vintageHIWATTconvention.com

Picked this one up a few minutes away, in Poulsbo aka "Little Norway" of all places:










It's seen a lot of use and needs some hardware and a little clean up, but it sounds great. The previous owner replaced the rear batten strips (I don't know what else to call them) with some marine grade plywood and put some more screws into the baffle to tighten it up. I was considering replacing the the grill cloth with S&P and re-doing the vynide/tolex, but that "extreme vintage beat to heck" look is growing on me. Besides, these later cabs have the batten strips attached with glue and nailgun brads, in lieu of screws... it'd be a lot of work getting that baffle out.

Looks like may have been owned by "Gruntruck" at one time - a '90s grunge/metal band from Seattle.
Don't ask me who "SKIPPY" is...

One of the Fanes is a re-cone for sure (it's slightly louder than the rest). Two others are suspect (different cone codes) but it's hard to say for certain. The dust caps are identical to the one that I'm positive is original (top right in the gut shot).

A look at the HIWATT Registry tells me that #8263 is the latest Hylight rear-loader we know of so far.

Nice! I love the look of beat-up tolex, but can't stand the semi-transparent black grillcloth most of the time. S&P is where it's at.

Olsvik wrote:but can't stand the semi-transparent black grillcloth most of the time. S&P is where it's at.

Me too... but I kind of like it sitting next to my S&P '75 SE4123. I might change it later, but for now...

A face only a mother could love ?

That cab definitely has character. Oh, the stories it could tell. We do need to find out who "Skippy" is/was, though.

Dave

OldSchoolDave wrote:We do need to find out who "Skippy" is/was, though.

Yeah, maybe he knows what happened to the skids.

maybe the owner thought the cab sounded smooth like butter............but thicker like Peanut Butter!




p.s.

(for those ouside the States, there was/is a brand of peanut butter in the States called "skippy")

Oh, we have Skippy up north here as well. The question is, do you have Kraft peanut butter?

I don't know, but we have Cheese Wiz and Spam........

Sorry to disrail your thread Mike!

Derail all you want, guys... it does sound kind of like a sledge hammer coated in SKIPPY, though.

Mike
Serial Off-topic Offender

I tried to track down some history on this cab, and got a reply from someone acquainted with it:

"yeah...that was definetly the singer's guitar cab. His name is Ben McMillan and unfortunately he passed away a short while ago from complications due to diabetes.
He used it alot during the beginning of the GrunTruck reign around 1992; and I hated that f*****g thing cuz it weighs about 4 tons and has the type of handles that will snap wrists, if I recall correctly. Too bad because sound-wise, it is an amazing enclosure. We recorded our first album, "Inside Yours" using that cab almost exclusively, even for some of my tracks I dubbed in later. I have a vintage Marshall set-up that I used as well as some whacky GK thing and some other weird peddles and stuff that I never used afterwords. Anyhow, you got yourself a genuine rock collectible there. Take care of it, and give it a thorough rocking when ever possible. Ben would be happy about that.

Cheers,
Tommy Niemeyer

The "GRUNTRUCK" SE4123 and iWATT DR103 in action:



My son in his House, M.D. costume, playing a Halloween show.

I'm told they hit 135dB...

OldSchoolDave wrote:We do need to find out who "Skippy" is/was, though.

Dave

"SKIPPY" has been found!!

He bought the cab in '92 from the late Ben McMillan of Gruntruck. Later sold it to a friend (to his regret).

(fast forward 20+ years)

So I posted it for sale on CL and a friend of his saw it and called him saying, "this cab looks right up your alley."
Skippy took a look at the ad and realized it was HIS OLD CAB.

Gotta love a story of long-lost friends reunited. Sniff, sniff....

mikhailwatt wrote: Skippy took a look at the ad and realized it was HIS OLD CAB.

Gotta love a story of long-lost friends reunited. Sniff, sniff....

Absolutely. Sad to send beloved gear down the road. Nice to know it's going to a happy home.

congrats!

Dave

kinda brings a tear to my eye.

Dr.HI-TONE wrote:kinda brings a tear to my eye.

Almost gives me hope that my '56 Les Paul goldtop will find its way home to me someday....
Almost.

Dave