GRANKOR wrote:the guys who owned Hiwatt for the last few years were total crooks, they got arrested for dealing in stolen guitars. When I lived in England they had a vintage guitar store in the city I lived
Except that's not the Hiwatt that closed it's doors.
MusicGround owns Hiwatt UK and the UK/EU rights to the Hiwatt trademark. The Hiwatt trademark rights have been split for decades.
hiwatt.com and the North American rights to Hiwatt is owned by Fernandes Guitars. Fernandes has started and ceased production of Hiwatt's multiple times always using a OEM manufacture to make the amps.
As noted, Hiwatt has gone through multiple changes and been shutter over and over again in the last 30 years. Sometimes, the brand would be used to make pretty good (but never great) RI's of their old amps, other times the brand would be used to sell shitty generic middle-of-the-road amps. Hiwatt has been nothing but brand equity for decades.
This is why Reeves has cornered the market on quality repros of classic Hiwatt models. These days NO ONE ever actually buys a new Hiwatt to get legendry Hiwatt tones, they always bought vintage (which are still reasonable) or bought a Reeves, Ceriatone, or similar.
Holy wow... didn't know that. Sadder.
ajaxlepinski wrote:Lack of personal style? Dude, you're the Sean Connery of GAB!
Dave wrote:Draelyc - can write a solid song, and play tasty leads despite his internal neurotic tendencies. Despite a million debates raging in his head over string guage, pickup height, Pete Townshend's sexual history, and pick material he makes his Shiva give up the goods. Plus his unplugged electric tone... well... it exists.
man... wonder who is next? The price for UK made amps/speakers etc in this country is silly with the exhange rate, yet they must sell to us over here to stay alive to some extent
Rampage wrote:Oh, you can't play guitar because of your cats? What's next, you don't have sex with your wife because your vagina is acting up?
K-Bizzle wrote:There comes a point in every young mans life when he forsakes the skittles and mountain dew of his childhood for the beer and reese's of manhood.
That sucks to see them go under, especially when they were uk made amps and classic. A band I saw a few weeks ago had one of the newer hi-gain 100 heads and it sounded pretty killer, although different then classic hiwatt as name implies. Was considering building a hiwatt type build, the triwatt by trinity amps seems really cool being it has options for classic hiwatt and biacrown era but at a lower 25 watt range.
Mesa/Kramer wrote:Suprised Fender, or some other company would'nt buy the company
Or Disney...
ajaxlepinski wrote:Lack of personal style? Dude, you're the Sean Connery of GAB!
Dave wrote:Draelyc - can write a solid song, and play tasty leads despite his internal neurotic tendencies. Despite a million debates raging in his head over string guage, pickup height, Pete Townshend's sexual history, and pick material he makes his Shiva give up the goods. Plus his unplugged electric tone... well... it exists.
wyatt wrote: Except that's not the Hiwatt that closed it's doors.
MusicGround owns Hiwatt UK and the UK/EU rights to the Hiwatt trademark. The Hiwatt trademark rights have been split for decades.
hiwatt.com and the North American rights to Hiwatt is owned by Fernandes Guitars. Fernandes has started and ceased production of Hiwatt's multiple times always using a OEM manufacture to make the amps.
As noted, Hiwatt has gone through multiple changes and been shutter over and over again in the last 30 years. Sometimes, the brand would be used to make pretty good (but never great) RI's of their old amps, other times the brand would be used to sell shitty generic middle-of-the-road amps. Hiwatt has been nothing but brand equity for decades.
This is why Reeves has cornered the market on quality repros of classic Hiwatt models. These days NO ONE ever actually buys a new Hiwatt to get legendry Hiwatt tones, they always bought vintage (which are still reasonable) or bought a Reeves, Ceriatone, or similar.
