Hiwatt P.A. 150 -- fake or legit?

[fortissimo]

Hi all,

first time poster here. My apologies if this has been covered already (I didn't find anything with a search, neither here, nor at hiwatt.org). What's your take on the below "Hiwatt":

Hiwatt P.A. 150

Like the author points out, it's nearly identical to a

Simms-Watts P.A. 100

Apart from the exterior, visible differences include an added choke inductor, and a power resistor present on the S-W P.A. 100 is missing here.

Is this simply an old forgery -- front panel relabeled, rear panel sticker conveniently cut off just above the S-W logo... -- or could possibly Hiwatt have outsourced a (budget?) line to S-W at one point?

Kind regards,
Fredrik

PS
The unofficial S-W homepage linked to above is a small project of mine that has just begun. If you're interested in S-W too, you're of course more than welcome to just look around or help laying the S-W puzzle!

[Dr.HI-TONE]

Legit, but not made by HIWATT.

probably called a HIWATT without knowledge that another HIWATT existed.

it is a sims watt.

HIWATT did make PA heads as early as early 1968, these were wired much more meticulously than the sims-watts.

[fortissimo]

I agree that it's beyond doubt that the amp was built by S-W. However it seems unlikely to me that the name is a coincident. Component date codes would have been helpful, but I'd say the amp was built in 1969 or later, in which case a London based amp manufacturer must surely have been aware of Hiwatt (right?). Moreover, after closer inspection I think the font used in the logo is not too far away from the 1969 version: The ends of the letters are straight, and the distance between W and A is shorter than that of the later logos. The horizontal bars of the T:s don't match exactly in proportions though, and the A:s are a bit different, too.

Here are two pics for direct comparison:



1969 logo:




Of course this is only speculation, but here's another theory:

Perhaps Reeves discussed contract work with S-W around 1969 or 1970, before opting for Joyce in early 1971? In this case, this could perhaps be a one off work sample / quick and dirty mockup made by S-W (based on their designs rather than Reeves') as part of the discussions? (Later discussions could also be possible if Reeves was looking to increase the production, being frustrated by the limited production capacity of Joyce's company.) Maybe we've stumbled upon the rarest Hiwatt of them all, worth trillions of gazillions? Or maybe not.

Nah. This still seems a bit far-fetched to me. Maybe others will chime in, too?

BTW, what PA amp offerings did Hiwatt have between say 1968 and 1970? When did this "look" hit the market:

[Dr.HI-TONE]

I agree, extremely far fetched.

HIWATT PA heads like pictured began in early 1968 possibly even late 1967.

[fortissimo]

Ah, interesting! (Meanwhile I just took a look in the registry and found DR203 and DR112 entries with S/N in the 900 range, thereby proving that they existed at least back in 1970.)

Anyway, if there's actually no real Hiwatt link, I'm more inclined to think that someone deliberately at some point tried to pass this one off as a Hiwatt... Let's blame it on MG for now!

[Dr.HI-TONE]

919 is right here, 381 was here but has retired to its old stomping grounds

[fortissimo]

Very cool! 5845 here! It lives a comfortable life in the rehearsal studio, since I don't have the heart to take it out anymore. Hence my recent interest in S-W, thinking that a S-W P.A. 200 will be a decent substitute (possibly after modification). At least it has better handles than the Hiwatt.

Edit:

Correction: I should have said "more handles".

[Dr.HI-TONE]

DR202 #3706 here and DR112 #9xxx around here somewhere.

you can't have too many