Introduce yourself

[Casey78]

Greetings everybody!

I'm a new member. My name is Casey and I live in Iowa. Within the last year I've gotten into Hiwatts after being a fender player mainly before. I love the sound of these amazing amps. I use my DR-103's to play bass through. They are road amps, so they are by no means museum pieces, but I enjoy them and people get a kick out of seeing them around these parts, lol. Not too many Hiwatts in this area of Iowa.

I own 2 DR-103's. One which I recently purchased this last week. The first one i purchased last year was a 1979 DR-103, serial number-13471. The other one I purchased this week is a 1978 DR-103, serial number-12692. I checked the registry over at the aweome Mark Huss Hiwatt site and neither one had been registered. Both amps have the original Partridge transformers I believe. They both have had a little repair work. Mainly caps and resistor, tubes, etc. The 78 has some chasis issues where I believe someone had modded it or thought about modding it. I'll post some photos of the 78 and when I have time I'll pop the 79 open and share pics of it as well.

Here's both of them together:
By casey78

Now some gut shots of the 78 and such:
By casey78

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By casey78
Sorry for the glare. The numbers on this transformer are TH7548

By casey78

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Sorry if the pic are too big. Been a while since I've been a member of a message board forum.

As you can see from the pics there are 2 extra holes punched for tube sockets on the chasis, Another to the left of the serial number plate and another on the faceplate above the pilot light. Nothing hooked up to them, just holes. Also, I don't know if you can see it, but the 2 in the serial number has been stamped over 1. Should I be concerned? I know there are fake Hiwatts out there.

Thank you for your time if you are still reading this. I feel like I'm putting up a long, rambling post. I'd love to hear some thoughts on the pics and i'm very happy to be a member of this forum. I will also answer any questions to the best of my knowledge.

Cheers,
Casey

[Stu_R]

Welcome aboard from another recent newbie. Nice pics - all of them - a great looking amps. Presumably they're cased if they are road used, excellent condition on both of them.

As far as the spec plates are concerned I don't know enough about them to give qualified opinion, but before I read your thoughts on it I did that they'd been stamped more heavily than any others I've seen to the point of dishing the plate slightly. But it could equally be a guy at Hiwatt being heavy handed. They certainly don't have the MG trademark parentheses. Really dunno about the re-stamped 1/2.
Your trannys have different Partridge stickers to mine too, but mine is a 200 and is 3 or 4 years older so that doesn't mean anything.

Nice for you to have a brace of Hiwatts, wish mine had had a cap job - I'd be able to use it!

[Dr.HI-TONE]

Welcome Casey.
Your amps are legit. They have have just had mods at one time that have been removed.
It is not uncommon to see serial tags with "typos".

[mhuss]

Agreed. I have a '71 103 that says DR504103 with the 504 struck out. It has a cut down speaker serial plate as well (they occasionally cut down speaker plates and used them on heads when they ran out of normal plates).

In addition, punching the serial numbers was one of the dullest "washing the dishes" jobs in the factory, and many different people did the punching at one time or another, some with a heavier hand.

--mark

[Dr.HI-TONE]

the amp pictured has an odd chassis.
I didn't notice the additional power tube socket cutouts earlier this morning......pre coffee.
I still think it is legit.

[Casey78]

Dr. Hiwatt,

I'm pretty sure the extra holes were punched after. The work of the actual punchings seem to be pretty cruddy and the spacing is very close as compared to the actual tube socket holes, which are spaced out equally, but I'm not an expert.

It reminds me of an old bandmaster I bought a few years ago. Someone had punched the chasis to do some sort of gibson mod or something... It was a mess. But that story isn't for here, lol

Thanks Stu, Dr. Hiwatt and Mhuss for welcoming me and your thoughts.

[porge]

Hi,

My name is Andrew. I have a '79 SA112 50w loaded with a goodmans Axiom speaker, not factory unfortunately. I gig with my amp from time to time, and it's my 4th Hiwatt, and 3rd Hiwatt combo Previously, I've had a biacrown DR103, a '79 FL112 (and a chassis from a FL112), and a (C)hiwatt 50w HI-Gain combo.

I'm an amp junky, with 6 other tube amps.

[Dr.HI-TONE]

Hi Andrew,
Welcome to the Vintage HIWATT Forum.

[nino500]

Hi all, I'm Nino.

Italian name (thanks to my late Neapolitan father, who my mum clubbed and dragged home to England in the late 50s)
but born and raised as an Englishman, against a backdrop of 70s rock.

I came here to find out a little more about a couple of amps I picked up recently (a Biacrown DR103 and a High-Gain 100) more of which on the appropriate discussions.

I am also 'still friends' with a hylight DR103 which I bought from the 'Music and Video Exchange' in Notting Hill Gate in 1982. I got it as a swap for a failing un-named 50 watt head and some old crappy keyboard + £35. Sounds great until I tell you I sold it a couple of years later for £50.

The good news (if a little sickening) is the guy I sold it to still has it as his main amp and we have have been playing in the same pub band for the past 5 years.

Anyway, I'll try to get that one round here for a nude photo shoot some time soon, so we can find out a bit more about it's history.

See you on the discussions.............Nino.

[mhuss]

Welcome, Nino. It's always good to hear about another band (pub or not) using Hiwatts. I will warn you in advance, the "Hiwatt" amps being made currently, which include your high gain, are not looked upon favorably here. There's a long story there about how the Hiwatt name got stolen from the Reeves family.

Again, welcome!

--mark

[nino500]

Hi Mark, Thanks for the heads up. I had picked up on the vibe (although I don't know the full story) as I have long been interested in Hiwatts (that one I bought in 1982 was my third ever guitar amp).
I must add that I came here via your wonderful Hiwatt pages.

To be honest, I didn't really want the High Gain but it came up on fleabay at a price I couldn't refuse and I just chucked one bid in; nobody else chanced it so it's mine for £70. I'll put some photo's in the appropriate area soon so you'll see why so cheap (PCB has a chunk missing, probably dropped while out of cabinet).

The good news is that when I went to Nottingham to pick that one up I mentioned the older custom 100s to the seller and he didn't know much about them but told me he had one of those as well. He'd bought them both from the same auction (i assumed a physical as opposed to online auction). Anyway, he brought out the Custom 100, which is a Biacrown and I offered him another £70 for that one. He accepted and I went away quite chuffed.

Obviously there's a lot of work to do; they're both just the chassis (no cabinets) and the Biacrown 100 has no valve bases and a few other minor components missing. It has both transformers though (not Partridge, of course ). I was hoping to get a good view of the PCB layout for the High Gain so I can wire in the missing chunk then move that one on (after giving it a good thrash at a couple of gigs, of course) Then concentrate on getting the Biacrown to as close to a proper Hiwatt as I can afford. I'm guessing I can get away with the PT but the vibe seems to be that the OT has to be a partridge (or one of those good US copies) to be worthwhile.

I'm still wondering where they came from. The auction label is John Pye auctions, Based in Nottingham. Neither of the amps have serial NOs; the Biacrown has it's Biacrown chassis label but it hasn't been stamped at all so I'm guessing these never made it out of the factory. Could be they were auctioned as part of a 'clearout' of factory damaged stuff at Doncaster.

Curiouser and curiouser, about a week later I bought some more Hiwatt Maxwatt chassis and partial amps (mostly chinese tranny stuff) from an ebay trader in Leicester (looks like they came from the same sale, as there were a bunch of High Gain bare chassis that I didn't buy but he wasn't revealing his source and there were no auction labels). In this lot there is a very interesting hand built thing on an aluminium chassis, set up for 4 el84s. If that was from Doncaster, then it might be some kind of development experiment but there's nothing on it to positively link it to any incarnation of Hiwatt.

BTW, I'm not trading for profit here; I just like to play with amps and would like to get a nice Hiwatt together for myself. Anyway, I'll say no more for now and come back with some pics.
Nino.

[GrahamC]

Hello people,
My name is Graham, I live in Hampshire in the UK and I have a pair of Hiwatt amps.
They are Custom Slave 200s made in 1970 and I believe they are ex Pete Townsend.
I have been looking after these since 1985 and I think the time is right for them to go to an enthusiast.




After searching the web it would appear you guys are the experts so I'm hoping you might help me with some answers.
Is there any interest in the slave amps?
Does the Pete Townsend connection increase the desirability/value?
Is there any way of proving the Pete Townsend connection?
Do they have to be working to be saleable? (They haven't been plugged in for 25 years)
Where would be the best place to find a buyer? (here, eBay?)






I acquired them in 1985 from a friend of a friend, used them for a couple of years, then moved to a house where it was impractical to use them and they have been gathering dust ever since.
The story I was told was that PT had been in financial difficulties (poss. late 70's, maybe due to a drug habit?) and gave equipment away to roadies in lieu of wages. The friend of a friend of mine, who was on the fringes of the professional music scene, won certain items from a Who roadie in a poker game. The one thing he did have that I saw, that convinced me the story was true, was PT's gold disc for Tommy.




One of the amps has got the stencilled marks on it (WHO and 111) and I doubt anyone would have thought to have faked it back then, but from my searching it doesn't look like anyone connected with the Who kept any records of serial numbers so I'm guessing there's no way of actually proving the link.

[Dr.HI-TONE]

Hi Graham,
Welcome to The Vintage HIWATT Forum!

Cool amps!

-Doc

[GrahamC]

Hi Graham,
Welcome to The Vintage HIWATT Forum!

Cool amps!

-Doc

Cheers. In an ideal world I'd be keeping these (along with a collection of vintage Rickenbacker and Gretsch guitars ), but the reality is I can't use them.

Has anyone heard of an eBay seller incarante ? He sounds like a dealer.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300838320797

He says "If you are looking at/watching this because you have one to sell, get in touch, I may be, or know people who are interested."

[Dr.HI-TONE]

I know him, he goes by Mr. Foxen on several forums.

He is a reseller, known for picking up items dirt cheap and trying to resell at three times his price.

I will not say more about him for public display, but I have no use or respect for him.