn (The Buggles/Yes/Art of Noise)
• Glenn Hughes (Trapeze/Deep Purple/Black Sabbath/Gary Moore)
• Manny Charlton (Nazareth)
• Alex Lifeson (Rush)
• Hideto Matsumoto (X Japan/Hide with Spread Beaver/Zilch)
• Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
• Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick)
• Rudolf Schenker (Scorpions)
• Neal Schon (Journey)
• Pete Townshend (The Who)
• Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies/Infectious Grooves/Metallica)
• Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)
• Joe Walsh (The Eagles)
• Robin Zander (Cheap Trick)
• Jamie Cook (Arctic Monkeys)

Company information courtesy of their Wikipedia entry, which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.