Herringbone Grill Cloth (Paging Buster)

[shakti]

Thanks! Here's the text as it appears in the registry:

Hylight 4x12 Early Sound City cabinet and grill cloth like The Who used at Rock and roll circus.2x12 2/17 with purple Fane labels,25w, flux 17k.2x 122142 with purple Hiwatt labels,50w,17k flux.Date code 4/71, Power rating 100w.

Is this one of your cabs, Buster? I'm curious...does it have a Hiwatt or Sound City serial badge? And I assume the two 122142 speakers, having 4/71 date codes, are not original to the cab? Does it have a rear port or not?

[buster]

Hi.
Rear port.

[buster]

Hi.
Hylight/Hiwatt serial badge.

[buster]

Hi.
Some speakers.

[buster]

Hi.
Some more speakers.

[shakti]

Nice!! Thanks for the photos. So what do we make of this cab...I would assume the two '71 speakers are replacements, no? Surely it can't be a '71 with that type of grille cloth and the metal badge?

[Dr.HI-TONE]

My money says its original.

[menace2u]

When your pop owns the company- it's amazing what oddities you can accumulate!

I have never seen "nails" used to attach the serial plate either.....

How about a few more crystal clear pictures of the grill cloth kind sir??

[shakti]

My money says its original.

That would make it an oddity for sure. The basketweave grille cloth was in use from '69 and on, so for the herringbone grille cloth to pop up as late as '71 would be very rare. Even Sound City had moved on from that grille cloth by then, I believe.

[shakti]

Oh, and a few other features which put it closer to '69:
- metal Hiwatt badge
- different radius on the edges

The vynide covering rather than a smoother tolex does make it sort of transitional, so maybe late '69? Am I correct in assuming the typical metal badge amps had a different (smooth) tolex, before the introduction of the vynide covering?

My intention is not to pick on this cab, BTW, but simply to learn more about the fine details of these rare, early cabs.

[Dr.HI-TONE]

Dave Reeves would make custom cabs for artists. I have seen a couple of cabs from '75-'76 that had a different grill cloth. That was original.

I am pretty sure that the cabs from '68-'69 had no serial tags. I know from conversations with Glenn Cornick that most bands at that time considered the speaker enclosures disposable. after touring the states, they would leave the enclosures behind rather than pay to ship them back to the UK.

It is my opinion that sometime in late 1970 or early 1971 that DR decided to put serial tags on speaker enclosures and started around #1000 as he estimated around 1000 already sold.

This is just an educated guess.

[shakti]

But what about the metal badge and the different radius on the front? Still a bit of a mystery to me, this one...

[shakti]

I am pretty sure that the cabs from '68-'69 had no serial tags.

I've seen photos (as mentioned on another thread) showing the backs of The Who's cabs at the Rock 'n' Roll Circus (December '68). Those cabs appear to have a serial tag at the back, and also no rear port. I believe they are Hiwatt cabs proper, and not re-badged Sound City cabs, since they have recessed wooden handles (not latched metal handles), and the piping channels are placed differently than on any Sound City cab I've seen.

[shakti]

BTW, did the cabs follow their own serial # line, separate from the amps? Or did they stamp the serial number plates succesively, so that #1032 could be a cab, #1033 could be a DR103, #1034 a DR504 etc...?

[Dr.HI-TONE]

cabs had separate serial number series.

I have to think that if '68-'69 speaker enclosures had a serial number, that surely at least one would be on the registry?????????

lot's of questions.....